TEXT SEARCH

Text Search allows you to find documents containing references to names, customers, places, objects, prices, chemicals, stock codes, etc., or even files relating to historic or current events such as a "meeting" in "Tokyo" in "December".

UltraFind is generally considered the fastest Macintosh text search engine, however text search is usually a slow process, especially across a network. 
If super-fast text search is a priority for you, then you should use UltraFind's Text Indexer to pre-index the text in your files so that rather than searching your disk(s) UltraFind can simply search its index. (see: Additions - Text Indexer)

UltraFind's Text Search has been written to work in all languages, including Japanese.

UltraFind can search for text in 3 different modes:

√   it can scan through documents on your hard disk(s) or network
√   it can search an index file (created using the UltraFind Text Indexer)
√   it can search for text on the internet (world wide web and newgroups)

In the Text Search dialog box make sure you set the "Search In" option to use the search mode you want.

The Text Search function searches for words or parts of sentences within documents, such as:

• names      • keywords     • captions     • phone numbers    • parts of addresses 
• product codes    • ingredients    • Zip codes     • events    • descriptions

UltraFind allows you to search on multiple separate words, and each word can have many other words associated with it using the Thesaurus (see: Thesaurus below)

DISK AND INDEXED SEARCHES

When searching for text on disk or in indexes, UltraFind's list window automatically switches to a 'Text View' mode and shows you exactly where each word was found in the document. Each document found is given a score from 1 to 100 based on how well it matches your criteria and the list window is automatically sorted by the score. Therefore the document that matched your criteria best of all will in general always be at the top of the list.

As well as showing you the words found in the context (in the sentence) where they were found, UltraFind displays each keyword found as Hypertext. If you click on the Hypertext UltraFind will open a built-in Data Reader and allow you to read the entire document (without opening it's creator application). You can also copy text out of the Data Reader's window. 
(see: Using The Data Reader)

INTERNET SEARCHES

When searching for text on the Internet, UltraFind compiles the search query and sends it to either Excite (WWW) or DejaNews (Usenet). The search results are returned to your web browser (Netscape Navigator). This has several advantages:

√   Searching the Internet from UltraFind is more than twice as fast as searching from a web page.
√   UltraFind can send very complex and highly accurate search queries, using its unique built-in Thesaurus to cross-reference text on the search engine. Such queries would normally be impossibly long and complex for you to type in manually at the search engine yourself.
√   Using UltraFind's unique Routines function, you can save complex search setups and repeat them later on over and over again, just be pressing a keystroke.

TEXT SEARCH SETTINGS

The following describes the options available in the Text Search dialog box: 

WORD MATCHING    (normal setting: Match Any Word) 

The Match ANY word or Match ALL entered words settings allow you to specify if UltraFind should find documents containing any of the main words you enter, or if it should only find documents containing all of the main words.

SEARCH IN    (normal setting: In Documents)

This pop-up menu determines where UltraFind carries out the search. The options available to you are:

Disk - performs a direct scan of your hard disk(s) and network. If you have fast updating information (such as a constant stream of email, etc.) then you would normally use this option. Not all files contain text, so "In Documents" is the best setting. However, if the text you are searching for is not contained in a document, but may be part of an image or a system file etc., then you can specify "All Files".  However, if told to search All Files, UltraFind will search through everything - applications, fonts, images etc. These files can be very large, therefore this type of search can be very slow and is to be avoided, if possible.

Index - performs a lightning-fast search on an index file, using the UltraFind Text Indexer Addition. Note that this option is disabled if the Text Indexer Addition module is not present in the UltraFind folder - in your Preferences folder (or if the copy of UltraFind you are using is not registered and has expired).

Internet - connects to an Internet search engine and returns the search results in your web browser.

SCAN    (Normal setting: Data)  

Macintosh files have two parts: a Data part and a Resource part (known as Data and Resource Forks). Text is normally stored in a file's Data Fork, therefore the normal setting is 'Scan Data'. 

However, sometimes hidden text can be stored in the Resource Fork, such as keywords, captions, credits, notes or passwords. Many image files, QuickTime movies or sounds store keywords and descriptions in the Resource Fork. 
For example; news agencies and picture libraries can use the 'Scan Resources' setting to search on keywords in image files supplied by photo agencies, Reuters, Associated Press, etc. Many European newspapers use UltraFind for this purpose.

•!   The Scan setting does not apply if you are using the Text Indexer.

