Advanced tips for searching in Windows 7

[Yousuf Khan]

I found the following information very useful, actually starts to make
Windows an usable operating system.

Yousuf Khan

Advanced tips for searching in Windows
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Advanced-tips-for-searching-in-Windows

 

[123Jim]

Yousuf K

useful thanks

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

useful thanks

Seconded. (Yousuf's posts are usually useful, even if I don't always
agree!)

One thing though - from that page
(<http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Advanced-tips-for-searching
-in-Windows>):

Operator Example Use this to

AND tropical AND island Find files that contain both of
the words "tropical" and "island" (even if those words are in different
places in the file). In the case of a simple text search, this gives the
same results as typing "tropical island."

(Sorry the formatting has gone to pot.) _Either_ this is wrong (i. e.
AND is _not_ the same as putting the words together in quotes), and it
finds files with the words in different places even in a text file, _or_
it means I can't do such a search. The _usual_ interpretation of
something in quotes, in a search engine, is that the phrase is to be
sought only as an exact phrase.

(I haven't studied the rest of the page, but I have most definitely
bookmarked it under tips.)

 

[Redrawn Buns]

I found the following information very useful, actually starts to make
Windows an usable operating system.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Advanced-tips-for-searching-in-Windows

My motivtion for learning a set of quirky search syntax is low,
especially when it's likely to ripped out and replaced by a
son-of-clippy avatar based search facility in Win8 or Win9

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

My motivtion for learning a set of quirky search syntax is low,
especially when it's likely to ripped out and replaced by a
son-of-clippy avatar based search facility in Win8 or Win9

Assuming I'm right and they've got the text next to "AND" wrong, the
syntax is fairly standard, apart from the keywords for author and so on.

 

[Paul]

Assuming I'm right and they've got the text next to "AND" wrong, the
syntax is fairly standard, apart from the keywords for author and so on.

I have to agree with Redrawn. There must have been some other
option available, than "unnatural language". Learning the quirky
syntax is fine for geeks - maybe a database administrator would
feel right at home. But, I'd have to ask "what would mom say
to all of this" ? That's my acid test for UI's. Ask a regular
user, who has enough trouble finding the power switch on the
computer, what they think about keeping "crib notes" handy
instead of having a real interface.

It's a trivial example, but look at the search in Thunderbird.
It has an option to "find any of the following items", which
is the same as OR. It has the option to "find all items",
which is AND. But because it explains these concepts
in plain English ("find any" or "find all"), my mom will be
able to figure that out. She isn't dumb. She just isn't
a database adminstrator. Or a rocket scientist. Or what
Microsoft thinks all users are - graduates of a four
year university CS program.

And while that particular interface isn't infinitely powerful,
I find it is good enough, and I can cobble together enough
of a search, to find what I'm looking for.

GUIs are nice, because they give the developer an opportunity
to "educate" the user or "guide" them in the right direction.
By organizing the search capabilities, or making the right
ones appear or disappear using option buttons, you can lead
people in a particular direction.

A GUI isn't just a flashy skin, or a stupid animation of
a paper clip doing paper clip aerobics. GUIs can do more than
that, in the hands of a gifted developer.

Paul

 

[Redrawn Buns]

the syntax is fairly standard

System.FileName:~<"notes"

I'm going to stick with "quirky" ...

 

[Yousuf Khan]

One thing though - from that page
(<http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Advanced-tips-for-searching
-in-Windows>):

Operator Example Use this to

AND tropical AND island Find files that contain both of the words
"tropical" and "island" (even if those words are in different places in
the file). In the case of a simple text search, this gives the same
results as typing "tropical island."

Yeah, I think they mentioned the same thing. The "AND" is a default
operator.

One thing that would be useful though it's not mentioned if it's
supported or not, is whether the Windows search supports brackets, such
as "()". This can be used to reorder the default search hierarchy.

Still I'm glad that there is at least /some/ amount of logical operators
supported in Windows now.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Yousuf Khan]

My motivtion for learning a set of quirky search syntax is low,
especially when it's likely to ripped out and replaced by a
son-of-clippy avatar based search facility in Win8 or Win9

That's definitely a concern with Microsoft.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Yousuf Khan]

System.FileName:~<"notes"

I'm going to stick with "quirky" ...

Well, that is why they call this "advanced tips for searching". Most
won't be using it. But for those who can use it, will use it.

Yousuf Khan

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

System.FileName:~<"notes"

I'm going to stick with "quirky" ...

As Yousuf said, that's under "Advanced". The majority of the syntax
described on that page - AND, OR, NOT, quotes, and brackets - is pretty
standard among such things.

The bit you quoted means something like "filenames that start with". If
you just want to look for words, you don't have to use that - you can
just stick with AND etcetera. But it's useful to have the _opportunity_
to search for esoteric things if you want to.

As for "(un)natural language", the page did mention that "natural
language" can be used; it just warned that you might get more hits than
you were expecting.

(And I agree with those who say it'll be replaced with an animated
paperclip or something in the next edition - though the text form might
remain, as an unadvertised aspect.)

 

[G. Morgan]

I found the following information very useful, actually starts to make
Windows an usable operating system.

Yousuf Khan

Advanced tips for searching in Windows
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Advanced-tips-for-searching-in-Windows

Windows 8 does not have the "natural language" button. Hrmmmph.