I'm trying to find a bunch of PDF files on my Dell laptop running Windows 11. Specifically, I'm looking for over a thousand files that have the phrase "owe back" at the end of their filenames. These files contain important information related to expenses over the past four years, and I want to compile them into a new Excel spreadsheet. My current method involves searching through thousands of files manually, but I wonder if there's a more efficient way to perform a full search and pull these specific files into a separate document type, like Excel or text. Any help or tips to make this easier would be greatly appreciated!
3 Answers
To search for those PDFs in Windows Explorer, you can type this in the search box: `ext:pdf name:"*owe back"`. This should pull up a list of the relevant documents for you. If you need more detailed help, check out this guide I found on mastering file explorer search in Windows 11.
Just a heads-up! The filename needs to include "owe back" exactly for this method to work.
For a more advanced approach, using PowerShell could be your best bet. You can run a command like:
`Get-ChildItem -Path "C:MyFiles" -Include *owe back* -Recurse | Export-Csv -Path "C:YourDocumentsaccounting.csv" -NoTypeInformation`. Just replace the paths with your actual folder locations. This will export all the matching files to a CSV that you can open in Excel!
That sounds great! Are you able to search for files containing two terms, like "owe back" and "WFA"? Also, can I somehow print that exported file instead of opening it one by one?
Yes, you can use the command to include two search terms as well! Just ensure both terms are included in your search criteria.
You might want to check out a tool called *Everything* by voidtools. It's super quick for searching files and can help you relocate them easily if you need to. It could make your life a lot simpler!
That sounds like a solid option! If I find all those files, can I just highlight and copy them to a new folder I've created?
Absolutely! You can highlight them, copy, and drop them into a new folder. If you need them in a .csv format, you can print your results once they're organized.
Thanks! I’ll give that a try. I used instructions I found before but didn’t get the expected results.