home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
Text File | 1991-08-14 | 135.2 KB | 3,990 lines |
-
-
-
-
- TM
- d t S e a r c h
-
- Document Search and Retrieval Program
-
-
-
- Version 1.1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- User's Manual
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Copyright (c) 1991 DT Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
-
- _______
- ____|__ | (R)
- --| | |-------------------
- | ____|__ | Association of
- | | |_| Shareware
- |__| o | Professionals
- -----| | |---------------------
- |___|___| MEMBER
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 2 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
-
- Contents
-
- 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
- a. Overview of dtSearch . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
- b. Types of Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
- c. Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
- d. License and Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
- 2. Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
- a. How to Use This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
- b. Installing dtSearch . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
- c. Quick Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
- 3. General Information about dtSearch . . . . . . . . 15
- a. How to Use Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
- b. Using Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
- c. Dialog Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
- d. Selecting a Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
- e. Selecting Multiple Directories . . . . . . . . 18
- f. File Name Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
- g. Selecting a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
- h. Function Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
- i. Using Document Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
- j. Moving the Cursor in a Document . . . . . . . 23
- 4. Building and Using Document Indexes . . . . . . . . 25
- a. What is a Document Index? . . . . . . . . . . 25
- b. The Index Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
- c. Creating an Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
- d. Adding Documents to an Index . . . . . . . . . 26
- e. Compressing an Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
- f. Deleting an Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
- g. Renaming an Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
- h. Copying an Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
- i. Recognizing an Existing Index . . . . . . . . 29
- j. Index Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
- k. Verify Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
- l. Rebuild Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
- m. Index Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
- 5. Searching for Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
- a. The Search Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
- b. Index Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
- c. Unindexed Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
- d. Combination Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
- e. Indexes to Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
- f. Displaying Search Results . . . . . . . . . . 35
- g. Search Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
- h. Kwic View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
- 6. Search Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
- a. Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
- b. Search Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
- c. Phrase Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 1
-
-
-
- d. Noise Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
- e. Search Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
- f. AND connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
- g. OR connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
- h. W/N connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
- i. Segment Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
- j. Date and Filename Searches . . . . . . . . . . 41
- 7. The File Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
- a. The File Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
- b. Viewing a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
- c. Viewing a Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
- d. The Notepad Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
- e. Saving a Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
- f. Printing a Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
- g. DOS Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
- 8. Window Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
- a. The Window Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
- b. Find Text in Document . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
- c. Find Search Term in Document . . . . . . . . . 49
- d. Moving and Resizing Windows . . . . . . . . . 49
- 9. The Applications Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
- 10. Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
- a. The Options Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
- b. Monitor Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
- c. Screen Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
- d. Creating and Editing Macros . . . . . . . . . 54
- e. Displaying the Print Queue . . . . . . . . . . 54
- f. Setup Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
- 11. Using dtSearch on a Network . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
- 12. Program Limits and Requirements . . . . . . . . . . 57
- 13. Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
- 14. Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 2 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
-
- 1. Introduction
-
-
- a. Overview of dtSearch
-
- The purpose of dtSearch is to help you find documents quickly.
- dtSearch does this by building an "index" of your documents that
- stores location of the words in each document. Since you will
- sometimes want to search documents that you have not indexed,
- dtSearch can also search without an index -- it just takes
- longer. A single document index can hold information about up to
- 15,000 documents, and there is no limit on the number of indexes
- you can create. A single search request can scan multiple
- directories, disk drives and document indexes. You can search
- for:
-
- * Combinations of words, such as "apple and (pear or grape),"
-
- * Words located near other words, such as "apple within 5 words
- of pear,"
-
- * Words located in a specific segment of a document, such as
- "@ADDRESS contains oak drive,"
-
- * Words that match "fuzzy" specifications, such as "appl*,"
- which would match apple, application, apply, etc.
-
- After you have done a search, you can display retrieved
- documents on the screen, cut and paste text into a built-in
- notepad editor, print a "search report" listing all hits found
- with a few lines of context, or edit a retrieved document using
- your word processor -- all from within dtSearch.
