Sonny Software

Hi,
I'd like to form a smart group that can filter for a PDF that has been marked up/annotated - either within a specific time period (e.g the past 4 weeks) or in a specific group.

There's no standard option for this in smart groups but I'm pretty sure it can be done by SQL/Regex but I'm not exactly sure how.

I've tried the "Edited in the past 2 weeks" option but I'm really looking specifically for those PDF that I've already reviewed/marked up, rather than just general edits. I tried editing the "Edited in the past 2 weeks" and chosing "database field -> notes" but it gives me an error "SQL Error: line 1:129: unexpected end of file"

Could anyone help me with the correct SQL/Regex for this?

Thank you

You can't. These searches deal with information stored in the database. Attached PDFs are external documents. You could write an AppleScript to do this, however. One that gathered the pathnames of all attachments and then queried the Finder for their modification dates. It shouldn't be hard to do, but it's not trivial either. You might want to post to our AppleScript forum.

Jon
Sonny Software

Thanks Jon.As the annotations generate text in the notecard field ("notes") - it is possible to do a SQL/Regex for the references with recent changes or updates to the notes field of the database? Would this work as a "work around"? I'll go and have a look at the Apple script forum and see if there are any useful scripts

The annotations that appear as note cards are rendered from the text in the PDF on-the-fly. They are note stored in the database. They can be imported into the database with a right-click, of course, which will do two things: (1) add the text to the Notes field, and (2) update the modification date-time for the reference. Then you can perform the search you want.

An AppleScript would be a better solution because it would not require any additional actions by you. As for the AppleScript forum, however, no one will have posted such a script there. The idea would be for you to state the problem and ask if anyone there has come up with a solution.

Jon
Sonny Software

I've written an AppleScript that will identify PDFs that have been modified in the last 2 weeks. The corresponding references will be placedin a group called PDFs Modified in Last Two Weeks. You can try it if you like.

viewtopic.php?p=28700#p28700

Jon
Sonny Software