I have a list of names of files located under different subfolders. Is there a way to find all these files from the list and save the results in a collection
example:
files a, b, c, d and e
located as follows
a, d under folder 1
b, e under folder 2
c under folder 3
List file contains
a
b
c
d
e
Requirement:
use list to find the files in 1,2 and 3 and save the results in a new collection folder
thanks
If you uncheck Clear previous results in the Find panel then the results of the next Find you do will be appended to the specified collection. So you can get what you want using 3 separate searches where only the first one is set to clear the results.
If you want it to be more automated then you should be able to do it using the Advanced find mode, specifying Subclauses which match Location and whatever other criteria you have for each folder.
If all the folders are on the same partition then you'll need to find a common parent folder to start the search in. If they're on different partitions then, unfortunately, you'll have to do a search which starts from the root of each partition, since the current version of Opus can either search from a particular folder down, or search multiple partitons from their roots down. (i.e. You cannot search from several non-root folders down.) If you find yourself having to search multiple partitions then you could do clever things with the Location filter to speed this up, I expect.
[quote="nudel"]
If all the folders are on the same partition then you'll need to find a common parent folder to start the search in. If they're on different partitions then, unfortunately, you'll have to do a search which starts from the root of each partition, since the current version of Opus can either search from a particular folder down, or search multiple partitions from their roots down. (i.e. You cannot search from several non-root folders down.) If you find yourself having to search multiple partitions then you could do clever things with the Location filter to speed this up, I expect.[/quote]
I can help with the advanced filtering. But I have no idea how to get the Find results to a collection. (I have not used collections at all yet.)
Attached is an image of a very simple advanced filter using the location field like Nudel suggests. In this filter, I am looking for all copies of "ReadMe.txt" located anywhere on the D: or T: partitions. Notice that I am searching all local hard drives (so yes the search will take a while). On the custom PCs I build, I always leave a ReadMe.txt file in the root of each partition, telling my customers what that partition is for and what special folders belong there. So each volume in the search has a ReadMe.txt file in its root, but only those on D: and T: are shown in the results.
Find Results are a collection.
Find Results are a collection.[/quote]
I think, if I interpreted his first post correctly, he wanted to save the find results to a collection that could be opened back up later. I don't know collections, but I'm guessing that the Find results are not the place to save a collection that one would want to open back up later.
The Find Results collection is just like any other collection. You can view it in the same way as any other collection. The following path will take you directly to it: "coll://Find Results"
You can redirect Find Results to any collection - it's just that by default they go to one named Find Results.
The only drawback to using the default collection is that future searches can overwrite or add to the collection.
The solution though is easy, the Results dropdown in the Find Pane allows you to select which collection the find results will be added to.
To clarify a bit, in the Find Window, as shown in Ken's screenshoht, you can send the results to the Find Results collection by selecting Show results in: Lister.
On the other hand, the Find Panel (which you can add to any lister via Tools > Find Panel always outputs to a collection (never to the Find Window (obviously) nor to the Output Window) and also allows you to specify the collection name. It is Find Results by default but you can type a different name in.
Like Tanis says, you can copy/rename collections, so you can always output to Find Results (using the Find Window or Find Panel as you desire) and then copy/rename it (by navigating to coll:// or selecting Go > File Collections from the menu).
When you refer to subfolders folder1, folder2, and folder3 I assume they are all subfolders of a common folder or drive? If so, I'd go to the main parent folder and put Opus into
Set FLATVIEW=MixedNoFolders
mode so you can see all the files in all the subfolders, then in the SHOW FILES field (if you do not have that field you can add it to a toolbar from the list of commands in customize) type in the following:
(a|b|c|d|e)
Then pressing ENTER to enable that mask. All that should be visible then are the matching files which you can drag to a new collection or add to an existing one.
Of course in practicality, "a" and all the other letters in this example mask would have to be replaced with actual file names.
Some more info on the filters that John mentions can be found in this FAQ:
[resource.dopus.com/t/legacy-faq-add-and-configure-filter-boxes/1314/1)
Fantastic, thank you all very much for your responses. I would particularly like to thank JohnZeman. I used your method and it worked like a breeze. The other methods may be better for bigger lists
once again many thanks
