Orchard CommanderChapter 09
Finding files
Find files searches a folder and its subfolders by name, content, size and date. The results appear in the active panel as a folder, and you can work with them like any other files.
Starting a search
- Open the folder you want to search in the active panel.
- Press ⌘F / Ctrl+F or ⌥F7 / Alt+F7.
- Fill in the search criteria (see below).
- Click Find files or press Enter.
The dialog keeps your last entries until you quit the app. Search in always starts with the active panel's folder.
Search criteria
Names
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Search for | One or more file name masks (see below). Leave * to match all names. |
| Regex | Treat Search for as a regular expression |
| Case sensitive | Distinguish upper and lower case in names |
| Search in | The folder to search. To search several local folders, separate them with ;. |
| Depth | All subfolders, This folder only, or a number of levels |
| Find | Files and folders, Files only or Folders only |
| Include | Hidden files; Inside archives also searches the contents of archives |
Search in accepts any location a panel can show, including servers and archives, if you start the search from there.
Name masks
| Mask | Finds |
|---|---|
*.pdf |
Names ending in .pdf |
*.jpg;*.png or *.jpg *.png |
Names ending in .jpg or .png |
report |
Names that contain report anywhere (a mask without *, ? or [ matches anywhere in the name) |
report?.pdf |
report1.pdf, reportA.pdf and so on (? is one character) |
*.zip\|*old* |
ZIP files whose names don't contain old (masks after \| exclude) |
\|*.tmp |
Everything except names ending in .tmp |
Masks are not case-sensitive unless you select Case sensitive.
Contents
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Containing | Text the files must contain. Leave empty to search by name only. |
| Regex | Treat the text as a regular expression |
| Case sensitive | Distinguish upper and lower case |
| Whole words | Match only whole words |
| Not containing | Find files that do not contain the text |
| Also cloud-only files | Also search online-only cloud files. These files are downloaded to be searched. |
Content searches apply to files only. Without Also cloud-only files, online-only files are skipped, and the status line reports how many.
Size and date
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Size: at least / at most | Sizes such as 500k, 10M or 1.5G. Leave empty for no limit. |
| Modified | Any time, Today, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, Last year, Older than 30 days or Older than a year |
The results
The active panel switches to the results while the search is running. Its title shows the search, and the bottom line shows the progress, for example "searching… 1,204 folders, 18,331 files · 27 hits". New hits appear as they are found.
Each hit is listed with its path below the searched folder, for example
2026/March/invoice.pdf.
To stop a running search, press Esc.
When the search is complete, a message shows the number of hits. The bottom line also reports any folders that couldn't be read and cloud-only files that were skipped.
Working with the results
The results act on the real files:
- Preview a hit with F3, or open it with Enter.
- Press Enter on a folder hit to open that folder.
- Copy (F5), move (F6), delete (F8) or rename (Multi-rename) marked hits.
Hits that you move or delete disappear from the results. Hits you rename stay in the list under their new names.
To collect all hits in one folder:
- Open the destination folder in the other panel.
- Press + to mark all hits.
- Press F6 to move them, or F5 to copy them.
You can't create folders or copy files into the results themselves.
Leaving and returning to the results
- Press Backspace or open
..to return to the folder you searched. - Press ⇧⌘F / Ctrl+Shift+F to show the last results again, in the active panel.
Starting a new search from the results searches the original folder again.