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From: Skylamar Jones on 20 Jun 2010 22:54
I have a large number of old files on my Mac that were created with an
old version of Microsoft Word. There are no extensions in the file
names, but their Type is WDBN and their Creator is MSWD. I'd like to use
Spotlight to search all my folders for files of that type, however I
can't figure out how to do it. In Spotlight the Created info and Type
info relate to Garageband files, not other types of files. Any advice is
appreciated. Thanks.
From: krishnananda on 22 Jun 2010 00:46
In article <skylamar-576EA4.19544720062010(a)free.teranews.com>,
Skylamar Jones <skylamar(a)yahoo.com> wrote:

> I have a large number of old files on my Mac that were created with an
> old version of Microsoft Word. There are no extensions in the file
> names, but their Type is WDBN and their Creator is MSWD. I'd like to use
> Spotlight to search all my folders for files of that type, however I
> can't figure out how to do it. In Spotlight the Created info and Type
> info relate to Garageband files, not other types of files. Any advice is
> appreciated. Thanks.

Don't know about Safari, but the old fashioned "Find..." (CMD-F) has the
options in the "Kind" drop-down under "Other..."

The list includes Content Creator and File Format, which are distinct
from Garage Band and Extension.

Hope this helps
From: isw on 22 Jun 2010 01:49
In article <skylamar-576EA4.19544720062010(a)free.teranews.com>,
Skylamar Jones <skylamar(a)yahoo.com> wrote:

> I have a large number of old files on my Mac that were created with an
> old version of Microsoft Word. There are no extensions in the file
> names, but their Type is WDBN and their Creator is MSWD. I'd like to use
> Spotlight to search all my folders for files of that type, however I
> can't figure out how to do it. In Spotlight the Created info and Type
> info relate to Garageband files, not other types of files. Any advice is
> appreciated. Thanks.

The Type and Creator info may not have been transferred along with the
files to your OSX-based system; it was not exactly "in" the files, even
under Classic.

That kind of file usually contains some non-printing text which is
concerned with formatting and other things. Sadly, Spotlight is "too
smart" to index it, so it can't search on it.

But here's something that might work for you:

Open a few examples of the files with a good "programmer's editor" such
as TextWrangler or BBEdit (they will not make any use of the formatting
data but will simply display it as text). TextEdit will not work,
because it's "clever" enough to be able to make use of the formatting
stuff.

Look around inside the files for any sort of pattern of characters that
all of them have in common (there's almost undoubtedly *something* in
the top part of the files, or perhaps down at the end).

Use a good file searcher to rummage through your hard drive looking for
that set of characters (check it on a small set so you know it does what
you want it to); it'll take a while, because there are no indexes, so it
has to read every file, but eventually you'll have a list. And you
should have to do it only once.

I just tried it with "EasyFind", but I'm sure there are other apps that
would also work.

In my case, the operative string was "���" (omitting the quotes),and
it found every .doc file in the folder (subfolders too) I pointed it at.
It appears that it also found all the .ppt and .xls files, too, so
perhaps that string identifies Microsoft Office files rather than a
specific one of the apps that comprise it. I didn't look very hard for a
string that was "Word" specific.

Alternatively, you might be able to use Spotlight to search for files
where "Created date is before..." looking for files that predate your
move to OSX.

Isaac
From: isw on 22 Jun 2010 02:01
In article <krishna-57BB1D.00464622062010(a)news.eternal-september.org>,
krishnananda <krishna(a)divine-life.in.invalid> wrote:

> In article <skylamar-576EA4.19544720062010(a)free.teranews.com>,
> Skylamar Jones <skylamar(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > I have a large number of old files on my Mac that were created with an
> > old version of Microsoft Word. There are no extensions in the file
> > names, but their Type is WDBN and their Creator is MSWD. I'd like to use
> > Spotlight to search all my folders for files of that type, however I
> > can't figure out how to do it. In Spotlight the Created info and Type
> > info relate to Garageband files, not other types of files. Any advice is
> > appreciated. Thanks.
>
> Don't know about Safari, but the old fashioned "Find..." (CMD-F) has the
> options in the "Kind" drop-down under "Other..."

(See my other post on a method for finding these files)

As I said, I used EasyFind to find the files, searching on "��". When
EasyFind found them, it said some of them were of Kind "W8BN", which
makes sense because I created them with Word '98 on OS9.

Unfortunately, neither Spotlight nor Easyfind could find those files
searching for "W8BN"; I do not know why.

Isaac
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