-
- dtSearch can search, index, and display documents in the
- following formats:
-
- * ASCII or DOS Text
- * Microsoft Rich Text Format
- * Microsoft Word
- * Microsoft Word for Windows
- * Multimate Advantage II
- * Multimate version 4
- * WordPerfect 5.0 and 5.1
- * WordStar through version 6
- * WordStar 2000
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 3
-
-
-
- b. Types of Searches
-
- This section compares the different strategies used by the
- many search programs available. You may find it useful as
- background if you are comparing dtSearch with other search
- programs.
-
- Programs designed to perform searches on large collections of
- documents usually adopt one of three strategies:
-
- * The "brute force" search, which reads every document in a
- collection in turn. This method requires little advance
- preparation, but is very slow.
-
- * The "indexed" search, which uses a document index to perform
- faster searches. (A document index is a file that contains
- information about where in a collection of documents words
- occur.)
-
- * A structured-database search. Instead of searching the full
- text of documents in the collection, this approach typically
- searches a small database that describes the documents. For
- example, a letters database might contain fields for the
- addressee, author, date, and subject of each letter.
-
- A structured database allows you to perform very specific
- searches, such as a search for a letter written by a certain
- person (as opposed to a letter that merely contains the
- person's name). However, you must prepare the database by
- entering the information about each document.
-
- Another way search programs differ is in the level of
- precision they allow in search requests.
-
- * "String" searches. The simplest -- and least precise -- type
- of search is the search for a string of text. In this type of
- search, you enter a string such as "apple," and the program
- scans files looking for occurrences of the string. Because
- these programs do not break the text into words, a search for
- "apple" will also retrieve "applesauce" and "crabapple." Most
- DOS shell programs and many small utilities will perform this
- type of search.
-
- * Simple word searches. Other programs, will search for
- specific words or combinations of words, such as "smith and
- jones" or "smith and (apple or pear)". Most of these programs
- also allow "wildcard" characters in search words. (This is
- sometimes called "fuzzy" searching.) Following the convention
- used in DOS, the "*" usually matches any number of letters,
- and the "?" usually matches any single character. Thus,
-
-
-
- 4 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
- "apple*" would match "apple" or "applesauce", and "appl?"
- would match "apply" or "apple" but not "application".
-
- The major limitation of programs that can only do word
- searches is that they cannot perform searches based on the
- context of a word in a document. This means that phrase
- searches (searches for two or more words in exact sequence)
- and proximity searches (searches for a word within a certain
- number of words of anther word) are impossible. Thus, you
- can search for "North" and "America," but not for "North"
- within 2 words of "America."
-
- * Context searches. The most specific type of search specifies
- not only the words but their context. This allows you to
- search for phrases and for words that occur near other words.
- For example, you could search for documents containing "North
- America" within 10 words of "climate". The additional level
- of specificity that context searches allows can help to reduce
- the number of "false hits" you get in a search. If you are
- searching a very large text database, this can save you a lot
- of time.
-
- c. Technical Support
-
- If you have any questions or comments about dtSearch, please
- contact:
-
- DT Software, Inc.
- 2101 Crystal Plaza Arcade
- Suite 231
- Arlington, VA 22202
-
- Compuserve: 72607,3323.
-
- Registered dtSearch users can obtain one year of free technical
- support by mail or through CompuServe at the addresses above.
-
- Telephone technical support for dtSearch is available from the
- Advanced Support Group, Inc. (ASG) at 1-900-88-HELP-8. As of
- August 15, 1991, the cost is $2.00 per minute; the first 24
- seconds are free. For those who cannot use a 900 number, ASG can
- charge support fees to a credit card, and ASG also offers
- contract technical support for a fixed annual cost. Call 1-314-
- 256-3130 for more information about these options.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 5
-
-
-
- d. License and Notices
-
- Shareware Version License
-
- dtSearch is not public domain or "free" software -- it is
- copyrighted by DT Software, Inc. DT Software, Inc. hereby grants
- you a limited license to use dtSearch for evaluation purposes for
- a period not to exceed sixty (60) days. If you continue to use
- this software after the sixty (60) day evaluation period, you
- must make a registration payment of $59.00 to DT Software, Inc.
- This payment will entitle you to receive the current registered
- version of dtSearch, a printed copy of the manual, notice of
- updates and upgrades, and free technical support (by mail or
- CompuServe) for one year. For information about telephone
- technical support, please see the "Technical Support" section of
- the manual.
