The blinkx search box

You can display the blinkx search box by clicking on the blinkx icon in your system tray or by clicking on the blinkx icon on the toolbar. If you want the search box to be always on top of your open windows, right-click on its title bar and select the Always On Top option.



The blinkx search box allows you to search the web and your desktop. Enter your search in the search box and blinkx returns relevant results on your desktop:


PDF files

PowerPoint files

Excel spreadsheets

Word documents

Emails

Image files

Email contacts

MP3 files

Recently viewed files

Email attachments (indicated by a paperclip)


If you click on the Search All button, the search box also displays web results:

News articles

Web pages

Audio and video files

Note that the icons may change according to your computer's setup.


In addition to desktop results, you can also search for relevant news articles, websites, video clips, blogs or a visual representation of your query by clicking on the web search buttons:

displays relevant news articles

displays relevant websites

displays relevant video clips

displays relevant products

displays relevant blogs

opens blinkx visualizer to visually represent your search

You can view a result's summary by hovering over the result's link. To view a result, click on its link.


The search box also includes the smart folder button which allows you to create smart folders:

blinkx smart folders









Advanced Use

Sorting results

You can sort local results by clicking on the available headers (these are Type, Title, To/from, Date and Subject/filename).


Searching within results

You can search local results by title, sender, recipient, date and subject. Enter your search text in the appropriate text box above the local results' Title, To/from, Date or Subject/filename headers.

Note that you can switch between a sender and recipient search by clicking on the down arrow above the To/from header, and between different types of date search by clicking on the down arrow above the Date header.


Filtering local results


Click on:

To display:

all local document results

only PDF documents

only PowerPoint documents

only Excel documents

only Word documents

only email and email attachments

only JPEG images

only email contacts

only MP3 audio files

only recently viewed files


Note: results that are displayed with a paperclip are email attachments.


Displaying only specific file types


You can enter the extension of a file type in the Subject/filename field in order to only display files of this type. For example, if you enter .txt, only files whose subject or file name includes .txt are displayed. If you have filtered your results, so that only images are displayed, you can, for example, enter .gif to only display .gif images, .bmp to only display .bmp images and so on.


Displaying only files that are stored in a specific location


You can enter a file path in the Subject/filename field in order to only display files that are stored in this location. For example, if you enter C:\My Downloads, only files whthat are stored in this directory are displayed.


Using Boolean search

You can use the Boolean operators AND, NOT and OR to restrict the results that blinkx returns.

For example:

cat AND dog

only returns documents that contain cat and dog

cat NOT dog

only returns documents that contain cat but not dog

cat OR dog

only returns documents that contain either cat or dog (or both)


If you want to use phrases, you need to use brackets.

For example:

city AND (New York)

only returns documents that contain city and New York

city NOT (New York)

only returns documents that contain city but not New York

city OR (New York)

only returns documents that contain either city or New York (or both)