File Search Assistant (FSA) goes far beyond other search utilities to provide accurate, reliable file search results every time. Intelligent, well-designed tools allow you to filter your search results to include only the files that meet your needs.
FSA is designed to be user-friendly, making it an excellent file search solution for anyone, even those with minimal to moderate computer skills. Simple check boxes with associated icons make selecting search criteria effortless. Navigation buttons and tabs allow you to review search results quickly and efficiently.
Using FSA is very easy. To look for your file, choose the folder where you’d like to search in the “Search In” box at the top of the screen. Then choose the keywords to search for by typing the words in the “Keyword” box just below.
If you know part of the file name, you can enter it in the “File Name” box. The asterisk (*) can be used as a wildcard for parts of the name you don’t know. For example, if you are looking for a Word document that contains the keywords “business plan,” you would enter “business plan” in the Keyword box and “*.doc” in the File Name box.
Additional file search criteria are categorized into tabs in the FSA software. The Options tab allows you to limit your search results according characteristics of the search results themselves.
The “Case sensitive” option determines whether FSA pays attention to the capitalization of search terms. If you check Case sensitive, a search for “business plan” will not include any documents with “Business Plan” because the case does not match.
“Search in ZIP files” determines whether FSA will look inside compressed file packages for matching documents or ignore them. “Search in results” allows you to further filter previous search results when you get too many, and “Append to search results” adds any new results to the list when your first search returned too few files. Finally, “Min Relevance” helps you specific index relativity when searching through file indexes.
The “Date” tab include choices such as date created and date modified. You can choose a specific date, a specific time, a date range, or even a past-to-present range like the “last 1 day” or “last 7 days.”
You can also filter for a certain file size or file size range. Filter choices include options such as “More than 5 Kb” or “Less than 1 Mb.” You can also choose a specific file size for a very short list when you know your file’s exact size.
The “Search In” filter allows you to designate multiple areas where you would like to search for your file. This allows you to add more areas to the one you selected at the top of the FSA screen. You can choose a single folder or multiple folders, and can also choose local drives or network drives.
You can also check the “Search folders recursive” to search all the subfolders and files in your selected drive. For example, if you know you’ve stored a file somewhere on your local hard drive, C, but you’re not sure which folder it is in, you could choose “C:/” in the “Search In” filter and check the “Search folders recursive” box to look in all of C’s subfolders.
The “Text Filter” tab allows you to assign common file formats for your search. Traditional file searches, such as those provided with your operating system, can not effectively search for keywords in some types of files. In addition to the standard text search capabilities, FSA can also search HTML files and PDF files, formats that are often used for document distribution but are overlooked by other search tools.
To enable FSA to search these multiple file formats, a text converter is built into the FSA software. The converter allows FSA to ignore special document codes and review only the text for matches to your keywords.
For some searches, such as HTML text, you may want to search without converting the file. For non-converted searches, you can turn the converter off and search the content as it is written. Choosing whether to filter with the converter or without is as simple as clicking the corresponding button on the Text Filter tab.
The Text Filter tab also includes the Password Manager feature. This easy-to-use option allows you to store a list of passwords that you may be using to protect your documents. FSA utilizes this password list to bypass the protection and search the file for your selected keywords. You can include as many passwords as you need, and FSA will apply each one to the password protected document until access is granted.
To help make evaluating the list of search results more efficient, the Quoting Options tab allows you to designate the amount of text you would like to appear in the preview window. You can choose the number of characters or lines before or after the identified keyword that will be displayed. Using this information, you will be able to determine whether the selected document is the one you need without locating and opening the file.
Once you have the file results you need, search results can also be saved with FSA. For searches that return many results, this feature is especially useful. You can store the list of files, allowing you to review each search result at your leisure without having to process the file search again and again.
FSA includes an HTML format Search Report that lists search results in an easily understandable format. This HTML report can be saved, printed, and shared with others to delegate or divide research projects.
File indexes can be created and updated using tools in the FSA File menu. Indexed files can be searched more quickly than searches in the hard disk itself. Portable and fixed index options are available for determining whether to save relative paths or full file paths. Additionally, dynamic re-indexing can be enabled and disabled to improve performance when needed.
File Search Assistant provides excellent tools for locating the files you need in a fraction of the time spent searching with other tools. Easy-to-use features and well-designed search filters restrict results to only those that meet your selected criteria. FSA is an outstanding solution for your file searching needs.