| Re: How to Index Files in Distinct Directory Paths Under a Single Index? [message #1854 is a reply to message #1838] |
Fri, 27 September 2024 12:51   |
Atlas
Messages: 140
Registered: August 2009
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Senior Member |
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I'll share how I manage my searches in these situations, and maybe some of it useful for your situation. In all situations below, I create only 1 index for all the file locations, and I don't split up indexes.
Situation 1
If the files you're searching for contain the same pattern of keywords in their filenames or pathnames, then search for "full path" using regular expressions. Specifically, use "Then apply advanced filter" -> "Full Path" -> "Contains any of the regular expression". For example, if all the files contain "lin alg" or "linear algebra" in their filename or pathname, then you can write a regular expression to search for both variants.
Situation 2
If the files you're searching for is part of list, but their filenames don't necessarily have anything in common, then you probably have to use a more involved process. For me, I would write a script to grab the first 20 characters from the filename of each file (or their unique fileID if they have one), and then concatenate them together in a procedural manner to automatically generate a long search string with a bunch of "OR". For example, search for filenames with with "string1 OR string2 OR string3 ..etc.". Use this with the feature Foxtrot feature "Contains any of the strings". <-- This is probably not you, but I'm just highlighting the option.
Situation 3
If you use tags, then you should just use the method suggested by Foxtrot Engineering. Tags offer a painless way to deal with situations like this. However, I avoid using tags because (1) tag data doesn't travel well (2) I can't easily back up tag data structure (3) tag data can only be read within Mac ecosystem. I do use tags for data processing purposes, such as tagging a large group of files with temporary tags for data processing, and then deleting the tag data afterward.
[Updated on: Fri, 27 September 2024 12:52] Report message to a moderator |
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