-
- You may give (but not sell) complete copies of the evaluation
- version of dtSearch to others. Shareware distributors may
- distribute dtSearch in accordance with the terms listed in
- VENDOR.DOC and SYSOP.DOC.
-
- Registered Version License
-
- If you are a registered user of dtSearch, you may use the
- registered version on one computer at a time and make as many
- backup copies (for your own use only) as you need.
-
- U.S. Government Information
-
- Use, duplication, or disclosure by the U.S. Government of the
- computer software and documentation in this package shall be
- subject to the restricted rights applicable to commercial
- computer software as set forth in subdivision (b)(3)(ii) of the
- Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause at
- 252.227-7013 (DFARS 52.227-7013). The contractor/manufacturer is
- DT Software, Inc., 2101 Crystal Plaza Arcade, Suite 231,
- Arlington, VA 22202.
-
- ASP Notice
-
- DT Software, Inc. is a member of the Association of Shareware
- Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware
- principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a
- shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the
- member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can
- help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but
- does not supply technical support for members' products. Please
- write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442
-
-
-
-
- 6 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
- or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman
- 70007,3536.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 7
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 8 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
-
- 2. Getting Started
-
- a. How to Use This Manual
-
- To get started...
-
- * First, read the section on "Installing dtSearch" and install
- the program.
-
- * Second, start the program. (When you run it, all it will do
- is display the main menu screen and wait for your input.) You
- will find it easier to learn how to use the program if you
- have it running in front of you as you read the manual.
-
- * Third, you may want to read the manual section, "General
- Information about dtSearch." dtSearch uses a standard pull-
- down menu interface that is similar to that used in many other
- programs. If you have used other programs with a similar
- interface, you can skip most of this section. If not, you
- should read it to learn how to operate the menus, help
- screens, etc.
-
- * Fourth, read and follow tutorial procedures described in the
- "Quick Start" section of the manual, which will show you how
- to build and use document indexes.
-
- If you are stuck...
-
- * You can always get help by pressing the F1 key, which
- activates the dtSearch help system. If you have not used
- hypertext help programs before, you may want to read the
- manual section, "How to Use Help." Everything that is in the
- manual is also accessible through the help system.
-
- * To get more information about an error message, look it up in
- the table in the back of the manual.
-
- * To find out how to use a particular dtSearch feature, you can
- find it in the manual using the table of contents or the
- index.
-
- b. Installing dtSearch
-
- To install dtSearch on your hard disk, do the following:
-
- * Insert the dtSearch disk in drive A.
-
- * At, the DOS prompt ("C>"), type
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 9
-
-
-
- A:INSTALL
-
- and press ENTER.
-
- * Two boxes will appear on the screen: a "From" box showing
- where INSTALL expects to find the installation files, and a
- "To" box showing where INSTALL will install dtSearch. The
- "To" box will show C:\DTSEARCH. If you want to use a different
- drive or directory, press TAB to move the cursor into the "To"
- box and type in the drive and directory you want.
-
- * Press the F10 key to start installing dtSearch.
-
- To run dtSearch, type
-
- C:\DTSEARCH\DTSEARCH
-
- at the DOS prompt and press ENTER.
-
- NOTES:
-
- 1. You can install dtSearch from any disk drive. For example,
- if you put the dtSearch disk in drive B, just type B:INSTALL
- instead of A:INSTALL.
-
- 2. If you are curious, this is what INSTALL does: dtSearch
- files are distributed in a "self-extracting archive" file -- a
- compressed file that uncompresses itself when executed. INSTALL
- locates this file, creates the "To" directory, and executes the
- self-extracting archive file. Install does NOT alter the
- contents of your hard disk in any other way. It will not change
- your CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT files.
-
- c. Quick Start
-
- This section of the manual is intended to help you get started
- using dtSearch. It explains very briefly how to search with and
- without a document index and how to build an index. Each of
- these subjects is covered in more detail in the rest of the
- manual. A quick way to get more information about a dtSearch
- feature is to press the F1 key, which will pop up a help screen
- that describes the feature you are using. See the manual section
- "How to Use Help" for more information on how the help system
- works.