WORD DISPLAY    (Normal setting: 10)  

This function limits the amount of word occurrences UltraFind should look for in a document (also limits the occurrences of words it will display in Text View mode).

If you turn Word Display OFF, UltraFind will not show the Text View window at all but will instead use the standard Finder View. This is of course much faster as it does not need to display any text, however we think it is not so nice.

WORD PROXIMITY    (Normal setting: OFF)  

To further qualify your searches, use this to limit the distance between matching words. The proximity value is measured in characters. This function is important if you are searching long documents and want to know only if the words are present within the same paragraph or sentence.

√   The Proximity function works best with a 'Match All Words' setting. 

•!   Applying a proximity value makes text searches slightly slower.

THE THESAURUS

The UltraFind Thesaurus is designed to allow you to include related words and variations of the main word(s) you are looking for, so that UltraFind will also find documents containing words which are related to (or have similar meaning to) your main word(s). To use the Thesaurus you must turn XRef (Cross Referencing) ON.

When XRef is ON, UltraFind will cross-reference the Thesaurus, so that (for example) searching on just one word "drinks" can also find "Coke", "Pepsi", "7Up", "sake", "whiskey" AND "whisky".  

This gives unlimited search capabilities because "whisky" can also be further defined in the Thesaurus to include "Johnny Walker", "Ballantines", "J&B", "Jack Daniels", "Jim Beam" etc.

The UltraFind Thesaurus is user-maintained (initially it is empty), you add your own word groups according to your requirements. The Thesaurus dialog box has two lists: the first list holds the main words (these are the words you would enter in one of the three text search fields in the main Text Search Dialog). The second list holds all the words you wish to relate to the main word. The relationship between the two lists is one-to-many.

To add a new main word (i.e: to create a word group), open the Thesaurus, select the first list (Searching on:) and press the Add button. To add words to the group, select the second list (or press tab), then press the Add button.

√   If you double-click on a main word in the Thesaurus' list, it will be placed in the current active text search field, and XRef will be turned on for you.

Words contained in the Thesaurus can also be selected using the pop-up menus on the right-hand side of each of the Search Text boxes. This is a fast-select feature designed to give you an approach to searching similar to a database. If for example you enter product codes or product names into the Thesaurus you can use these pop-up menus to provide your staff with a ready-made 'database' of search keywords.

SCANNING IN THE BACKGROUND

If you need to search very large disks or networks, you can just hide UltraFind (press the small green UltraFind icon - or <Command-W>) and carry on with your work. When finished, UltraFind will alert you by flashing its icon in the menu bar.

SPEEDING UP TEXT SEARCH

If you are unable to use the Indexer to pre-index your files (for lack of time or because your files are updated too frequently), then you will be searching in 'direct disk' mode, which can sometimes be slow.

Typical text files take less than a second to search. However, if UltraFind spends more time searching a particular file - because it is very large, or because a large number of words are found, a progress bar is displayed during the search and you can skip the file if necessary. For an even faster search, use the "Word Display" menu to limit the number of word occurrences to search for in each document so UltraFind will move on quicker to search the next file.

Not all your files contain text, so when performing a 'direct' text search don't waste time searching everything on your disks. Direct Text Search will work fast if you tell UltraFind specifically what kind of files you are interested in. For example, if you already know that the text you are looking for is probably within word-processor files or e-mail, then use the "File Type" search button to tell UltraFind to search specifically in files of that type. This will avoid searching your whole disk when all that was needed was to search your word-processor files or e-mail files.

Similarly, if you keep all text files in a certain folder, use the "Confined Search" button to limit the search to that folder.

SPECIAL NOTES

••  Some DTP applications (including QuarkXpress) surround words with invisible character-codes to indicate styled text (e.g. bold, italic, etc.). Therefore if you are looking for words with spaces in them such as "Jimi Hendrix Experience" it is best to put each word on a separate line. If one of the words is in bold or italic or has some other style setting, searching on them separately ensures the surrounding style characters are ignored. (If there is more than one space between words UltraFind will still find the words correctly).

•   UltraFind will avoid searching image files, therefore to search for text in Adobe Illustrator files you must also set the file type. (Setting the file type forces it to only search files of that type.)

•   Searching for text does not distinguish between upper and lowercase.
     (note: On Japanese systems Text Search DOES distinguish case)

•   Some software (including Macromedia Freehand) does not store text in a readable format.

•   This version of UltraFind can not scan for text inside compressed archives.