Script makes Everything search for highlighted text

[DAT]

I think 'Everything' is a great piece of software and I'm using it a lot. It almost seems too good to be true

To save time cutting and pasting search words into my favourite search windows I've written a simple script in Autohotkey. Full details and source code are at http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic46083.html.

With this script running in the background, if you want to use Everything to search for a bit of on-screen text, you just highlight the text and rapidly double-press the right-hand Control key. ('Rapidly' means within 0.2s, but you can edit the script to change this if necessary).

In the same way a rapid double-press of the right-hand Shift key does a Google search on the highlighted text; and if you happen to have 'Copernic Desktop Search 2' installed, a rapid triple-press of the right-hand control key puts the text into the Copernic search window.

In each case if no text is highlighted the relevant search window appears ready for you to type in the search text manually.

The attached zip contains the script compiled into an exe file called SearchInterface.exe. Just extract the file and click on it to run it. Alternatively you could download and install Autohotkey from http://www.autohotkey.com/download/. Then copy and paste the script from http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic46083.html into Notepad and save it as say SearchInterface.ahk. Then just double-click the ahk file to run it.

[jjk]

Hello
I just checked your prog.
But it uses "C:\program files\everything\" as install directory for Everything. And here it is an other dir.

How can I configure to use it ?

Thanks

EDIT
I used Exe2Ahk.exe to decompile, modified path in .ahk, then Ahk2Exe to recompile. And it works.
I tested with twice Ctrl to open Everything with highlighted text as search text. All seems perfect.
Thanks again.

[DAT]

I'm glad you find the script useful, and that you were able to modify it to suit your install location. But, out of curiosity, why bother decompiling? The commented ahk script is at http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic46083.html, so you could just alter that and then use Ahk2Exe to compile it.

[cacamama]

I wrote a similar, more streamlined autohotkey script a while back. No one seemed to care. Check it out:

http://forum.voidtools.com/viewtopic.ph ... p=407#p407

[cacamama]

Here, a better screencast

http://www.screentoaster.com/watch/stUk ... k_app_demo

[DAT]

Hi cacamama, Seems we're on a similar wavelength. I followed up your link and I too like the suggestion for attaching "Everything" to Save As dialogs.

Meanwhile until David works through his 'To Do' list, and if anyone's interested, I wrote an autohotkey script to achieve a similar result. It's downloadable from 'New Context Menu Item Puts Any Folder Into a Dialog Window' at http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic40764.html and there are screenshots at http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dccck29f_8hr2nj3dz. Originally I wrote it to replace Dialog Box Assistant and before Everything came on the scene, but with Everything it's even more useful than it was before.

The idea is that, with a Save or Save As dialogue open, you navigate to your target folder using any convenient method. Mostly I use True Launch Bar or Everything for that, but often I've already got the folder visible in my file browser. Anyway once you can see the folder you want, you right-click on it and select 'Send to Dialog Window' in the context menu. (The article explains how to add 'Send to Dialog Window' to the context menu). The target folder then appears in the dialogue window. It works with all the dialogue windows I've found so far in Windows XP, Vista, Office 2003, and Directory Opus and I find it quite a time-saver.

[cacamama]

Hey DAT,

interesting effort, i hadn't thought about such a technique. Tighter integration with save/open dialogs would be much better though imho.

[daspud]

I will have to check out your script. I have been using Everything and Copy and Paste to eliminate the drilldown on save/open menus.

Thanks, Spuddie

[cacamama]

Btw there needs to be a shortcut key to copy the path of the selected item. It would be terribly useful.

[DAT]

Btw there needs to be a shortcut key to copy the path of the selected item. It would be terribly useful.

I can recommend http://stefan.bertels.org/en/clipboardpath for that. It puts a new command "Copy Path to Clipboard" into the context menu for files and folders. Works fine with Everything - and anywhere else there's a folder icon.

I hope you'll let me know if you find my AHK script useful. I was disappointed to get hardly any feedback when I put on the Autohotkey website.

(Not as bad as this one though: 'Dock'nDrag - Docks Two Windows Together for Move and Resize' at http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic40690.html. No-one ever replied to that posting! Surprising really because I find it very useful to be able to dock two windows together and resize them as a unit, for example if you've got an editor and a Help file open at the same time you can widen one window at the expense of the other all in one easy action).

[DAT]

I just posted a new version of the script at http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic46083.html. This version lets you toggle the local search windows on and off so there's no need to use the mouse to close the search windows. It works like this:

1. Rapid double-click on RControl activates Everything to search on highlighted text. Repeated activation with no change to highlighted text toggles Everything between minimised-to-tray and restored.

2. Rapid double-click on LControl activates Copernic to search on highlighted text. Repeated activation with no change to highlighted text toggles Copernic between minimised-to-Task Bar and restored. Rapid triple-click on LControl minimises Copernic to tray and clears its search box.

3. Rapid double-click on RShift searches for highlighted text using Google (as before).

[konkoo7]

Great stuff!!

Shem

[hengl]

Thanks Dat. I have been looking for this solution for a long time

[Stamimail]

Look also here:
Textify and Everything

[ovg]

2Stamimail
Thanks for sharing!
It seems interesting even without integration with Everything. (I don't need in such integration)

[Stamimail]

My thanks to RaMMicHaeL
BTW, open-sourced just recently. https://github.com/RaMMicHaeL/Textify