Searching and Filtering

CatDV provides a large number of ways of searching and filtering clips.

 

Use the Quick Search field on the toolbar to filter the clips shown in the main window to those containing the keywords you type in. As you type more characters fewer clips are shown. (The Quick Search field works by searching the clip’s name, notes, bin name, user columns, and metadata fields for each word you type in in turn.)

For more advanced searches you can use the Find command to search for clips based on one or more particular clip properties. You can either move to the next clip that matches the query or use it as a filter so that only those clips matching the filter condition are shown in a window.

A query or filter can have different types of conditions, all of which must be true for a clip to match:

• Clip name, notes, etc. containing certain text
• Date or timecode values before or after a particular value
• Picklist properties (such as tape, bin, or format) matching one or more items from a list
• Other conditions, such as testing whether a particular property is blank or not.

An enhanced query dialog is available in the Professional Edition.

When searching you can move forward to the next clip matching the conditions, or search for all clips in one go (all clips that match will be selected). You can also create a new view containing just the matching clips.

When a filter is in effect only the clips that match the filter are shown. Use the View > Filter command, or press the “All Clips” node in the tree navigator to turn off a filter.

Smart folders, Grouping and Hiding clips are other ways of excluding clips from being shown in a window and can be used in conjunction with the regular filtering mechanism. Use the Reset View command to turn off all the different filter mechanisms and restore a default view showing all your clips.

Finding more clips

The mechanisms above describe how to narrow down and find specific clips within the catalog or window you have open. To find extra clips which aren’t already in the current catalog you can:

• Use the Browse Catalogs command
• If you use the CatDV Workgroup or Enterprise Server you can perform a query against the shared database
• Use the tree navigator to browse or search the file system (and the server)