Handy utility for mappers: searching for keyword's within files.

[Bikerdude]

I have been copying a lot of new textures, models and entities from the SVN into my current WIP. And the issue I had was manually searching for the shader and its path within the material definition/s, but this took ages manually search each .mtr file. What I wanted was a utility that could search for keywords within text files and tool I found to do that is called "Astrogrep".

 

So now it takes seconds to find the into i want instead of 5-15mins (or more)

[AluminumHaste]

I actually use notepad++ for that, CTRL+F and there's an option to search within files, set file type(s) (*.def, *.mtr) and keywords (wood, stone etc.) and give it a directory to search in. Works pretty well.

[Goldwell]

I've been looking for something like this and I also have notepad++ so this is great.

 

Thanks!

[Bikerdude]

I actually use notepad++ for that, CTRL+F and there's an option to search within files,

Ah now, this is much better as it will then allow me to open the file I want to edit directly in NP++, nice one mister!

 

Question though, Astrogrep added a "search using" funtion from the right click menu. Is there a way to get notepadd++ to do this..?

[Lux]

You can also open multiple files in NP++ all at once and search them all simultaneously which is helpful. Also, Win7 (and on) now have "search file contents" as well in the folder options dialogue which is similar to grep.

 

A free utility that you also may find some use for that I use from time to time is Winmerge. The name is misleading but the app allows you to do a visual "diff" (unix/linux command) and compare two text files to find any differences between the two. Saves oodles of time.

Edited August 24, 2014 by Lux

[gnartsch]

Ah now, this is much better as it will then allow me to open the file I want to edit directly in NP++, nice one mister!

 

Question though, Astrogrep added a "search using" funtion from the right click menu. Is there a way to get notepadd++ to do this..?

 

Yes, you can. Go to menu 'Settings/Adjust contect menu' (or however it would be displayed in english)

and add the following in the file popping up, e.g. right after the initial 'Edit' section and restart Notepad++:

 

<Item id="0" />

<Item MenuEntryName="Search" id="43013" />

 

43013 is for 'Search in files'

 

However, you could simply use Ctrl-Shift-F in order to get to the same 'Find in files' dialog.

Edited August 24, 2014 by gnartsch

[Bikerdude]

• Yes, you can. Go to menu 'Settings/Adjust contect menu' (or however it would be displayed in english)
  
• However, you could simply use Ctrl-Shift-F in order to get to the same 'Find in files' dialog.
  

• dont seem to have that option
  
• And its not finding files I'm after its finding lines of text within files.
  

[gnartsch]

• dont seem to have that option
  
• And its not finding files I'm after its finding lines of text within files.
  

- I just checked. The english menu reads 'Settings / Edit Popup ContextMenu'.

In case you don't have it, maybe get an update on Notepad++.

- Isn't that even better ??? Well, you can right-click and seelct 'Collapse All' on the result list and then expand it again.

[Bikerdude]

Will have a look tomoz :-)

[AluminumHaste]

This is what I use it for usually.

If I need to find a reference burried in the MTR files, I'll set up the search this way:

 

 

 

And I get results like this:

 

 

 

You can double click on each line and will open the corresponding file at that line.

[Lux]

• dont seem to have that option
  
• And its not finding files I'm after its finding lines of text within files.
  

 

There's an option on install in Windows to "add to context menu" also.

[Bikerdude]

There's an option on install in Windows to "add to context menu" also.

Just trying to figure out how to edit the config file to give me that "search with NP++" option now...

[Lux]

You could probably just do this and sub the notepad++.exe but maybe that won't work if the exe isn't in the system directory. Try it.

 

You could uninstall Notepad++ and then reinstall it and check that option or you might be able to "change" the install and it will run through again and you can check the box.

 

Link to some solutions