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TheBat English » The Bat! - Configuring the E-mail Client
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Searching - Alternatives to built-in function, Search, on-the-fly
 
#1
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I do a lot of searching and I found that having to wait for a search to complete interrupts my workflow and slows me down considerably. Thus the built-in search of The Bat, while powerful, is not ideal for me. In many cases, I would prefer a more Google-like search that shows a few results on-the-fly already while typing, ideally, or otherwise a somewhat quicker search.

My own idea is to create a filter that captures all emails, then choose export to text as action, and then search these text files with a third party tool (I'm using X1 Search which delivers immediate results, although it is not free). The disadvantages of this approach would be the additional storage required for the text files and that the results are not shown within The Bat.

So I kind of have a solution, but I'm still interested whether anyone has better ideas.
 
 
 
#2
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I can think of 2 possibilities - and setting them up may not save you much time
The tabs under the message list - set one up to filter to your specifications
Virtual folders - this is a great way to show a subset of messages across all or a subset of folders
You CAN set up a filter that is executed by a hotkey only that will extract all highlighted messages to a folder and then search them with the outside program (I do this with spam - export them in a format that spamcop.net can handle then bundle them and send them with a system batch file)

If you try these and any one looks promising, we can help with setting it up
 
 
 
#3
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Thanks a lot for your input, Rick.

Your suggestions are not quite what I am looking for – I hoped to find a way to perform arbitrary searches on-the-fly, that is without any significant time delay, and simply by typing the search terms in question. These search terms would be different each time so that configuring the tabs under the message list or virtual folders isn't an efficient solution. However, I wasn't aware that the tabs under the message list allow full filtering options in the same way the search window does, and I am sure this will prove useful in the future. The Bat really offers incredibly powerful functions and keeps surprising me.

For the time being, I have settled for my method of exporting text files (after stripping away the attachments), and then using X1 to search these. I will have to see how efficient this will be in everyday working life. If anyone wants to know the details on how I do this, let me know (it's not totally straightforward as there are a few potential pitfalls).
Edited: Ulrich Leininger - 25 April 2016 13:25:53
 
 
 
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