Mac Search Engine

[indago]

One of my hobbies is collecting news articles, formatting some of them into a presentable format, and putting them onto a political message board on the internet for discussion. Also, having such a stash of articles, I can refer to them when a discussion occurs about them. I have been doing this for around 15 years.

In doing so, I title documents, and folders that contain them, with relevant titles, like the following:

Politics/Corruption/Scandals

I have several hundred documents formatted the same, with a / between some of the words as separators. When searching for a document with the Mac search feature, and searching for a particular document containing a word as in the example, I would select Name Includes, and type in corruption, and several documents would appear with the word corruption in the title. Then, I could pick out the particular document that I wanted, select it in the window, and it would open, and I could peruse it. I have been doing it this way for several years. The documents are collected in the Microsoft Word format, some with Word 96, Word 2008, and now with Word 2017 on a new MacBook Pro Silver w/Sierra.

Some documents, title formatted like the example will open when selected, and some won't. I get a popup:

If I change the separators to something other than a / I can open the document, like using : for a seperator. Or, I have found that with the path to the document listed at the bottom of the search system, I can locate the exact folder that the document is in, and bring that up, then drag the document out onto the Desktop, and then I can open it. Then, I have to be careful not to close this folder before I put the document back into it.

I am quite averse to going back through several hundred documents and changing the separators. Also, I am wondering why some of the documents will open, and some won't.

How can I get the documents to open in the search window without going through such a tedious process?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

I am actually a bit surprised that your naming convention has worked previously. On all computers and OS platforms, the slash / symbol has always been used to denote a directory (folder) change in the hierarchy of the file system. Most operating systems will not allow that symbol in the name, as it should cause part of the issue you are experiencing. The underline _ symbol or dash - symbol are recommended instead.

That being said, you can use Macworld: How to batch rename files for free - Automator or third-party apps like A Better Finder Rename to mass change the names of all of your files that are named that way. As always, we strongly recommend that you have a current Time Machine or other backup of your data before proceeding.

I am not sure why some of the documents will not open, as there could be other issues with them besides the name. It could be some form or corruption of the file itself, or try using one of the separators I listed above instead of the colon : symbol.

Hope that helps,

C

 

[indago]

I have perused the internet concerning this and found many complaints, and demands that Microsoft make the necessary corrections in their programming to alleviate this problem. The responses were that the particular problem is so deeply imbedded within the programming that to repair it would destroy the program.

I found that instead of dragging a recalcitrant document onto the desktop, I can make a copy of it and then paste it onto the desktop, a neutral territory, where the problem doesn't exist. I don't know why the document will open while on the desktop and not within a folder, but it works, so I will continue to use it this way for now.

 

[Cory Cooper]

It really isn't a Microsoft issue. It is a coding design with all computer operating systems, where file/folder hierarchy use the standard slash / symbol character. Not sure why files on the Desktop would ignore this, as it is simply another folder in the file structure, but at least you found a workaround.

C

 

[indago]

I found the problem. One of my main folders that I had several hundred documents in was titled with a backslash \ and when the finder encountered this while trying to retrieve a document, it flagged it and gave me the drop down menu as indicated. This was the only folder that had this particular item in it and has hounded me until today.

I was examining the "Get Info" on several of the documents, some that were not flagged, and some that were. I finally found the culprit while examining the Location hierarchy. I changed the \ to a / and now everything works OK.