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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Question About Spotlight

jayhawker - Sep 24, 2005 - 8:57 pm

I noticed today that Spotlight seams to not search the contents of a Microsoft Word Document (.doc). Is something not set right or is that feature just not available in spotlight yet?

LovesMacs - Sep 25, 2005 - 4:11 am

Hello Adam,

Check out this link for information regarding Spotlight and Microsoft Word .doc files:

http://developer.apple.com/macosx/spotlight.html

Also, go to the System Preferences pane, lick on Spotlight. When the window opens, make sure the boxes are checked that you need to search.

I just tried a Spotlight Search for a Word document on my Mac and did it successfully by using the "Group by" Flat List
and "Sort Within Group" Kind. See if that indexes your Word documents for you.

Also, if more then one person uses your Mac, in the Spotlight results window bottom right side, make sure you are searching in your Home folder, not just the hard drive.

One more thing you might try. Run Disk Utility and Repair Permissions. It might be that your owner/permissions needs resetting.

I just located a freeware utility on the Apple site that is a Spotlight plug in. Check it out:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macos...ghtplugin.html

Hopefully something I've suggested will help you out. I've been reading on this MetaData information and it just might be what you need.

Please post back and let me know if you had any success.

Carolyn :-)

jayhawker - Sep 25, 2005 - 1:11 pm

It appears that I am missing the file "Microsoft Office.mdimporter". I looked under "System/Library/Spotlight" which is where the file should be but it isn't there. Do you know where I could find it and reinstall it?

LovesMacs - Sep 25, 2005 - 4:11 pm

Hi Adam,

I Googled for that file (Microsoft Office.mdimporter) and got 5 hits.

Seems you need to do the MS Office 11.2.0 update for Spotlight. Go to Microsoft for that.

Also, here's the Google results. Seems there are problems with the office.mdimporter file. Try doing the update and see if you can run a Spotlight search for a Word document.

I think if you read the Google results, you will probably come across a fix.

Post post back and let me know if you have any success. This problem might be a little tricky to fix. If I come across anything related to this issue, I will re-post immediately.

Don't give up :-)

Carolyn :-)

jayhawker - Sep 25, 2005 - 5:17 pm

I'm running Office v.X is there anyway to download a mdimporter for that?

LovesMacs - Sep 26, 2005 - 9:54 pm

HI Adam,

I looked at Microsoft/Office v.X and could not locate any information as to downloading and installing the "mdimporter"file separately. However, I did locate this:

Here's how to get Spotlight to index your PHP scripts. In the Finder, navigate to /Library/Spotlight and locate SourceCode.mdiporter (this is installed with the Developer Tools). Select the file, control-click on it, and choose "Show Package Contents" from the pop-up menu. Now go into the Contents folder in the newly opened window. Double-click on info.plist (this should launch Property List Editor).

I copy and pasted the paragraph above for instructions, but I found the info.plist file a little different and seemed easier to me at least. Go to Spotlight and search for:
info.plist Scroll thru all of them until you locate the one that has this path at the bottom of the Spotlight window:
MacintoshHD>Library>Applications>Application Support>Apple>Developer>Project Templates>Metadata Importer>Info.plist
Double click on that Info.plist file and the Property Editor should launch automatically. Click the triangle just left of the word Root. By clicking the triangle again, expand
CFBundleDocumentTypes, then expand 0, then finally expand LSItemContentTypes. Click on the last number in the list. This might be a 6 or a 1. For me it was a 1. then click the New Sibling button in the toolbar to add a new key. For the string value, enter public.php-script.
Close the Property Editor and Save when prompted.
Go to a Terminal prompt and type:
mdimport -r /Library/Spotlight/SourceCode.mdimporter
Spotlight should be able to index your Office v.X files.

Adam, if you don't have them, skip on over to the Apple site and download (FREE) the Xcode Tools. If you haven't already created an Apple ID and password, do so. Download the Xcode Tools. They can really come in handy for tweaking little projects such as yours. Sometimes they run in the background when you are doing anything like the previous paragraph.

I hope I haven't confuzzled you. Took me awhile to figure out where the instructions were going but it does work.

Keep me posted!
Carolyn :-)

jayhawker - Sep 27, 2005 - 12:36 am

I did everything you said in your message but still no luck. I wanted to thank you for all of the work you did trying to solve this minor problem. I wouldn't have known where to start. If know new ideas come to mind don't sweat it. I keep my files pretty organized, and usually I can find what I'm looking for. I was just trying to see if I could utilize this neifty feature of 10.4 to its full potentional. THANKS AGAIN!

LovesMacs - Sep 27, 2005 - 1:12 am

HI Adam,

All was not totally lost. Thanks to you I learned how to create "siblings" in Property Manager which I'd never even tackled before.

If I run across anything at all regarding this issue, you can bet I'll post back to let you know.

You are so welcome for choosing MacOSX for technical support. I really try to give it my all.

Carolyn :-)

LovesMacs - Sep 27, 2005 - 1:28 am

Adam!

I just found this on the Apple site.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macos...ghtplugin.html

It's a plug in for Word Perfect ... for Spotlight... might do the trick.
Seems Apple is writing plug ins so that Spotlight can index almost
any type of application. If the one above doesn't work, check that
page frequently...

Carolyn :-)