pfind: .pdf and .docx?

[sfeeley]

I'm using Lucid 5.28. I am using the pfind that came preinstalled.

When I search for text in a file I've noticed that the results are not showing .pdf and .docx files.

(the .pdf files do contain searchable text. )

My questions:
1) is there a way to make my current pfind search within .pdf and .docx files?
2) Do I need to upgrade pfind?
3) Is there a different program that I should install? (I have very little luck with searchmonkey )

[Semme]

Hmm, this from v4.22 (pfind -v). With a carefully set up trial, this version was unable to locate text in my predefined pdf.

I was kinda think'n Pfind was needing an additional pkg to do it's magic, but no.. Pup has pdftotext. I know mine does.

[Monsie]

sfeeley,

This may indeed be a bug with older versions of pfind. I see that zigbert has now uploaded V 5.11 It might be an idea to pose this problem on the pfind thread to see if this has been an issue and if it has been addressed.

I don't know exactly what you are trying to accomplish, but given that finding text within files with pfind is a very slow task, I'm wondering if it would be faster for you to use the search features within ePDFView and Abiword to examine those specific file types for the information you are seeking.... --assuming that you can narrow down the number of files that you need to work with.

Monsie

[Dewbie]

Another suggestion: Turma.
(It's an updated version of what was included in pre-4.x Puppies.)

[sfeeley]

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

@ Semme: I'm glad (sortof) to see that my problem can be replicated.

@Monsie

I don't know exactly what you are trying to accomplish, but given that finding text within files with pfind is a very slow task, I'm wondering if it would be faster for you to use the search features within ePDFView and Abiword to examine those specific file types for the information you are seeking.... --assuming that you can narrow down the number of files that you need to work with.

-I Agree, but as you guessed at the end of the above statement, I was hoping to use pfind to narrow down my searches before looking in particular documents. I have several years worth of research in several different formats.

Something like the search in windows 7 would be ideal. Or, pfind seemed to be working well, until I realized that it was missing .pdfs and .docx files


@ Dewbie : Thanks for the suggestion for Thurma -- it doesn't seem to be what I need though.

@ Monsie : I'll post something in the other thread, but will keep checking back here too.

(BTW: I have had some luck with docfetcher, but it has its own problems )

[sfeeley]

Thanks for the help so far.

I updated to pfind 5.11
(along with an updated gtkdialog and pfilesearch-- both required)

The search results did not change.
Pfind would not search for text within .pdf and .docx files

other suggestions?