I have been using version 7 Pro under Windows 7 Professional for some time and never had a need to search within attachments or file links. Both are supposedly possible for several versions preceding version 7. I have a project that will require this functionality, but my experiences with 7 have not been good. Results from doc, pdf and docx files are unreliable. Many files seem not to get indexed and I have re-indexed several times. Excel files (xls and xlsx) do not work at all. I saw the recent post about the jump from 6 to 8 and read the link to Steve's blog. That pushed me to upgrade to version 8 with the hope that search would be fixed (I read that you cannot evaluate that feature in the trial version, save for text files).

Search in 8 has the same problems as 7. I have looked through TheBrain's forums (do they ever reach resolution for their users? - the threads just seem to end) and found several complaints from version 5 on. I cannot find a solution and wonder if anyone here has experience in this area.

Thank you.

Jon

Based on these latest findings, I'm quite glad I haven't paid out wads of dough for TheBrain!

Despite many persuasive e-mailings. But I don't find mind-mapping apps anything like as useful as other people do. It's a personal thing, I guess.

TheBrain (and other mind/concept map variants) have their use. Too many of my colleagues use the tools they like (or the tool du jour) for an unsuitable task. I would have used Ultra Recall for this project, but TheBrain is better suited. However, I may have to use UR because of the search problem in TheBrain.

Jon

How about using a 3rd party search tool (desktop search) for the attachments? There are a number of them discussed in a long-running thread on DC:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=2434.0

Thanks for the help Dr. Andus. I need to see the relationships and that is where TheBrain's visuals come into play. It would negate major benefits I should have if search worked in TheBrain. I can do this with UR if I have to.

Jon

I was curious about this, because I recall such searches worked in olden days.

So -- according to the "Knowledge Base" for "TheBrain 8 Pro" (In reality, there is no product anymore called TheBrain Pro.)

" Search within attachments—your searches automatically include the contents of attachments. If the text you’re searching for exists within documents including PDFs, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and many other file formats, the documents containing the text will be found."

https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/19E4781A-1D4E-A29F-3C34-3F177FD3A90A#-353

I'm an Brain 8 user on OS X and subscribe to WebBrain. I created a new brain with one node and one Excel attachment and one word in that attachment. ("apricot"). Cannot find "apricot" searching int TheBrain on iOS or when that brain is synced up to WebBrain.

I know. The confounding thing is that these issues come up on the help forum. Following the threads, they appear to end without resolution. I chatted with a representative who tried to be helpful but in the end the problem was unresolved.

Jon

I don't use this feature, so can't comment on how well it works over time. I just ran a quick test and found that the search feature did come up with the word I searched on within an Excel file that is stored internally.

The file search only works on files stored internally within TheBrain. If you have just a link to an external file, it won't find the text, and doesn't promise to. I don't know if that might be the problem you're dealing with.

Steve Z.

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

The file search only works on files stored internally within TheBrain.
If you have just a link to an external file, it won't find the text, and
doesn't promise to. I don't know if that might be the problem you're
dealing with.

Steve Z.

Thanks Steve. Search has been erratic for me. I have attachments and links. Some work and others do not. I have adjusted the size of the searchable files (preferences | search) and saw the success rate improve, but there are many files that do not show results.

Jon