SeekFast Manual
1. Introduction
2. Quick start
3. Differences between the Free and Full versions
4. Getting started
Choose directory for your search
Perform the search
Subsequent searches
Open a file
View a larger part of the context
Drop-down list of recently read folders
5. License
6. SeekFast usage
Introduction
Results order
Search directory
Reload button
Integration in File Explorer
Supported file types
No indexing
7. SeekFast menus
File menu
Edit menu
View menu
Tools menu
Help menu
8. Options
General
File types
9. Feedback and support
Frequently asked questions
Feedback
Support
1. Introduction
Welcome to SeekFast - a powerful and easy to use tool for searching text in your documents!
With SeekFast, you can find what you need by simply typing your search terms. You can search within thousands of documents with a single click.
SeekFast uses a powerful technology to order results. You receive what you most likely need on top of the results list. It makes you feel as comfortable as searching the web with Google.
Some of the main program features are:
- Searching thousands of documents in just moments.
- Receiving the most relevant results on the top as in a Google search.
- Viewing the sentences containing the searched terms.
- Opening the corresponding documents with a single click.
- Viewing larger parts of the searched text with a single click.
- Integration in File Explorer - search a directory using the right mouse button.
- No indexing - you receive instant actual results and your PC is not slowed down.
- Support of most common file formats - MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, LaTeX, RTF, and Text files of various types, including files of all modern programming languages.
2. Quick start
Open File Explorer, right-click the directory which you would like to search and choose "SeekFast..."
Type your search terms in the search box and press the Enter key or Search button.
3. Differences between Free and Full versions
Differences between the Free and Full versions are:
Free version:
- Search up to 50 files at a time
- No dedicated support
Full version:
- Search up to 1,000,000 files at a time
- Dedicated support by email
- Lifetime perpetual license
- Lifetime free updates
4. Getting started
Choose a directory for your search
You can choose a directory either from File Explorer or from SeekFast.
- To choose a directory from File Explorer, right-click on the directory and choose "Search with SeekFast..."
- To choose a directory from the SeekFast application, press the Browse button.
All files in this directory and all its subdirectories will be scanned and included in the search.
If you want to select a folder you have already searched, select it from the drop-down menu and SeekFast will read it in a second.
Perform the search
Type your search terms in the search box and press the Enter key or Search button. You will then receive sentences including all your search terms. The results are grouped by files.
Your search results are ordered by relevance - similarly to Google, on the top you receive the sentences that are the best match to your search.
The order of words you type is significant for the arrangement of search results.
Subsequent searches
If you do not need to change the directory of your search, then for your subsequent searches just type new search terms and press the Enter key or Search button.
If you would like to change the directory, simply click the Browse button and choose the new directory.
Open a file
In your search result, you will see the name of the file containing the result, followed by several sentences which are most relevant. Note that the file may contain unlimited number of sentences matching your search, but only the most relevant ones are displayed.
If you would like to open the file, simply click on the file name.
If you would like to open the containing folder, click on the file path, displayed inder the file name.
View a larger part of the context
In your search result, click on a sentence to see a larger part of the text in the document without opening it.
Drop-down list of recently read folders
Once SeekFast has read the text from the files in a folder, you can easily select it from the drop-down list of recently read folders next to the Browse button. Then SeekFast will load the text much faster.
5. License
SeekFast has a Free version and Full version.
The Free version of SeekFast may be used by the User for any legal purposes for an unlimited period of time. The Free version may be freely copied and distributed to other users.
The Personal license for the Full version of SeekFast allows the User to use SeekFast only on three computers and only by a single user at a time. If the User wishes to use SeekFast for more than one user, the User will need additional licenses or a Corporate license.
6. SeekFast usage
Introduction
Doing a search with SeekFast is quite simple and resembles a Google web search. Type one or more terms into the search box. The search terms are words or a phrase that describes the information you want to find within your documents. Press the Enter key or Search button. SeekFast will show a results page - a list of sentences containing your search terms. They are grouped by files. Within the sentences, your search terms are highlighted.
Your search results are ordered by relevance - similarly to Google, on the top you receive sentences which are the best matches to your search.
The order of words you typed is significant for the arrangement of search results. Choosing the proper search terms is important in order to find the information you need.
For example, if you would like to find text in your documents about a vacation in July, just search for "vacation July" and as a result you will receive all sentences containing both "vacation" and "July". On the top you will receive the most relevant ones.
If you receive too many results, try to narrow your search by adding one or more search terms.
To open the document, just click on its name in the results page.
Results order
The order of results is produced using a modern and powerful linguistic technology, allowing the most relevant results to appear on the top.
The order of words you type in the search box is significant. For example, you will receive a different order of results for "'vacation July" compared to "July vacation".
Sentences from a particular file have also been ordered by relevance. If you would like to receive more sentences per file, go to Tools -> Options... and choose the General tab. Then adjust this option to the desired value.
