3.5 Finding in Origin Project

Origin supports a Find feature to search for the string or numeric data in the project, including to the metadata, data cells and graph object.

To open the Find dialog:

Select Edit: Find in Project... in the Origin main menu.

In the Project Explorer, right-click and choose Find in the context menu.

Press the shortcut key F3 in Origin project file.

1 Find / Stop button
2 Current Path
3 Find What
4 Within
5 Find Options
6 Types to be Included
7 Searching result
- 7.1 Tooltip
- 7.2 Copy information

Find / Stop button

Click the Find button. As the search proceeds, the Find button becomes Stop. Clicking Stop ends the search and the button reverts to Find.

Current Path

Shows the path of the active folder.

Find What

Specify the string or numeric data to be found. Click to see your search history.

Within

Entire Project	Search the entire project.
Active Folder	Search only the active folder.
Active Folder and Subfolders	Search the active folder and its subfolders.

Find Options

Case Sensitive	Specify whether or not the search is case-sensitive. For example, when enabled searching for ABC returns ABC but not abc.
Match Whole Word	Find only the entire string entered in Find What. Note: Only available when *Allow Wildcards( and ?)** is disabled.
Allow Wildcards (* and ?)	Specify whether or not the wildcards ? and * are used in the Find What edit box. If enabled, Match Whole Word is disabled. * any string of characters * can be used to represent a string with an arbitrary length. For example, sd finds "sad" and "started". ? Any single character* ? can be used in the Find What edit box as a substitute for any single character. For example, s?t finds "sat" and "set".

Case Sensitive

Specify whether or not the search is case-sensitive.
For example, when enabled searching for ABC returns ABC but not abc.

Match Whole Word

Find only the entire string entered in Find What.

Note: Only available when Allow Wildcards(* and ?) is disabled.

Allow Wildcards
(* and ?)

Specify whether or not the wildcards ? and * are used in the Find What edit box. If enabled, Match Whole Word is disabled.

* any string of characters

* can be used to represent a string with an arbitrary length. For example, s*d finds "sad" and "started".

? Any single character

? can be used in the Find What edit box as a substitute for any single character. For example, s?t finds "sat" and "set".

Types to be Included

Narrow your search for the Find What value to metadata, data cells, graph objects and/or notes.

Metadata

Metadata is "data that describes data" and it can be readily visible in the project, as it is in column label row data -- or it can be less visible, as it is in folder comments or sheet notes.

There are five groups for metadata: Folder, Graph, Book, Sheet and Column.

Click on the Select... button to open the dialog for selecting the metadata under the groups. If check the group checkbox in the Find dialog or Select Metadata dialog, that means selecting all checkboxes in the corresponding group. When uncheck some checkboxes under a group in Select Metadata dialog, the group check box will become undefined.

Groups	Metadata
Folder	Name, Comments, Notes and Info Variables
Graph	Long Name, Short Name, Comments and Notes
Book	Long Name, Short Name, Comments, Notes and Info Variables
Sheet	Long Name, Short Name, Comments, Notes and Info Variables
Column	Long Name, Short Name, Comments, Unit, F(x), Categories, Parameters, User Parameters, Sampling Intervals, Filters and Info Variables
Notes	Short Name, Long Name, Comments

Data in Cells(1st Matched in Column)

Specify whether or not to search the value in the cells under the columns. If there are multiple data cells matching the value in Find What, it will just show the one information in the output result section.

Text Objects on Graphs

Specify whether or not to search the value in the text objects on graphs.

Notes Content

Specify whether or not to search the value in the Notes Content.

As the following image shows, "notes content" can be stored in various places and filtered using different settings:

To search sheet notes, for instance, you'll need to check the Sheet box beneath Metadata.
To search cell notes or Notes windows, you'll need to check the Notes Content box.

Searching result

When click Find button, the searching result will be output in the bottom table of this dialog.

This table includes the Range, Element, Attribute and Folder information.

Tooltip

If the mouse hover over the row of the searching result, it will generate an tooltip to show the information.

If double clicked on the row, the corresponding folder or window (Book/Graph) will be active.

If the search result in the Folder Notes, double click on the row, it will go to the folder, and also open that Folder Notes.

If the search result in the Page Notes (Notes of Book/Graph), double click on the row, it will active the window, and also open that Page Notes.

Copy information

Right-click on the the row of the searching result, the context menu provides three information of this item to be copied.