Win 7, OO 3.4 Update, Now When Searching Documents No Result

[DaveSave]

Win 7, OO 3.4 Update, Now when I click on the "Open" icon and type a word that I know is located in one or more documents, all I get now is: "No items match your search". It seems like it is ONLY searching for the keywords located in the "Title" and or "Document Name". Before "Update", the search resulted in keywords located in the name AND in the document(s). Why only "Document Name" search results now???

[RoryOF]

OpenOffice files of ODF format are a zipped archive. Only search utilities which can search in a zipped archive can hit anything but the title. Copernic (ver 2) has been recommended as a file searcher.

[Bill]

Windows Search in Windows 7 should work fine if a functioning iFilter is installed and the options are set correctly. Check the indexing options in Windows 7. Make sure that "Index Properties and File Contents" is selected for the file name extension for each file type you are searching.

Windows 7 File Search Indexing Options

If the word you search for is preceded by a tab, it won't be properly indexed by the iFilter provided with OOo/AOO. The StarOffice/OpenOffice IFilter from IFilterShop will index such words.

Bug 109685 -Windows Search fails to find ODT files when searching for words preceded by a tab

[Hagar Delest]

As I couldn't install Copernic on my XP machine at work, I discovered Docfetcher that is not that bad. The only downside is that it locks the files as long as the result list is displayed (files are then read only). Seems to be far lighter than Copernic.

Please add '[Solved]' at the beginning of your first post title (edit button) if your issue has been fixed.

[DaveSave]

Doesn't the: Open>Search Results in Documents search box do that?

I mean I have been using OO 3.3 on this machine for 2+ years and I could locate words in docs before the upgrade to 3.4 and now I can not??

[Bill]

I have no idea what "Open>Search Results in Documents search box" is supposed to do, but if the indexing options are set for properties and not contents, you will only get properties.

[DaveSave]

Great Bill, this seems like the correct path to fix this issue.

How do I check to see what the indexing options for the OO Search Box is set at (where are the indexing options and how do I change them if needed to include searching for "contents")?

I found it in the Win 7 File Search Options as you mentioned above, I am thinking that OO's Search box might have that available as well?

[Bill]

See my first reply. I posted a link to the instructions. You can probably just type "indexing options" in the Start Menu Search Box to find the indexing options.

[DaveSave]

Are there any "indexing options" in Open Office 3.4 (Not Windows 7)?

If I create a "Text Document" that only has one word in it, let's say: "Dog", in OO 3.4 and name the file: "Sunday". Then I go to open the file by clicking on Open, then in the Libraries > Documents > Search Documents box, I type in the word "Dog" (Let's just say that I forgot the document's name), how come the words: "No items match your search." comes up, when the word "Dog" is in the document?

I just tried another search with a different word there and it did bring up some documents with the word in the title as well as words in the documents?! What are the instructions to put a "screen shot" here so that I can show you?

Why would the contents come up in some searches and not others and or all?

[RoryOF]

It may need a space after the "dog".

[Bill]

Are there any "indexing options" in Open Office 3.4 (Not Windows 7)?

No. Indexing and searching in Windows 7 are performed by Windows 7. There's nothing in OOo/AOO that you can do to alter indexing and searching of the Windows 7 file system.

If I create a "Text Document" that only has one word in it, let's say: "Dog", in OO 3.4 and name the file: "Sunday". Then I go to open the file by clicking on Open, then in the Libraries > Documents > Search Documents box, I type in the word "Dog" (Let's just say that I forgot the document's name), how come the words: "No items match your search." comes up, when the word "Dog" is in the document?

I tried this in Windows 8 and it works as expected.

I just tried another search with a different word there and it did bring up some documents with the word in the title as well as words in the documents?! What are the instructions to put a "screen shot" here so that I can show you?

I don't think that a screen shot would help.

Why would the contents come up in some searches and not others and or all?

If your indexing options are set correctly, then this shouldn't happen. The only other thing I can think of is that the index is being rebuilt and some files aren't indexed yet. Since this is a Windows 7 problem, you might find someone on a Windows 7 forum who has seen this before.

