General Help and understanding pattern scoring

[biosmonkey]

I just installed FARR v2.00.145 as a test to see how it would work for me.  Looks like it could be very useful, but I have a couple of questions.

1) how do I remove the 1 -9 labels for the first nine matches?  I don't use this.

2) I don't understand how to use the pattern scoring.  I mean, I thought I did because it sounded rather straightforward, but I am not sure what values to use.  What are the ranges?
For example, I would like to prioritize .exe to show as the first entries in the list, but if I were to search for 'photosh' no matter what value I put here I never see photoshop.exe.  Instead I see a lnk, a "save as photoshop pdf.exe" and a bunch of other non-exe files with "photosh" somewhere in the name.

My understanding was that all matches for a certain high-value extension would be first in the list?

[Lashiec]

For the first question: Options -> Display -> Report columns -> Uncheck "SlideNum"

Second: The heuristic is already configured to give the higher score to executables. BUT you have to take in account various considerations. First, FARR only searches in what I would call "user directories", that is, those directories that an user handles and uses in a daily fashion, like My Documents, Desktop, the Start Menu, etc.

So, to launch Photoshop, you need to have a link for the application (or the application) in some of these directories. It seems this is not the case, so you have either to create this link, or include in the "Search folders" section the directory in which Photoshop it's installed (I suppose it's Program Files, which comes included in the list, but disabled by default. Also, I don't know if the executable for Photoshop is called like you say, or has another name (since I don't use that program).

I ignore which is the range of scoring, but I suppose it's between -9999 and +9999.

[biosmonkey]

Slidenum is already unchecked.  I am using the small layout, not the large icons.

Also, I had added Program Files to my list.  If I explicitly say 'photoshop.exe' then it will hit.

I was able to get this working by increasing the score for "program files" (I did not remember there being a score assignment there), but then I get a lot of other stuff from that path.  I see now why it was disabled by default in favor of the start menu links.

I guess it is difficult to know how to balance all of this.

[Lashiec]

Aha, then I'm puzzled. I think there's no way to remove the numbers from the results... or at least I can't find the setting

I guess that's pretty normal. If there are a lot of files named photoshop<something> in there, it's natural you get a lot of results. Perhaps you could get the executable to the top of the list if you increase the "Leftmost Match Bonus" scoring in "Heuristic Scoring", but then maybe you could miss other executables you'd like to launch. That's why it's disabled by default, it gets too many results to select one fast.

[mouser]

you can't remove the numbers from the small display mode as far as i can remember.. i could add that option but i use big slides mode and recommend it

as far as bumping score of photoshop let me point out one thing:

if you just launch photoshop ONCE through farr, it will go into FARR's list of recent history of launched programs.  after that it will:

• get a much higher score during search
• come up instantaneously on matching searches
• show by default in results when farr is shown

so to summarize -- if you have an app that doesnt come right up to the top initially, dont automatically think you have to go tweaking scores -- just launch it once and FARR will thereafter give it more respect.

[justice]

yeah this works great.
what i would do in your case:
go back to the options and untick the program files directory.
then do the following farr query (<tab> means pressing the tab key):
c:\Pro<tab>ado<tab>\pho
photoshop is now the first result. launch it
from now on you can just query farr with one of the following queries:
photoshop
p shop .exe
pho shop
photo .exe

or whatever you like. But because photoshop is now in the recent history list like mouser said, you don't have to include all of program files. Hope that helps.

[jgpaiva]

then do the following farr query (<tab> means pressing the tab key):
c:\Pro<tab>ado<tab>\pho\
photoshop is now the first result.

Or better yet (and i bet not many people know about this one ):

c\pro\ado\pho\pho sho<enter>

Notice that you don't need the ':' after 'c' (which is perfect if you have a keyboard layout that forces you to use shift to press ':' ).
And that you can continue making successive parcial matches on directory browsing. It increases the workflow quite a bit!

[justice]

ah nice good to see how other people use it.

try: c\pro\ado\\shop.exe<enter>

[Lashiec]

Hey, that one is really cool! You've saved me a few keystrokes while searching for software documentation. Thanks!

[jgpaiva]

If we're having a "less keystokes competition"...
c\*\photo

Just kidding, i was just letting people know that if you use \\ (two bars with nothing inside them), it'll match one level of directories, but if you use \*\, it'll match multiple levels! (it'll take quite a bit more time to find what you're looking for, though )

[justice]

wow how cool is that i didn't know that either

[mouser]

also don't forget that its super easy to add files to alias groups.

so for example you could put photoshop, thegimp, painsthop pro, illustrator, all into an alias group called "art"
then just type "art" to get your list of programs in the art group to choose from, always in the order you expect.

you can put items in an alias group from the options alias tab, or just by right clicking on any found item and choosing "add to group alias".

another nice thing about doing that is that you can give any file in an alias group the exact label you want displayed for it.