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The Search Field

Lesson 4 from: Adobe Photoshop Deep Dive: Adobe Bridge

Lesa Snider

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Lesson Info

4. The Search Field

Lesson Info

The Search Field

Now, let's, talk about searching files with bridge and we're going to do this several different ways over the course of the day. But what? I want to talk with you about four, we get a break is this search field right here? So you're going to see this guy right here at the top part of your screen no matter what work space you're in, these air the default work space recipes that adobe has said it for. You can also create your own, but the search field right here works in a couple of different ways. If I click the little downward pointing, trying well, next that might find glass. You can see that there are actually three different ways you can search your files and bridge just with this one search field. Okay, so a bridge surge and that's what the search filled is by default here is going to search current and some folders for file names, huh? Folder names and key words. This search field does not work on any of the metadata. Ok, so we cannot use the search field. Tio try to find a specif...

ic document where a font is used. We cannot use the search field to find anything that's meta data related, okay, but using that well down reporting triangle, you can trigger your computer's operating system search as well in on the mat that's called a spotlight search on windows I think it's called a windows desktop search or something similar to that so that's a different thing so you can choose to different ways to do that you can bridge search current folder and some folders in that current folder or you can make that search field work for your computer's operating system search and then if you do that you can tell it will search the current folder or searched the whole hard drive came so that's a really important thing to remember because I cannot tell you how many times I screamed when I type to search in here and it came up with nothing like bridge sucks but that's because at that time when I first started realized I did not know that this search feel defaults toe on ly current folder and sub folder so wherever you are so if I did search right now I would on ly be looking inside the stark art folder ok I'm not going to find anything that is not in that currently active folder or one of its sub folders unless I click that little down reporting triangle and I change it to either spotlight on a mac or I think its windows desktop on a pc okay another thing that will trip you up about using that search field is that you have to press return after you type the search word in yeah, nothing happens automatically like it doesn't spotlight on the mac you type in a search and as soon as you start typing it gives you a list it's trying to guess what you're after ok, so let's just take a look at this so I'm in my stock art folder and if I want to see everything that I've downloaded from let's say fa tolia so I type it in, nothing happens press return ok and now I'll make my little previous smaller now I can see everything that I've copied over and bought from fa tolia if I want to change that it's let's say oh, I know that piece of our happened to have downloaded from another stock photography company called I stock photo then I type I stock in that search field and I can see everything that I downloaded there but a lot of these stock photography companies when you download illustrations or vector based art work of any kind oftentimes it will come inside of a folder so that's another great reason to do that flattened file search so I've already got it turned on it here I can cancel that here we go click that will chevron again and choose that show items from sub folders and that will let you see all the art so now I can see all these illustrations and so on and so forth, okay now the other kind of search that you can do could be client based ok, so let's come over here I mean my client's folder if I know that I did let's say uh a flyer for my homeowners association for the annual block party that we do with the pool I don't need to even drill down to whatever folder that might be and if I've got all of my projects like that in a central folder maybe name clients then I can come up here left this men you stay on bridge search ok? And then I can type in block party with the space press return and then lo and behold, I've got all of the file names within that folder that have the words block party inside them so that's another way that you can do that thea other kind of search that you can do in bridge is a search within a dialog box which gives you all kinds of criteria that you can add to that search and that's where things really get powerful especially when we come back from the break and we start talking about adding and searching files for keywords and metadata things where you're just going to be blown away you're gonna love how fast you won't be able to find files ok? So let's take a look at how to use the fine dialog box and bridge so we'll trot up to the edit menu and she was fined or simply press command if on a piece of a mad f refined or control f on a pc. Okay, so here's our dialogue box. So from here, you can tell bridge exactly what folder lou and here's your criteria list. Ok, so let's say, for example, I know I have designed a slew of business cards in my career is a designer my degrees and graphic design, and so I came into photography later, ok, which has worked out really well, very handy to know design these days as a photographer, as I was mentioning earlier. So let's say that I'm going to make a new business card for somebody, but