-
- Before you begin, you should install dtSearch on your hard
- disk (see "Installing dtSearch"). You should also have some
- documents on your hard disk to index and search.
-
-
-
-
-
- 10 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
- dtSearch allows two types of searches: index, and unindexed.
- An index search uses a document index to quickly identify
- documents that satisfy a search request. A document index is a
- type of database that dtSearch builds from a collection of
- documents. The database tells dtSearch where each word appears
- in each document, so that dtSearch can find documents containing
- a particular word or combination of words very quickly.
-
- An unindexed search simply reads each file to be searched and
- checks whether it meets the search criteria. Unindexed searches
- are very slow.
-
- Searching without an index
-
- * Press 'S' to get into the Search menu.
-
- * Press 'U' to select "Unindexed search". The "Unindexed
- Search" dialog box will appear. This dialog box allows you to
- specify what you want to search for and where you want to
- search.
-
- * Press 'D' to select the directories you want to search.
- A diagram of all of the directories on the current disk drive
- will appear. To see another disk drive, press CTRL + the
- letter of the drive you want. To select a directory, move the
- cursor to it and press SPACE. An X will appear indicating
- that the directory is selected. Press SPACE again and the X
- will disappear. To select or deselect a directory and its
- subdirectories, press ENTER. When you are done selecting
- directories, press the F10 key.
-
- * Press 'F' to enter filters selecting the documents you want to
- search. Type in the filters, with spaces separating them, and
- press ENTER. Example: to select all files whose names end in
- .DOC or .TXT, enter
-
- *.DOC *.TXT
-
- * Press 'R' to enter your search request. A box will appear in
- which you can type in your search request. A search request
- consists of the words or phrases you want to search for,
- connected by:
-
- AND both words must be present
- OR at least one of the words must be present
- NOT the next word must not be present
- W/5 the words must occur not more than 5 words apart (you
- can use other numbers, such as W/10, W/20, etc.)
-
- Examples: apple and pear
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 11
-
-
-
- apple w/5 pear
- apple and (pear w/5 banana)
-
- When you are done typing in your search request, press ENTER
- to get back into the dialog box.
-
- * Press 'S' to begin the search.
-
- Viewing search results
-
- * After a search is complete, a short menu will appear listing
- options for sorting search results (sorted by name, sorted by
- number of hits, unsorted, etc.). Pick one of the options, and
- the results of your search will appear in a window.
-
- * To view a document, move the cursor (the highlighted bar in
- the window listing the documents) to the document you want,
- press ENTER, and the document will appear in another window,
- overlaying the first. To close a window displaying a document
- or search results, press ESCAPE.
-
- * To see the hits in a retrieved document, press F3.
-
- * Near the bottom of the screen, the word "Viewing" will appear,
- followed by the word "SearchResults" and the name of the file
- you selected. You can have up to five windows open at a time,
- including the SearchResults window. To move between windows,
- use the TAB key (next window) or the SHIFT-TAB key (previous
- window). The "Viewing" line will list all of the open windows
- and show which one you are in.
-
- * When you are viewing a document or search results, you can:
- * Move or resize the window -- press F9. Use the cursor keys
- to move the window and SHIFT + the cursor keys to resize
- it. Press ENTER to stop moving and resizing.
- * Print it -- press ALT-F to get into the File menu, 'P' to
- select "Print Window", and 'P' to print the file.
- * Copy a block of text into a "notepad", where you can edit
- it or combine it with text clipped from other documents.
- (See the "Using the Notepad Editor" section in the manual.)
-
- Building a document index
-
- First, create an index:
-
- * Press 'I' to get into the Index menu.
-
- * Press 'C' to get into the "Create Index" dialog box.
-
-
-
-
-
- 12 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
- * Press 'N' to enter the name of the index you want to create.
- Type in the name and press ENTER.
-
- * Press 'D' to enter the directory you want to hold the index.
- Type in the full directory name (e.g., C:\DOCINDEX) and press
- ENTER.
-
- * Press 'C' to create the index. After the index is created,
- press any key to get back into the menu.