[DaveSave]

I may have figured this out (part way). I just noticed that if I change the "odt" documents to "doc" documents, the search works like it did before.

I need step by step instructions for setting up the "Additional Set up Steps" for Windows Desktop Search for the "IFilterShop StarOffice/OpenOffice IFilter Desktop Edition Release 1.6 README"

Located here: file:///C:/Program%20Files/IFilterShop/SOFilter/readme.html#_Additional_Setup_Steps

Windows Desktop Search:

When integrated with Windows Desktop Search, OpenOffice IFilter uses temporary directory to process StarOffice/OpenOffice files. By default it uses system temporary directory. For Window Desktop Search versions 3.x and higher OpenOffice IFilter must be set to work with user specified temporary directory. To change temporary directory setting:

1. Stop Windows Search service.
2. Open registry key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IFilterShop\SOFilter"
3. Add new String value named "TempPath" and enter the full path to the new temporary directory. If this value is missing, empty or the path is not pointing to a valid directory, system temporary directory will be used. Please make sure that "Users" or "Authenticated Users" Group has "Full Control" permissions to the custom temporary directory.
5. Start Windows Search service.

Other than "Not Searching", how do you complete #1?

I can get to #2.

I need step by step for #3?

#4 is just start searching for something. But what about reindexing?

How do you step by step complete this: When using custom temporary directory, we recommend that you set it as "not indexable" in all your indexing products. Otherwise temporary files may be indexed. This will pollute the index and also can prevent temporary files from proper removal by OpenOffice IFilter?

Thanks

[Bill]

Stop and start Windows Search:
Type "services" in the Start Menu Search Box. Click Services in the list of found programs. In the Services window, right-click Windows Search and select Stop or Start.

Create a temporary directory for the SO Ifilter:
Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder where you want to add the temporary folder (I put mine in C:\ProgramData). Right-click and select New > Folder. Rename the folder. Right-click the folder and select the General tab. Click "Advanced" and uncheck the indexing option. Select the Security tab. Click Edit, then select the Users group. In the Permissions for Users box, check Allow - Full control. OK out, then double-click the new folder to open it. Right-click the empty area in the address bar and select "Copy address".

Add the path in the Registry:
In Regedit, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IFilterShop\SOFilter. Right-click SOFilter and select New > String Value. Rename the new string value to "TempPath". Right-click TempPath and select Modify. In the Value data box, paste the previously copied address of the temporary directory. Close Regedit and restart Windows Search.

[DaveSave]

That fixed the problem/issue Bill. Thanks for the detailed instructions (You only left out an "Apply" and one other thing, but I figured it out:).

OO 3.4 must be so different from 3.3 B/C I have NEVER had to do this for any of the versions before.

Lastly, I mainly use OO for Text Documents, since changing the "odt" to "doc" documents solved my problem. I changed ALL 100+ "odt" over to "doc" documents in OO 3.4. Along came another issue. Most of the "doc" documents are closing fine except one. It is a 65 page (Text ONLY), now "doc", that just will not save after making a small change to it. The "Green Status Bar" at the bottom of the text document, goes to about 60%, then stops/freezes and the whole OO needs to be shut down from the Task Manager. If I do not make any changes to it, there are no issues.

Since you have just helped me solve my search issue with finding "odt" document contents. I opened the 65 page "doc", then I "Save As.." an "odt" (Now I have Both a "doc" and a "odt" copy), searched for a word I know is in the new "odt", found it, opened it, changed/edited it and the "odt" version closed and saved FINE.

Now, I can obviously save the documents as "odt" and be able to find the contents by searching (Thanks Again!).

But that leaves this question: Why do you think that the "odt" version of the same exact text only document works and the "doc" version does not???

P.S. Do I need to open another "issue" forum?

[DaveSave]

Hello!?, is someone going to answer my last post above???

[Bill]

I have no idea why changes to one particular document can't be saved or how to fix it.

