Save to file a Windows Desktop Search result?

Save to file a Windows Desktop Search result?

• Can-Ann

  Hello Morty,

  There isn't a standard, built-in methond for saving search results from WDS (unfortunately). Currently, the only way to do something similar would be to run the search and then copy and paste the result shortcuts into a folder.

  If you have a large result set I would suggest breaking the result set into pieces and copying a piece at a time. Copying the entire set would be very memory intensive. You could also break the result set up using the filtering built in to WDS.

  Paul Nystrom - MSFT

  
  
  

• Bertrand Caillet

  OK I tried to save the results to a folder but could not. I need to analyze all of the emails sent and received to/from an individual. I executed a search using his last name (this is a unique name therefore I will not get false hits). In the search results I see 272 results. Now I need to make a softcopy of each email. After making a softcopy (1) I then need to print each, (2) include a copy into a MS Word document I'm creating.

  When I select one or more items from the search results, right-click, select Copy a popup window is presented prompting me to select a folder within my Outlook 2003 Personal Folders. As a test I copied one of the search results items into a test folder, NOTE prior to this action Outlook was NOT open.

  With Outlook now open I switched back to the search result window, selected all 272 items, right-clicked, selected Copy. After the hour glass disappeared I DID NOT see the popup to select a folder. I then Alt+Tab to an open Windows Explorer, created a test folder, opened the new test folder, clicked on the Paste icon, a copy of all messages was pasted in the new folder. NOTE the different action steps depending if Outlook was open or not.

  Now that I have a copy of the emails in a separate I noted that the date of the files are all the current date and time but they are NOT in the order as they appeared in the WDS window, however it looks like if I sort on the date field they do appear in the correct order. I viewed one of the items and noticed that the file was not complete, e.g. the original email was created by replying to a previous email and contained the initial email. The file resulting from the copy did NOT contain the initial email. This is a real bummer.

  I switched back to the WDS window, selected an item, right-clicked and selected Print, the document was printed to the default printer. I wanted to send the document to a different printer but could not unless I changed the default printer (bummer), there is no print option under the menu item File. I also noticed that when viewing the WDS window, select an item for printing the view is switched to the Outlook window. This is not as I expected.

  OK now I wanted to print all 272 items, I selected all items, right-clicked, damn, if I select more than one item there is no print options, damn. The only way I can print each item is to individually select each item, right-click and select print. I tried to modify the toolbars but there are no options to do so, damn.

  IMHO WDS is not near what it should be.

  
  
• Save to file a Windows Desktop Search result?