polishedstaple

Q: Why doesn't Spotlight index .odt files?

Files made by OpenOffice have an extension of .odt.  Unfortunately, I can't get Spotlight to find .odt files or .png images.  Is there a way that I can tweak the settings somehow?

 

Thank you.

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Mar 5, 2016 5:53 PM

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Q: Why doesn't Spotlight index .odt files?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by balsa2,Apple recommended

    balsa2 balsa2 Mar 9, 2016 12:03 PM in response to polishedstaple
    Level 3 (523 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 9, 2016 12:03 PM in response to polishedstaple

    This might help, from the search field in a Finder window, enter : kind:odt

    Select Kinds : Open Document Text

    Screen Shot 2016-03-06 at 08.10.07.png

    Finder should create a smart folder for your seach criteria :

    Screen Shot 2016-03-06 at 08.10.11.png

    You can do the same by entering : kind:p

    Select Kinds : Portable Network Graphics Image

    Screen Shot 2016-03-06 at 08.10.37.png

    Finder should create a smart folder for your seach criteria :

    Screen Shot 2016-03-06 at 08.10.54.png

     

    This should also work for .odp & .ods files :

    Screen Shot 2016-03-06 at 08.44.14.png

    Screen Shot 2016-03-06 at 08.44.30.png

  • by cdhw,Apple recommended

    cdhw cdhw Mar 6, 2016 5:13 AM in response to polishedstaple
    Level 4 (2,668 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Mar 6, 2016 5:13 AM in response to polishedstaple

    LibreOffice comes with a Spotlight importer in its bundle. You can confirm this with the following terminal command:

     

         /usr/bin/mdimport -L

     

    , which lists available importers and included in this list should be:

     

         "/Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/OOoSpotlightImporter. mdimporter"

     

    If this seems okay you can re-index your files by following these instructions:

     

         https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201716

     

    Once re-indexing is complete, try typing a phrase from one of your '.odt' documents to see if it's found. Use Console.app to search for error messages from 'OOoSpotlightImporter'. I've never had any trouble with the importer myself, but cross-platform applications such as LibreOffice don't always have the resources to devote to such Mac-specific niceties.

     

    C.

  • by VikingOSX,Apple recommended

    VikingOSX VikingOSX Mar 6, 2016 7:38 AM in response to polishedstaple
    Level 7 (21,165 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 6, 2016 7:38 AM in response to polishedstaple

    Whether in the Finder search window, or Spotlight, the following will find all Open Document format files including .odt, .ods, .odg, etc. These document types are automatically indexed by Spotlight, and I have never run auxiliary software to assist in the indexing. I do have every category checked in the Spotlight Preferences pane.

    kind:opendocument