"Search in Files" inside .ini files

Question

I use the site search and search in file features in Dreamweaver quite often but I just discovered that if I have a folder full of .ini files and I need to search globally inside those files Dreamweaver returns no results.
Apparently, DW is unable to search inside files other than HTML, PHP, CSS, JS, etc. But it won't search in .ini files or any weird (for DW) file extensions.
I once was able to set up my DW to look inside PHTML files (Used by Magento) as well as applying code coloring to them as it would on PHP files.
I suspect this is a similar process but I wanted to make sure I was not seeing things. Is DW really that dense that will not search inside a file with an extension it doesn't know?
By the way, I did add .ini to the recognizable files in preferences, but obviously that's not enough to have DW search inside them.
OFF TOPIC COMMENT
Another weird thing I just noticed is that the "asset" and other modules will only work in WYSIWYG view. Meaning that if I save a color in my assets I cannot use it to insert it in a CSS file. Not even in code view. I have to be in the visual editor for it to work, but then it's useless to me.
Incidentally, some time ago I found that the visual editor in DW is actually very useful when working with dynamic websites like Drupal or wordpress. Especially when dealing with very large pages with lots of CSS files.
However, no one IO know would or should build their sites in the visual editor. It's simly a bad way to work. Why would adobe limit the use of the "assets" pane (and the "History pane too now that I remember)  to the visual editor is beyond me in this day and age.
I do a lot of tasks where it would be greast to copy a procedure like a substiotution and have DW repeat the same procedure on other pages or similar code snippets. Yet, it won't alow me.
I love Dreamweaver and I am actually writing a book on how to use it with the likes of wordpress, drupal, etc. It cuts dowen development and design time by less than a third. If those things worked everywhere instead of just in the visual editor it would cut down even more on the time it ntakes to design dynamic website templates.
Sorry about the rant.
Thank you for any help.

Answer 1

Hi David, I too have worked closely on a lot of software projects and I am well aware of the limitations. In fact, that's one of the reasons I lioke to work on open source projects because of the vast talent pool they can utilize. Private companies, no matter how big, neet to triage new development according to their resources.
By the way, adding the .ini files to the extension.txt files in Dreamweaver is pretty easy. Since code coloring is not an issue that's really the only change I need to make. When I integrated the PHTML file extension for Magento I had to make a lot more changes (still manageable though).
One of your comments, about DW keeping its legacy features in a changing web development world, made me think that it may be time for Adobe to spawn a different IDE or start thinking about a more modular approach to the application.
I am writing a book on Dreamweaver integration for Open Source web scripts and when talking to other open source developers, one thing that comes up often is that Dreamweaver is a "bloated" program  (this is not my complaint, by the way).
Part of the issue is that it needs to keep a lot of quasi-obsolete features so that long time users won't abandon the platform. Which featrures are obsolete is really up to each user. For me the WYSIWYG view is certainly not something I would use to design web sites, but should Adobe get rid of it,  it would absolutely destroy my workflow since I use it to rapidly target HTML, CSS and even Core PHP code in the template and the file system of the scripts I work with.
The new "Live view" in CS4 was a welcome addition, especially since the basic page rendering in DW leaves a lot to be desired (Incidentally Microsnot "Expression" page rendering is a lot better, making the live view feature less exceptional except when troubleshooting JS based effects).
Anyway, that said, DW is an extensible program and there are a lot of thrid party utilities written for Dreamweaver. Couldn't the Adobe team use this extensibility to make improvements to the interface and even use it to add or subctract features from the main application?
I think they are mising an opportunity here to capture a wider audience. DW could ship with a minimal set of features and the team could choose to release their own add-ons so that users could build their own application.
I think that approach would silence a lot of critics, since the basic app would now be a lot slimmer, while still giving power and legacy users the features they need a-la-carte.
I am actually hioping that once my book comes out (if it ever does: the publishing world moves at a snail's pace) it may give the DW team a new perspective on how to use Dreamweaver in a modern web development enviroment, but honestly my biggest hope is for one of the current open source projects like Eclipse to look at my development system and maybe add some Dreamweaver-like features so that finally there would be a real open source alternative to Dreamweaver. In turn, I believe that will make DW move a bit more quickly in adding new features and shedding the obsolete ones.
Anyway, thank you again for the links, I did submit my suggestions. I am not holding my breath but we'll see.
Take care