Syntax for searching for files ending with -office ??

[INeedHelp!]

I am using m365 / onedrive and noticing that I am getting files with -office appending to the first part of their file name (survey.xls now has a file in that directory survey-office.xls)

That's from onedrive trying to sync files on the onedrive server with the local computer (named office).

I'd like to find all those slightly different files in my onedrive folders (1.5TB of files, so there's a bunch).

Can anyone help with how you would use Beyond Compare to search for files with -office at the end of it? And I think I saw 1 that was office-2.... a 2nd variation of the base file.

*-office*.* doesn't seem to do it.

[INeedHelp!]

Hmmmm. *-office*.* DOES seem to be working now?!

[INeedHelp!]

OK, what about this? Is there a way to compare textdoc.txt against textdoc-office.txt that are in the same folder?

What I have been doing is putting 1 of them in another folder and changing the file name to be identical. Then compare them side by side with diff folders on each side.

That's tedious.

Having the same folder on both sides, then selecting the 2 diff named files and compare, that doesn't compare the 2 diff files, right?

[INeedHelp!]

1 more thing : )

Is there a way to have BC rename a bunch of files by removing the -office from their file names (assuming the shorter named file isn't in the same folder - survey-office.txt to survey.txt.

THAT won't work with *-office.txt to *-office.txt ?

[Aaron]

BC4 Pro has a feature called Alignment Overrides, so you could define a rule like:
*-office.xls
=
*.xls

and that would then align that matching. You could make more generic rules with regular expressions if you have many different extensions or postfixes to handle, but if it's only a handful this'll be easier.

This is configured in an open Folder Compare, in the Session menu -> Session Settings, Misc tab (would be missing if Std), and then click for a New + Alignment Override.

If you are registered for Std, you can revert to trial mode to test Pro:
https://www.scootersoftware.com/supp...?zz=kb_evalpro

You can also mass rename with dos masking or a regular expression by selecting multiple items, and then issuing the Rename command, but please test on test files first. There is no UNDO, so you can accidentally rename all of your files into a format you didn't intend, and they would no longer align; and BC4 can't align by content so you would have to manually fix the names. I think the Alignment Override feature would be better. It was specifically designed for this exact workflow.

[INeedHelp!]

Thanks for that! A few things:

1) Been using 4.x pro for years now and didn't know about alignment overrides : ) how much more don't I know about : ) 80 / 20 rule - 80% of people use 20% of an app

2) So yeah, to compare 2 files with different names, you can't just get them on both sides and highlight both and ask for a compare, right? Alignment override would work? but several extra steps : )

3) And yeah, I bought 4.x pro years ago.... so many companies (with much less support!!) have moved to subscription or just come out with newer version to bring in $$. How's that (5.0) coming along?

[Aaron]

1) No worries, it's why we're here.

2), the "Compare" command in the right click menu triggers for aligned items and accepts any selection, so you can select dozens of files, but not everything, and trigger a Compare scan on them populating the center column with those results and updating the comparison status. But for any two arbitrary/disjointed selection of files, you can select two (and only two) items with Ctrl+Left Clicks, then right-click -> Quick Compare. This doesn't update the status, since they aren't aligned, but the pop-up dialog will let you know what the status is and optionally launch a file viewer to review them.

3) It's chugging along. You can subscribe to the News and Announcements sub-forum for email notifications for any updates we post there.