Spotlight HELP

[Andre Ringuette]

Just installed OSX 10.4 (10.4.8 )
When PM launched (4.4.3.3) , it asked about cache/Spotlight prefernces.
I selected the default setting which was to let PM set its own cahe path (NOT let Spotlight index (?) my contact sheets)

Find or Search does not yield any results.

I found in this forum how to NOT let Spotlight index the cache, but not the other way around.

Or am I totally missing something else.

Thanks for any help.

[Kirk Baker]

Just installed OSX 10.4 (10.4.8 )
When PM launched (4.4.3.3) , it asked about cache/Spotlight prefernces.
I selected the default setting which was to let PM set its own cahe path (NOT let Spotlight index (?) my contact sheets)

Find or Search does not yield any results.

You can use the Quick Search toolbar item, or you can use the Search tool on the Edit menu.  The Find or Find and Replace panel only searches the current Contact Sheet.

What are you searching for?  If you use the Spotlight menu (the one in the upper right corner of your menubar) does it find things with the same terms?

HTH,

-Kirk

[Andre Ringuette]

Thanks Kirk,
Here's a quick rundown:
1- It seems Spotlight has to Index the Volume(s) before it can be used after installing OSX 10.4.8 (running that now).
2- I did however manage to get Search results both through PM, and through Desktop Spotlight... but only once. Hasn't worked since that first try.
3- Can you give me the options that I was first given when I launched PM after installing 10.4.8? I remember  selecting the default setting which was to not allow Spotlight to index, but there wasn't much explanation of options/results.

What are you searching for?  If you use the Spotlight menu (the one in the upper right corner of your menubar) does it find things with the same terms?

No results from Spotlight menu.
I'm trying to use the Search tool to find a specific keyword I added to images in separate folders.
To Explain:
1 Tournament, 5 Games, 22 players.
Each player has been identified and name added to IPTC Keywords & Supp Cat 3.
Need to create separate folders for each player.
Looking to find Player #1 from the five game folders, and then copy into a Player #1 folder.

I appreciate your help/time.
Andre

PS: Find tool within conact sheet works and I get the results. But Search tool through all folders gives no results.

[Kirk Baker]

Andre,

Here's a quick rundown:
1- It seems Spotlight has to Index the Volume(s) before it can be used after installing OSX 10.4.8 (running that now).

That may improve things once it is complete.

2- I did however manage to get Search results both through PM, and through Desktop Spotlight... but only once. Hasn't worked since that first try.
3- Can you give me the options that I was first given when I launched PM after installing 10.4.8? I remember  selecting the default setting which was to not allow Spotlight to index, but there wasn't much explanation of options/results.

That only referred to not indexing Photo Mechanic's cache folder.  You definitely do not want to index the cache folder for two reasons: it hurts the performance of Photo Mechanic, and secondly it does no good to index photos in the cache folder since the cached images have no metadata in them.

What are you searching for?  If you use the Spotlight menu (the one in the upper right corner of your menubar) does it find things with the same terms?

No results from Spotlight menu.
I'm trying to use the Search tool to find a specific keyword I added to images in separate folders.
To Explain:
1 Tournament, 5 Games, 22 players.
Each player has been identified and name added to IPTC Keywords & Supp Cat 3.
Need to create separate folders for each player.
Looking to find Player #1 from the five game folders, and then copy into a Player #1 folder.

PS: Find tool within conact sheet works and I get the results. But Search tool through all folders gives no results.

Depending on the format of the files, Spotlight may not be able to find the IPTC data.  It does not recognize IPTC data inserted into most RAW files.  Also, if you use XMP sidecar files, Spotlight does not associate the metadata found in an XMP sidecar file to the RAW file that it belongs with.

What file format are you using?

-Kirk

[Andre Ringuette]

That only referred to not indexing Photo Mechanic's cache folder.  You definitely do not want to index the cache folder for two reasons: it hurts the performance of Photo Mechanic, and secondly it does no good to index photos in the cache folder since the cached images have no metadata in them.

Ok Thanks.

Depending on the format of the files, Spotlight may not be able to find the IPTC data.  It does not recognize IPTC data inserted into most RAW files.

What file format are you using?

Searching through the processed JPGs. (IPTC Keywords added to jpg only). Desktop Spotlight didn't find any keyword from IPTC.

The good news is PM Search tool found the Keyword (Player's name) I looked for.
Bad news is it seems to only find from the first 3 of the 5 games now...

**UPDATE: OK, seems to be working. Found all my images of Player X from all games. Only issue seems to be that the "Sort in Progress" indicator is not... indicating. Minor problem for now as I know all the images I'm searching for. But could be an issue when making a broad search.

Thx,
Andre

QUESTION: Is there a way to limit the PM Search to a folder (and it's sub-folders) as you would with the Desktop Spotlight?

[Kirk Baker]

Andre,

That only referred to not indexing Photo Mechanic's cache folder.  You definitely do not want to index the cache folder for two reasons: it hurts the performance of Photo Mechanic, and secondly it does no good to index photos in the cache folder since the cached images have no metadata in them.

Ok Thanks.

Depending on the format of the files, Spotlight may not be able to find the IPTC data.  It does not recognize IPTC data inserted into most RAW files.

What file format are you using?

Searching through the processed JPGs. (IPTC Keywords added to jpg only). Desktop Spotlight didn't find any keyword from IPTC.

The good news is PM Search tool found the Keyword (Player's name) I looked for.
Bad news is it seems to only find from the first 3 of the 5 games now...

**UPDATE: OK, seems to be working. Found all my images of Player X from all games. Only issue seems to be that the "Sort in Progress" indicator is not... indicating. Minor problem for now as I know all the images I'm searching for. But could be an issue when making a broad search.

QUESTION: Is there a way to limit the PM Search to a folder (and it's sub-folders) as you would with the Desktop Spotlight?

That was planned and was even documented in the manual, but was never implemented.  Hmm, I should get that done at some point...

-Kirk