Search directory
You can choose a directory to be searched either from File Explorer or from SeekFast.
- To choose a directory from File Explorer, right-click on the directory and choose SeekFast.
- To choose a directory from the SeekFast application, press the Browse button.
SeekFast searches all documents contained in your parent directory and all its subfolders.
If you want to select a folder you have already searched, select it from the drop-down menu and SeekFast will read it in a second.
Press the "Reload" button to reread the text of the files in the currently selected folder. You can use it when there are changes in the files in that folder and you want the latest changes to be taken into account.
Integration in File Explorer
File Explorer integration makes your search with SeekFast extremely easy.
You just right-click the directory and choose SeekFast. The chosen directory is automatically loaded into SeekFast and is ready to be searched.
Supported file types
SeekFast supports the following document types:
- Microsoft Word Documents (*.doc, *.docx)
- PDF files (*.pdf)
- Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets (*.xlsx, *.xlsm, *.xls)
- Microsoft PowerPoint files (*.ppt, *.pptx)
- OpenOffice Document Text (*.odt)
- LibreOffice Writer documents (*.odt)
- LaTeX Documents (*.tex)
- Rich Text Format (*.rtf)
- Text Documents (*.txt, *.log)
- HTML, XML and CSS files (*.html, *.htm, *.xml, *.css)
- Programming Languages files (.txt, *.html, *.htm, *.c, *.cpp, *.h, *.java, *.jsp, *.xml, *.json, *.php, *.properties, *.pl, *.plx, *.log, *.config, *.tex, *.sql, *.css, *.py, *.cs, *.asp, *.sh, *.vb, *.rb, *.ts, *.js, *.swift, *.go, *.kt, *.groovy, *.for, *.t, *.xaml)
No indexing
SeekFast is free of all annoying indexing stuff.
In contrast to all other desktop search programs, SeekFast does not use indexing, which gives you actual results rather than results indexed some days ago.
No indexing means that the program does not occupy any system resources from your machine while you are not working with it.
If you use an indexing search program, you will see an annoying tray icon, your machine will be permanently occupied and your hard disks will scrape continuously, because indexing is a process which never ends.
The File menu offers the following commands:
New Search
Use this command to start a new search. It deletes current content of the search box and positions the cursor in it.
Select a Folder to Search...
Use this command to choose a folder for your search.
Save Result to Text File...
Use this command to save the result of your search to a text file.
Print
Use this command to print the result of your search. It invokes a print dialog box, where you may specify the range of pages to be printed, the number of copies, the destination printer, and other printer setup options.
Exit
Use this command to exit the program.
The Edit menu offers the following commands:
Cut
Use this command to remove currently selected text from the search box and put it on the clipboard. This command is unavailable if there is no text currently selected.
Copy
Use this command to copy selected text onto the clipboard. This command is unavailable if there is no text currently selected.
Paste
Use this command to insert a copy of the clipboard contents at the insertion point. This command is unavailable if the clipboard is empty.
Find
Use this command to search specific text in the current document. It invokes a Find dialog box.
The View menu offers the following commands:
Back
Use this command to go back one step.
Forward
Use this command to go forward one step.
Home
Use this command to display the start page of SeekFast.
SeekFast Log
Use this command to show the log file of SeekFast.
The Tools menu offers the following commands:
Reload Files from Current Folder
Use this command to reload files in the currently selected folder and its subfolders. It is useful when there are some changes in the files.
Stop
Use this command to stop reading of files. It is useful when reading takes too much time.
Options...
Use this command to change program options. For more information see the 'Options' section.
The Help menu offers the following commands:
License...
Use this command to activate your License or to view your License key.
SeekFast Help
Use this command to display the SeekFast help topics.
About SeekFast...
Use this command to display a dialog box, showing general information about SeekFast.
8. Options
General
The General tab has the following options:
Exclude all files larger than:
Use this option to exclude from your search very large files, that may slow down the reading of files.
Exclude PDF files larger than:
Use this option to exclude from your search very large PDF files, that may slow down the reading of files. Reading the text of PDF files is the most time consuming.
Results per file
Use this option to set the maximum number of sentences to be displayed from each file in the search result.
Reload last searched folder at startup
Use this option to reload last searched folder when SeekFast starts. This option will be ignored if you start SeekFast from File Explorer - in that case, the directory you right-clicked will be loaded.
File types
The File types tab has the following options:
Search in files of type
Use this option to choose the file types to be included in the search.
9. Feedback and support
Frequently asked questions
You may see the most frequently asked questions on:
https://seekfast.org/faq
Feedback
We appreciate your feedback about SeekFast. It helps us to improve our product. Please feel free to send us any suggestion, bug report, question or comment to:
info@seekfast.org
Support
If you have any problems using this product and you can not find a solution in this Help and FAQ, you may post your question and get support from our support engineers at:
https://seekfast.org/support
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