|
FastMail Forum All posts relating to FastMail.FM should go here: suggestions, comments, requests for help, complaints, technical issues etc. |
|
Thread Tools |
3 Nov 2020, 10:26 AM | #1 |
Intergalactic Postmaster
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Irving, Texas
Posts: 8,916
|
Attachment search in beta
The Fastmail beta currently has a very useful new feature. Searches now by default include the title and content of attachments, in addition to certain headers and the message body. I have tried this with PowerPoint, Word, spreadsheet, and other common attachment types and it reliably finds matching messages. More details:
Bill |
4 Nov 2020, 04:20 PM | #2 |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: May 2003
Location: mostly in Thailand
Posts: 3,084
|
Did you happen to see if packed files (such as zip) were supported? The lack of such support has often been a problem for me in other search domains.
|
5 Nov 2020, 02:34 AM | #3 | |
Intergalactic Postmaster
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Irving, Texas
Posts: 8,916
|
Search matches the contents of basic zip files
Quote:
Code:
usually, a dog barks Code:
usually a dog, barks Bill |
|
6 Nov 2020, 01:41 AM | #4 |
Master of the @
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Denmark
Posts: 1,302
|
This is fantastic news.
I just sent a zip file to myself containing a large, zipped PDF document, and I can confirm that it is indeed possible to search for terms contained in the PDF file. Even better, search terms can also contain non-ASCII characters, so I can successfully find words like "vilkår", "dødsfald", and "værdi". This feature is extremely useful to me! |
6 Nov 2020, 08:05 AM | #5 |
Cornerstone of the Community
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Perth
Posts: 664
|
This is a pretty nice feature.
Looks like it searches Excel too. I like that it shows the attachment where it found the search word and gives a little snippet. |
6 Nov 2020, 09:54 AM | #6 | |
Intergalactic Postmaster
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Irving, Texas
Posts: 8,916
|
Quote:
Last edited by n5bb : 15 Nov 2020 at 06:31 AM. Reason: Discovered that you must use Sort>Preview>"Show message previews" to view the attachment and snippett. |
|
6 Nov 2020, 06:40 PM | #7 |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: May 2003
Location: mostly in Thailand
Posts: 3,084
|
There are bound to be some edge cases that (at least initially) do not work exactly as everyone would like. Overall, though, I am impressed. This kind of search capability is not easy to implement.
|
14 Nov 2020, 11:25 PM | #8 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 25
|
This should warrant a blog post, it's a big feature. They are even getting Chinese/Japanese PDF search correct (OK, I've only tried UTF-8). Very useful.
|
17 Nov 2020, 12:13 AM | #9 |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,937
|
Interesting that searching the contents of files isn't supported in the Files section (only messages).
|
18 Nov 2020, 04:37 PM | #10 | |
Essential Contributor
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Scotland
Posts: 483
|
Quote:
Emails on the other hand arrive all the time from whoever sent them, and you probably don't have copies of your own. |
|
18 Nov 2020, 10:42 PM | #11 | |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,937
|
Quote:
|
|
19 Nov 2020, 08:20 AM | #12 | |
Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 25
|
Quote:
Even if they would offer that kind of feature, they could still be waiting for the first indexing to complete… |
|
Thread Tools | |
|
|