Search PDF and ODT files by content

[Pollik]

I am new to file management at this level of complexity. At this stage, two things are important to me.

1) A user friendly tagging system for all files (something like what MusicBee uses would be great)
2) A way to search by file content

I have been researching my needs for a couple of weeks and I am down to Xyplorer and one other product, and I have both installed on a trial basis.

I am running Windows 10 Home. I have installed Adobe PDF Ifilter 11 (64 bit) and Adobe PDG Ifilter 6.0 (32 bit?). I have set Indexing Option to “Index Properties and File Contents”. I have let the indexing process run its full course. I can search by file content on the native File Explorer, including PDF files and ODT (Libre Office) files.

I can use XYExplorer to search the content of text files, but I can’t make it search either PDF or ODT files. There may issues with other files, I don’t know because at this point I stopped looking, because PDF are not exactly obscure file types.

Just to be explicitly clear, the PDF file I am using for my search is text searchable both internally and by File Explorer.

I attach a screen capture, if this helps, together with a screen capture from a File Explorer search on the same content.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer as to what I am doing wrong,

XYPlorer search.PNG (127.07 KiB) Viewed 1608 times

File explorer search.PNG (93.57 KiB) Viewed 1608 times

[highend]

Welcome to the forum

XY depends on correctly working 32-bit iFilters to search content of (non-text) files like .pdfs.

Windows File Explorer is a 64-bit process and will use 64-bit iFilters ofc. So if your system is able
to index these .pdf / .odt files, you've installed applications that deliver the necessary iFilters.
So it comes down to if you really have working 32-bit iFilters as well...

[Pollik]

Thanks for the welcome and the reply

I wondered if it might be 32/64 bit issue and, until I started looking at this, Ifilters were unknown to me and I am not really sure what they are doing. Maybe that is why I am struggling. :/

I do have Adobe PDG Ifilter 6.0 installed, which I think is 32 bit. Or am I wrong about that?

So...what 32 bit Ifilter do I need, that will work with XYplorer?

[highend]

Judging from my own post here: viewtopic.php?p=113376#p113376
that Adobe Package should work. Tried it on a fresh Win 7 x64 machine, XY finds content in .pdf
files with it. Can't say if it still does work with Win 10...

matchinpdf.png (66.94 KiB) Viewed 1594 times

Regarding other iFilters. A lot are coming with a MS Office 2010 32-bit install and afaik
with OpenOffice (iirc LibreOffice still hasn't iFilter support)...

[Pollik]

Thanks for the response...interesting to see it can, or at least could work with PDFs, but sadly doesn't really take me any further forward.

The other app I am trialling is Directory Opus, which has the same problem as XYplorer in that I can't get it to read the contents of PDF files, but DO *can* read the contents of a Libre Office file, *.odt. So,I am not sure this is a filter issue for XYPlorer, at least a far that is concerned.

It is starting to look as if this is not the app for me. If I am going to pay $40 for something, it has to at least match what the native File Explorer can do. I find the tagging a bit clunky, but I could probably get used to it...but if I can't find the files I want to tag then it misses the point for me.

(I am not sure DO is the right app, either, for similar reasons, but it does at least offer the ability to record searches using windows own systems, so it at least has a work around...but the I like the tagging system less)

Thanks for all your help, guys...I appreciate it.

[highend]

but DO *can* read the contents of a Libre Office file, *.odt. So,I am not sure this is a filter issue for XYPlorer, at least a far that is concerned

Again, this is a 64/32-bit thing. If you're using DO 64-bit, it will use a 64-bit iFilter.

Btw, I've tested the Adobe iFilter software on Win 10, RS3, x64 and XY is able to find
.pdf file contents on that system as well...

[Pollik]

Again, this is a 64/32-bit thing. If you're using DO 64-bit, it will use a 64-bit iFilter.

Directory Opus is 32 bit.

I've tested the Adobe iFilter software on Win 10, RS3, x64 and XY is able to find
.pdf file contents on that system as well...

Interesting to know, but doesn't really help me solve my problem. As I mentioned above, I have Ifilter 6.0 installed, so if I am getting different results from you, what am I doing wrong?

Edit: Perhaps I am doing nothing wrong. I tried reinstalling Ifilter (this is the fourth or fifth time I have done this) and it seems to have started working, now. Weird.

Thanks again