spotlight

[barry fantoni]

I can not spotlight my mellel documents. Spotlight shows EVERYTHING on my computer [MAC] but not those I wrote on Mellel. Can anyone explain this?
I have written to Mellel but they do not reply. Again, why? Does anyone else have problems getting the company that sold them their software find that
they don't care about their customers?

[Bulow]

I cannot reproduce this problem. I get perfect spotlight on files written in Mellel.
Bülow

[Mart°n]

I can not spotlight my mellel documents. Spotlight shows EVERYTHING on my computer [MAC] but not those I wrote on Mellel. Can anyone explain this?

Spotlight never will find “everything” but it should find your Mellel files. Some Mellel users have reported problems with Spotlight in the past but to resolve them, we need more information. Which versions of Mac OS X and Mellel do you use? Have you tried to update Mac OS X to the most up to date version (10.4.11 or 10.5.5)? Have you downloaded and installed the current version of Mellel?

I have written to Mellel but they do not reply. Again, why? Does anyone else have problems getting the company that sold them their software find that they don't care about their customers?

The Redlers (the developers of Mellel) normally respond to your mails but from time to time (mostly before releasing a new version of Mellel) they’re low on time so it may take a few days before the get back on you.

[laup]

I agree that the Redlers people usually are very good at responding to queries. Since they know Spotlight works with Mellel (and I use it with Mellel routinely), they may not know what to say.

Spotlight is much better with Leopard than earlier OS X versions. Still, many people have selective problems with Spotlight finding some things but not others. At the low end of issues (my fault, not Apple's), I sometimes fail to find something because I just write in the search term using the Spotlight interface at the top right. It may be that I have typed in a file name, when Spotlight has been set to search for content. I try, instead, to use CMD-Option-Spacebar, which brings up the search window with options for searching for file name or content, adding criteria, etc. At the high end of issues, Spotlight sometimes doesn't work right (e.g., finding some things but not others, and for no obvious reason), and the only solution may be to reindex. Still another problem--not yours, however--is that the Spotlight preference pane has a set of cryptic checkboxes. Unless the System Preferences box is checked, Spotlight won't look in places like ~Library/Application Support.

Finally, if Spotlight is failing only for some specific files (so far as you know), you can cause Spotlight to reindex just those files by creating a folder on your desktop, copying the files into that folder, deleting the files in their original locations, and then replacing those with the copies from your desktop.

[jb]

Not exactly the question, but you may want to give Spotinside a try (if you haven't). I much prefer it to Spotlight.

http://www.oneriver.jp/SpotInside/index_e.html

[Eyal Redler]

As you may know, spotlight searches within Mellel documents are made possible via a special componant inside the Mellel application which allows the system to what the Mellel files contain, without the plug-in, the system cannot interpret the Mellel files .

In order for Spotlight to search within your files, three conditions must be met:
1. The system has to know that the plug-in exists
2. It must know that Mellel files (.mellel and .mel) are associated with the plug-in
3. It must index the files

All these should happen automatically but sometimes they don't and chances are that the failure is in step 1 or two. Try this:
1. Run the Terminal application (Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app)
2. Type "/usr/bin/mdimport -L" (don't include the parenthesis)
3. This will cause a list of all "known" plug-ins to be shown, look for an item which has "Mellel.mdimporter" at the end of the path
4. If you can't find such item, try to re-install Mellel:
a. Delete the existing copy and remove the dock icon
b. Install a new copy
c. Restart your computer
d. Run Mellel again

Since it might take some time for the system to index all Mellel files, try creating a new file, type some "unique" word inside (for example "zorbogaga") and save the document, now try looking for the word in spotlight.