Is it possible to search multiple folders at once?

[zBernie]

Is it possible to search multiple folders at once? For example, say I wanted to search for video files in folderA and folderB? I've created a search template, but I don't see how this is possible using these.

-Thanks

[Dustydog]

Yes, it is. Search "Selected Locations (Find Files)" in Index in Help. After you've selected the locations, there's all kinds of things you can do in the "Name" field, or "Attributes" tab - including regular expression searches - to get what you want. And don't forget the type-of-file drop down list right after the name box. This is a section worth reading in the help manual, but here's an extract you may find useful.

Location field: Another way to do a search over a bunch of different directories is to simply type a list of directories, separated by "|" (pipe) or " | " (space-pipe-space; the spaces are optional), into the location dropdown, for instance: C:\John\Letters\ | C:\Contracts\ | D:\Work\. Alternatively to "|" you can use ";" (in that case paths can and have to be quoted if they contain ";").

Edit Locations: An easier way to achieve the same is using the Edit Locations dialog that is reached via the Browse... button's right-click menu. Here you can edit the search location(s) like in an editor. The dialog has its own Browse button. Selected locations are appended to the ones already present in the exit box. The Browse dialog is preselected to the last location in the box.

[highend]

And if you want to do this with (already) saved search templates you have to modify it (obviously)
by changing the "LookIn=..." key in the "[LookIn]" section

[zBernie]

Yes, it is. Search "Selected Locations (Find Files)" in Index in Help. After you've selected the locations, there's all kinds of things you can do in the "Name" field, or "Attributes" tab - including regular expression searches - to get what you want. And don't forget the type-of-file drop down list right after the name box. This is a section worth reading in the help manual, but here's an extract you may find useful.

Location field: Another way to do a search over a bunch of different directories is to simply type a list of directories, separated by "|" (pipe) or " | " (space-pipe-space; the spaces are optional), into the location dropdown, for instance: C:\John\Letters\ | C:\Contracts\ | D:\Work\. Alternatively to "|" you can use ";" (in that case paths can and have to be quoted if they contain ";").

Edit Locations: An easier way to achieve the same is using the Edit Locations dialog that is reached via the Browse... button's right-click menu. Here you can edit the search location(s) like in an editor. The dialog has its own Browse button. Selected locations are appended to the ones already present in the exit box. The Browse dialog is preselected to the last location in the box.

Thank you, very useful information! I'm really loving XYplorer. I might get a bumper sticker that says "I XYplorer"

[zBernie]

And if you want to do this with (already) saved search templates you have to modify it (obviously)
by changing the "LookIn=..." key in the "[LookIn]" section

Thanks for the tip!

[pat55]

Where may one find this lookin section?
"by changing the "LookIn=..." key in the "[LookIn]" section"

[highend]

Code: Select all

<xydata>\Templates\name of your saved search template

[pat55]

How or where to create a 'save to template' has been an unanswered question for 10 years :-)

[RalphM]

I hope you found the answer in the top bit of your screenshot. If yes, then Merry Christmas, otherwise keep looking there...

[pat55]

found nothing. (same as others 10 years ago)
Many of us are using this program to save time AND NOT TO learn.
We do not all have the time to become as 'smart' as you and others in coding.

[PeterH]

found nothing.

- even after the tip of Ralph?

Maybe, if Don would know the name of your application data path, he would explicitly mention it in the help file.
Though I would be sad - it wouldn't fit for me!

[highend]

The command to open the Search Templates dialog is found in menu Edit.

That's the very first line in that paragraph...
Menu - Edit - Search Templates...

And the rest of that help file entry talks about loading and saving templates from there (two buttons
in that window)...

AND NOT TO learn

Seriously? Maybe you should use an app with less features to avoid any learning time?

[Dustydog]

I sympathize with learning versus productive right now.

I'm constantly juggling the huge amount of usability I currently find, with the increased power I COULD be using if I learned a new feature. I personally find XY to have a very good balance of hiding its complexity until I want it. Some features like paper folders (Thank you!) has allowed me to use tools and techniques I already know, but XY can do natively, that I haven't discovered yet - so I've done it with PowerShell, or Everything, or a .bat, or Bulk Rename Utility, or another deduper, or whatever. It's a feature that's hugely helped my transition. And then there are things like Hard LInk Shell Extension that - well lookie here: XY does it all (almost ). I'm an old guy with old habits.

