I have been playing with your search dialog and have run into a few issues. I thought I might be able to fix them myself, but my knowledge of Java script is non-existent so i will have to appeal for your help.
The first, which I have fixed temporarily, is that you will never get Windows search to return queries from the "Caption" field. It simply does not index the IPTC caption field. As a precursor to using Windows search on the caption field you have to make sure that you have copied the Caption field to the Comment field. It is a pain - though a quick macro can ease that pain - but I feel it is well worth the effort.
Obviously the kludgy fix is to change Caption to Comment in the listboxes, after which it works fine but I am sure you would find no problem in making the Caption entry query the Comment field
Also it is very useful to have an "All Fields" selection for very quick searches. Obviously the selection of this field just returns a blank.
A superb implementation of my idea - and one I will use hundreds of times a day. Many thanks.
I'm not sure I understand what you are after with "All Fields". Could I ask you to give me an example of what you mean. If you just want to pass a search term with no associated keyword you can add it by hand in the editable field below the listboxes or you can replace that whole field with your hand coded search.
To fix the Caption issue I will simply replace Caption: with Comment: in the command string that is executed but I will hold off making any changes until I hear from you regarding "All Fields".
Whilst playing around with this it struck me that quick ways of finding tagged and untagged images would be useful. It was not immediately obvious (to me) but the solution turns out to be simple.
Keywords:="" to find all untagged. Keywords:<>"" to find all tagged.
Edit: This appeared to be working earlier but isn't now. If anyone else knows how to do this reliably, please advise.
Another useful tweak is to edit the Info Tip for the Images group to include tags. Now when I hover the mouse over a tagged image I can immediately see what tags are applied.
The All Fields is really no big deal and can be tackled as you say. but basically it is just a quick search for a word across all indexed fields.
For instance if I wanted to find pictures of the "Jones - Helliwell Wedding" no matter where they were in the huge number of wedding folders. I would just type
"Jones - Helliwell Wedding" in the Opus search field.
It would be nice to have that ability in your macro simply because it is my de facto way of searching now.
The value "All Fields" returns from the listbox is literally NOTHING.
As for Tool Tips, I am an enormous fan. This is how I have arranged my Image tool tips. I could not work without them.
Combined with your wonderful search box it really nails searching in Opus.
An extra benefit from all this which should not be overlooked is how all this can save on system memory. Before my search idea with Microsoft search. I kept images in large folders - up to 1500 in a folder. Now I am no longer interested in the contents of the folders I can split them up into much smaller folders.
Result - instead of consuming gigs of memory displaying the thumbnails, I am simply displaying the thumbnails of the searches. Result well over a gig of precious memory saved.
On the downside, I have discovered that if you search a folder which simply contains other folders (NO IMAGES) the date search will not work. It does not seem - unlike other search fields - to burrow into the sub folders.
It turns out that you need to put an image in the topmost folder that contains the sub-folders. After that the date searches work a dream.
I named the added item Any Field: rather than All Fields: because it makes more sense to me. Other than that I have added buttons for All Tagged and All Untagged. Enjoy, and of course report any bugs.
Note that you can use * wildcards in your search terms as shown in the last term below.
@aussieboykie
You are a scholar and a gentleman, sir. This is great. I can tell you are not convinced, but the Any Field is a valuable addition.
As no image can be moved into my workflow it it is not tagged, the All Tagged and All Untagged fields are not so relevant to me but they will be great help to others. This is a first rate piece of work. Many thanks. I am absolutely staggered by the speed of the searches, no matter how complex you make them.
I am continuing to test your great script and I have come across a problem. IN Windows search SQL there is no such thing as a photographer field. It is known as Author. Hence using your script you cannot find items based on Photographer. It is much like how the Caption field needs to be the Comment field.
I understand so little of of Jscript that I cannot work out how to change this as you have done for the Caption. Could be be a gent and let me know how to do it?
I have modified the script to change Photographer: to Authors: (note that it's Authors: plural, not Author: singular) and it works fine for me. Just redownload the button code posted further up the thread. The relevant section of code is:
// Replace certain keywords for compatibility with Windows Search
a[0] = str.replace("Caption", "Comment");
a[0] = str.replace("Photographer", "Authors");
