Navigation:  Introduction >

Quick Start

Previous pageReturn to chapter overviewNext page

Wing File Search can search terabytes of text in a second.  It does this by building an index that stores the location of each word in your files.  Therefore, to get started with Wing File Search, the first step is to build an index of your documents.

 

Indexing Documents

 

1.   Click Index > Create Index.

 

 

 

2.   In the Create Index dialog box, enter a name for the index and click OK.

 

createindex

 

 

 

 

3.   dtSearch will ask if you want to add documents to the index.  Click Yes to go to the Update Index dialog box.

 

updateindex

 

 

4.   Add documents to the index

Click Add to add a folder to the list of folders to index.

 

 

5.   Click Start Indexing to begin adding documents to your index.  

 

 

Updating an Index

 

If you edit your original documents, you will need to update your index to reflect the changes (otherwise, hit highlighting will be incorrect).

 

To update your index, click Index > Update Index (or press Ctrl+U).  Check the Index new or modified documents box and the Remove deleted documents box, and then click the Start Indexing button.

 

To schedule automatic updates of your indexes, click Index > Index Manager > Schedule Updates.

 

Supported File Types

For a list of the file formats that dtSearch supports, see "What file formats does dtSearch support" at http://support.dtsearch.com.

 

Indexing Large Document Collections

For suggestions to improve indexing of large document collections, see "Optimizing indexing of large document collections" at http://support.dtsearch.com.

 

Searching using the Index

 

1.   Click the Search  button on the toolbar, or press Ctrl+S, to open the Search dialog box.

 

search

Indexes to search

The top of the dialog box shows a list of the indexes you have created; select one or more to search.

 

 

2.   Enter a search under Search request.

 

 

3.   Click Search to begin the search.

 

 

 

 

Boolean search

Finds a structured group of words or phrases linked by and, or, not.

 

examples:

tart apple pie – the entire phrase must be present

apple pie and pear tart – both phrases must be present

apple pie or pear tart – either phrase must be present

apple pie and not pear tart - only apple pie must be present

 

 

 

Viewing Search Results

 

After a search, dtSearch will display the results of the search.  The top half of the dtSearch window will list all of the files retrieved in the search, and the lower half will show the first document in the list, with hits highlighted in black.

 

result

 

 

1.   To select a document to view from the search results list, double-click on it.

 

 

2.   To jump to the next hit in a document window, click Next Hit  on the button bar (or press SPACEBAR).

Click the Next Doc  button (or press CTRL+SPACEBAR) to go to the next document.

 

 

 

3.   To change the way search results are sorted, click on one of the column headers (Name, Score, Location, Date, etc.).

 

 

 

4.   Click the Launch  button (or press F8) to open a document in the application associated with it.  For example, a Word document would be launched in Microsoft Word.

 

 

 

See "Keyboard shortcuts" in the on-line help for a complete list of keyboard shortcuts.

 

Create a Quick Summary of Your Search Results

 

An easy way to see the hits in all retrieved documents is to build a search report.  A search report shows all hits along with the amount of context that you request.

 

1.   Click Search > Search Report.  The Generate Search Report dialog box will appear.

 

 

 

2.   Enter the number of words (or paragraphs) of context that you want dtSearch to include in your search report and click OK to generate the report.

 

 

 

3.   The search report will open in your word processor so you can edit or print it.