more on easyfind

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Easyfind apparently does NOT yet take advantage of spotlight.

Spotlight is far faster for simple searches. Easyfind is still

extremely fast for designated folders of moderate size - certainly

faster than your eyes work. A complete TCM clinical database (300

herbs, 200 formulas, 300 patterns, internal medicine - 350 conditions/

1800 patterns and more) could easily be under 10 megabytes of data

(i.e. fit on a floppy disk!!!). Easyfind searches it all in seconds.

 

Being able to search a small text format database with what appear to

be unlimited strings of boolean operators allows one to find the

exact data one needs almost instantly. It has proven highly accurate

for me so far. In other words, I have a test question in mind, for

which I know the possible answers. I enter the parameters (pattern,

key symptoms, functions, etc.) and the results get me not just in the

ballpark but right behind homeplate. I use html files so I can

hyperlink data like the ingredients in an herb formula. Roger Wicke

does this with his TCM databases, but in a more sophisticated framed

format. I just make single files for each item (herb, formula,

pattern, disease/pattern). With tiger, the new mac OS, you can take

advantage of another feature for surveying your results.

 

highlight and drag the files of interest to your browser icon in the

dock. This will open all the chosen files on separate " webpages " . I

usually reset the preferences in safari to display the appearance of

the pages in a large font like 36 times. Then I make sure all other

apps are hidden from the safari menu hide others command. I then hit

the F9 key. This shrinks and displays all open safari windows at

once. With the large font, you can view some of the content of about

6-8 pages at once without straining. If you move the cursor over a

miniaturized window, it will display the file name (such as the

pinyin name of an herb or the wiseman name of a pattern). clicking

on any window expands the view with the chosen window up front. You

can go back and forth this way comparing formulas or herbs. I like

to set the windows to display the ingredient lists of about six or

seven formulas all at once. If I have chosen my search parameters

carefully, there is usually enough data in such a search to construct

a formula or hyperlink to additional combinations.

 

 

 

Chinese Herbs