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Using Wildcards when Searching for Files
It’s not uncommon for computer users to forget the name of a document or file. After all, many of us deal with dozens, if not hundreds, of files per day. When it comes time to recall a file, you may remember part of the file’s name, but not the whole thing. For example, you might remember that you named a document with the word “car” in it, but you can’t remember if it was “carreviews.doc,” “carinformation.doc,” “newcardata.doc” or “cardata.doc.” All you can remember is the word car.
Fortunately, if you remember a portion of a filename, you can use wildcard characters to search for a match.
In this example, you would either open Microsoft Word (since it’s a .doc file) or Windows Explorer and enter your search term in the Search box. Use an asterisk (*) to indicate a string of characters that you are unsure of. For instance, car* would return any filename that begins with “car” such as: carreviews.doc, cardata.doc, and carinformation.doc. However, if you want to be sure that it would also return the newcardata.doc file, add an asterisk before the word car like this: *car*.
Another useful wildcard character is the question mark (?). Rather than representing an entire string of characters as the asterisk does, the question mark represents a single character. For example, entering “c?rdata” would return results such as: cardata.doc, csrdata.doc, cordata.doc, and cprdata.doc.
If you have Windows 7, you can also use the tilde (~) wildcard character along with greater than (>) and less than (<) characters to find a file by its property value. For example, do you want to find a file with a subject line that begins with “car”? Enter ~<car. Want to find a file with a subject line that ends with “car”? Enter ~>car. Want to find a file with a subject line containing “car” in any area? Enter ~~car.
The asterisk is useful for finding all files of a certain type as well. For example, if you want to find all of the .mp3 files on your computer so that you can transfer them to a portable music player, enter *.mp3 into the Search box. Keep in mind that no matter which wildcard character you are using, you must tell Windows where to search. Click on the root folder or the hard drive where the file most likely resides. For instance, if you’re searching for .mp3 files, you’ll first need to click the My Music folder so that Windows understands to search that folder and its sub-folders.
In addition to wildcard characters, if you’re using Windows 7, you’ll find several choices called “search filters” in Windows Explorer’s Search box including: Kind, Date Modified, Type, and Size. Under Kind, you can restrict the search results to: Calendar, Communication, Contact, Document, E-mail, Feed, Folder Game, and Instant Message. Under Date Modified, you can select a date or date range or choose: A long time ago, Earlier this year, Earlier this month, Last week, Earlier this week, and Yesterday. The Type filter allows you to filter results by file extension. Size allows you to search by size range including: Empty, Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, Huge, and Gigantic.
Use wildcard characters and search filters to narrow down search results and find the exact file you need, even if you don’t remember what you named it.
About the Author
Celeste Stewart writes for Filetonic.com where you’ll find a huge File Extension Library and loads of free computer advice. You can even write in and “Ask a Tech Jock” for specific answers to your computer questions.
Audi TT car review – Top Gear – BBC
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