I can't remember where I don't want to spend time trying to find the file digging through all those folders digging through client folder don't remember what klein it was. I just want to see all the business cards I've ever designed easy todo, so we're goingto bring it this find dialog box the first thing I'm going to sit here in this criteria list is I name all of my business cards it's got the word, the letters be us and them, right? So we're going to set this first poppet many to file name contains the u s and I'm not gonna type in business because I may have abbreviated it, but I know the u s is in those final names the next thing I'm going to do is you automatically get another row of criteria but you can keep adding as many as you want so that second line will be there but if for some reason it's not been clicked this little plus sign and that will give you another row of criteria okay, so from the second row from this menu and you can see all the different ways you can fine tune your search, I'm going to choose document type because I haven't do on my business card to photo shop, so if I type in final aim that has be us and and the document type is photoshopped, then chances are really good that's going to show me all of those business cards that I've done so it from the second menu you can restrict um if the exact same you type in in this next field is exactly, you know does not equal or equals if it exists or if it doesn't exist so you can use kind of a positive or negative based criteria to try to drill down and find those files so for this one I'm going to say equals because I don't want to return result that is not a foot shot file okay? So document tight equals and then over here and you can see how these fields change according to what you enter in the one that came before it for example for file name if I set the second to pop it many to contains then I get a text field into which I can type for the second line of criteria we're dealing with document type equals I get a poppet menu of all the different kind of documents so these menus will change according to what the previous one is set to you so now I can come down here and eventually I will find photoshopped document so this is a pre set this is not anything that I did in the background to make happen see you confined j pegs you can find anything flash documents okay so photoshopped document now on the results you can further fine tune in and say hey if either one of these conditions were meant then show me those files but in this particular situation I want all of that criteria to maybe I don't want to see anything that doesn't have both of those criteria if all criteria are met and then you just want to make sure that all sub folders is turned on and I have to know that I keep all of my projects of this type in a client's folder which kind of a good thing to do you can also choose tio have results that may not be cashed okay non indexed cashed same thing so you could turn them on if you want, but I know I'm a all my files or cashed, so I'm going to go now we're going to say fine whether that fast, yeah, just like the wish if I could legal my nose so there's the business cards that I've made so very quickly I could find, oh yeah, I wanna build I want to do another one like that, so control, click copy, too, maybe another, you know, that particular client main folder to create a duplicate of that business card so that you've got a starting place. Ok, so again, what we did was we used this search, phil, to do a bridge search that searches on the current boulder and any supporters inside of it, and that field on ly works on file names, folder names in key words, or you can choose that little downward pointing triangle to change that search field to your computer's operating system. Search spotlight on a mac when was desktop on a pc or you can choose the edit menu find, and this is where your super powerful searches this is, where you can set up criteria, certain conditions were met, those results are returned. This is also where all your key word in for mater your meta data can be searched from okay, so when we get back from the break, we're going to take a look at finding files with fonts and colors. And then we're going to dive into adding and searching for key words, as well as adding metadata, searching for metadata in creating those ocean handy meditated templates.

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Ratings and Reviews

Michelle B
 

I have purchased all of Lesas Deep dive classes and have learned so much. She makes it easy to understand and she gives you examples and goes through them more than once so you understand. This is the class that not only shows you how to but what you can do. She gives you ideas and she is a joy to watch and listen to. I can say enough good things about Lesas classes and I am so glad to have them in my tool box to refer back to anytime I am stumped on how to fix problem in Photoshop. Thank you Lesa!!

a Creativelive Student
 

Lesa Snider did a fantastic job communicating the many uses, features, and benefits of Bridge through this course. Understanding how to use Bridge has changed the way that I manage my photos and information and by extension, the productivity of my business. This the second course taught by Lesa that I have taken. I give her and this course my highest recommendation!

a Creativelive Student
 

You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this topic to be actually something that I think I would never understand. It seems too complex and very broad for me. I am looking forward for your next post, I will try to get the hang of it! Review my page: E Cigarette Reviews at Jigsy

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