[PeterR]

I am also having this problem. Windows 7 Home Premium is no longer searching the internal contents of OO files (ODS, ODT) since updating to 3.4 - I cannot be certain that this update is the cause, but it may well be. Would it help to have Windows index ENCRYPTED files? Windows is already set to index both Properties and File Contents of ODS and ODT files.

[eremmel]

My experience with W7-64bit is that the IFilter extension that is shipped with AOO/LO 3.4 does not work. The link to IFilterShop mentioned above might help, but need a registry fix for 64bit windows-versions. An alternative is to install the IFilter packs (one download) from Miscrosoft it covers *.doc, *.docx and *.odt (and also the other products like Calc, Impress etc). This is handsome for users that have only AOO/LO but also have to work now and then with MSO documents. You can find Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Packs there.

[PeterR]

In my case, installing the Microsoft pack did *NOT* help - it even stopped Agent Ransack from searching these ODS/ODT files! After the initial problem with OOo 3.4 I had installed LibreOffice to see if that would help, and after the problem with Microsoft/Agent Ransack I uninstalled the Microsoft pack and repaired LibreOffice. I've rebuilt the index, also ticking "Always search file names and contents" in Explorer>Organize>Folder_and_Search Options>Search. But still no success. By searching through the registry I have confirmed that the IFilter I now have in use is the LibreOffice 64 bit one.

Does anyone know whether there is an OOo bug set up for this? There is a LibreOffice one here: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=56035

[PeterR]

I've started a new OOo bug at https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=121456

[eremmel]

It looks like Agent Ransack uses IFilter too see here.

I uninstalled the Microsoft pack and repaired LibreOffice. I've rebuilt the index, also ticking "Always search file names and contents" in Explorer>Organize>Folder_and_Search Options>Search. But still no success.

With this process you confirmed that IFilter from AOO/LO does not work. I do not use Agent Ransack, but I've good results with searching with explorer and ODF type of documents due to the MS IFilter packs.
You are using W7-64bit (update signature please), so make sure you have 64-bit version of Agent Ransack, MS IFilters as well.

[Bill]

The only IFilter I can get to work on 64-bit Windows 8 is the one from IFilterShop. Based on limited testing, the IFilter in LO 3.6.4.3 doesn't appear to find text in ODT documents. The IFilter in the MS Filter pack finds text in ODT documents created by WordPad, but not in ODT documents created by LO. AOO 3.4.1 doesn't appear to install a 64-bit IFilter at all. The Windows Registry shows a file name ooofilt_x64.dll which was installed with OOo 3.3, but is missing from AOO 3.4.1.

[eremmel]

Did you install the Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Packs? Did you note that there is a SP1 available Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Office Filter Pack 2010 (KB2460041) 64-bit Edition› That might be do a better job for W8 (I'm not sure).

Note that the IFilter pack for MSO on IFilterShop is an old one!

[Bill]

Yes, I did install the MSO 2010 Filter Pack and SP1. I had used the MSO 2010 Filter Pack on 32-bit Vista when the filter pack was first released. It worked fine at first, but it had to be reinstalled every time OOo was reinstalled and at some point it stopped working. That's why I started using the StarOffice/OpenOffice IFilter from IFilterShop.

I posted a comment on the bug report about the missing file ooofilt_x64.dll. Another comment has been added listing several other missing 64-bit files. I copied three of the missing files from OOo 3.3 to AOO 3.4.1 and Windows Search started finding ODT files. Thumbnails and document titles which had been missing in Windows Explorer also showed up.

[eremmel]

I found a tool to examine all installed IFilters and (re)assign to each filter certain file-types. This might make it possible to correct the bad/missing filters of AOO/LO when installing a new version.

Edit: I noticed that MSO, LO are fighting for the registration for the IFilters. With the mentioned tool I was able to give IFilter rights of .odt, ods,... back to IFilterShop and the search in explorer did its work again. It looks like you can not pin a file type to a preferred IFilter implementation.