Enjoy what XY can do with your current level of expertise. I bought my wife and son licenses for Christmas - two panes, tabs, previews when you press the mouse, and some of the other most obvious features are enough to make them both very happy. I set it up for them. They want to do something more complicated, they can ask me. It'll be fun.

Sometimes it can be frustrating to try to find something you know XY can do, but can't find the right term - or see right in front of you. Example: In "Everything" you use child: to find folders that contain something. In XY, you use "readme.txt /p //find all folders that contain a file readme.txt" <- that reference was hard for me to find, for some reason. I think I finally found it in the What's New section on the website. Until I got obsessed with tracking it down, I simply used that feature in Everything and bumped it into a paper folder. I'm sure someone else could've found it in a couple of minutes.

So yes, it's deep, and those of us who've reached an age where we're somewhat memory-impaired will struggle, and certainly get punished for not thoroughly reading the manual/help system + website.

And yet, here's the forum, where some very smart people, including Don, generally give out help, regardless of how seemingly obvious it may be to them, very graciously. The few exceptions are regrettable. So that you don't feel alone, sometimes I feel so daft about the ultra-basic level of a question I have, I can't even stand the thought of it being public. And don't feel dumb about not finding Search Templates when you were looking for Save Templates or whatever - I looked several other places before resorting to the Help file. Something this deep, some of the menus are simply not going to be what or where you expect; no way around it. At least there's that great jump list for settings!

And for terminology - Don's been at this so long, his language and syntax choices pre-date most other non-native tools, plus its a very international group. I do wish there were some more context menus, a few more tabs. (How about a Find tab that lets you enter required child files; and perhaps a save search template somewhere in the Find GUI area.) But for how-to, hard-to-find synonyms and locations, we get the forum.

Maybe there should be a forum section: "Basic Questions I Want Somebody to Just Hand Me an Answer to without Judging my Intelligence or Laziness." It's a section I'd start using.

[pat55]

Any product that needs a manual to work is broken. Elon Musk and all the etc. discussion.

This is especially true if you want to scale a product and by necessity sell to the masses period.

In this case I mentally decided (incorrectly) that to save a search result or template - it would be done on in a part of a Search Result menu.

I just needed to be told that it was all done with Edit > Search Template screen found at the top of the screen.
I intend to start using search templates - it is now another valued feature for me.

I like to think that none of us send people on 'the long scenic route' but in frustration words can fly that were not intended.

pat

[Dustydog]

Any product that needs a manual to work is broken. Elon Musk and all the etc. discussion.

This is especially true if you want to scale a product and by necessity sell to the masses period.

In this case I mentally decided (incorrectly) that to save a search result or template - it would be done on in a part of a Search Result menu.

I just needed to be told that it was all done with Edit > Search Template screen found at the top of the screen.
I intend to start using search templates - it is now another valued feature for me.

I like to think that none of us send people on 'the long scenic route' but in frustration words can fly that were not intended.

pat

I disagree emphatically with the comment about the manual. Any SIMPLE product that needs a manual to do easy things is, perhaps, broken. I don't need a manual to tell me not to take a bath with a plugged-in toaster. You don't need a manual to get a huge amount of usability from XY - which is one of the great things about it. But good heavens! The depth this thing has...you certainly need a manual. It's waiting there for advanced features. I've been grepping the manual lately for words near words context searches using regexes to improve my access to the thing.

Do you need "a manual" to learn regex syntax thoroughly? Yep. And it's one of the best things I've done in computing recently. Its usefulness within XY is outstanding. Same holds true with deeper aspects of XY. I'm eagerly awaiting a block of time when I can start learning his scripting language. That will most certainly require the manual. The basic interface? Most settings? They're just sitting where they ought to be waiting to be enhanced with some very smart code when you're ready - which is described in the manual. (And the work that man does to both code and document so well is amazing. Plus, he hangs out here.)