-
- Next, add documents to the index:
-
- * Press 'I' to get into the Index menu.
-
- * Press 'A' to get into the "Add Documents to Index" dialog box.
-
- * Press 'I' to choose the index to update. Move the cursor to
- the name of the index you want and press ENTER.
-
- * Press 'D' to select the directories containing the files you
- want to index. The directory selection box that appears works
- just like the one described above in "Searching without an
- index."
-
- * Press 'F' to enter filters selecting the documents you want to
- index. Type in the filters with spaces between them and press
- ENTER. Example: to select all files whose names end in .DOC
- or .TXT, enter
-
- *.DOC *.TXT
-
- * If you want the index to be compressed, press 'O' to change
- the "Compress Index" option from No to Yes. Compressing an
- index produces a smaller index and faster searches, and is
- generally a good idea. However, it can take a long time to
- compress an index, since dtSearch creates a new copy of the
- index being compressed. Compressing an index typically takes
- about half as long as it took to build the index.
-
- * Press 'A' to begin adding documents to the index.
-
- Searching with an index
-
- * Press 'S' to get into the Search menu
-
- * Press 'I' to get into the "Index Search" dialog box.
-
- * Press 'I' to select the indexes you want to search. A list of
- all of your indexes will appear. Move the cursor to the ones
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 13
-
-
-
- you want and press ENTER to put an 'X' next to them. Press
- the F10 key when you are done.
-
- * Press 'R' to enter your search request. See "Searching
- without an index" (above) for a brief discussion of search
- requests.
-
- * Press 'S' to begin the search.
-
- * "Viewing search results" (above) describes what to do next.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 14 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
-
- 3. General Information about dtSearch
-
-
- a. How to Use Help
-
- When you are in a menu, a line of text at the bottom of the
- screen will briefly explain the purpose of each menu option as
- you move the cursor to it. When you are viewing documents,
- directories, help, or search results, this line will list the
- function keys available.
-
- If you need more information about a dtSearch feature, you can
- access the hypertext help system at any time by pressing the F1
- key. The help system provides a comprehensive manual, with an
- index and table of contents, that explains all of the features of
- dtSearch.
-
- When you press F1, an explanation of the current function or
- menu option will appear. You can use the cursor keys and PgUp
- and PgDn to scroll through the help message.
-
- Frequently a help message will contain highlighted cross-
- references to other help topics. To switch to the cross-
- reference topic, move the cursor to the highlighted word and
- press ENTER. BACKSPACE will take you back to the previous help
- screen.
-
- To move the cursor to a highlighted reference, press the TAB
- key. SHIFT-TAB will move the cursor to the previous reference.
-
- At the end of each help message you will find three
- highlighted topics listed:
-
- "Help Index" Index of help topics
- "Contents" Table of contents of help topics
- "Previous Topic" The topic you last viewed
-
- To see one of these help messages, move the cursor to the one you
- want and press ENTER.
-
- To exit from help, press ESCAPE.
-
- b. Using Menus
-
- * All menus have a cursor that appears as a bar that moves up
- and down or from side to side when you press the cursor keys.
- * To select an option, move the cursor to that option and press
- the ENTER key.
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 15
-
-
-
- * Shortcut: every menu option has a highlighted letter. For
- example, in the "Search" option, the "S" will be highlighted. To
- quickly select an option, press the letter highlighted in that
- option.
- * To leave any menu, press the ESCAPE key.
- * Sometimes a menu option is in brackets. This means that the
- option is unavailable for some reason. For example, you cannot
- use the "Window" menu unless you are viewing a document, and you
- cannot do an index search unless you have created an index.
-
- Help on Menu Options
-
- * When you move the cursor to a menu option, a description of
- what that option does will appear at the bottom of the screen.
- * To get more help on any menu option, press F1.
-
- The Menu Bar
-
- * The menu bar at the top of the screen is the main menu. Each
- word listed in the menu bar is the name of a submenu.
- * If you are viewing a document, you can get into the main menu
- in three ways:
- * pressing the F10 key,
- * holding down the ALT key and releasing it, or
- * holding down the ALT key and pressing the letter for one of
- the options in the menu.
- * To return to viewing a document after entering the main menu,
- press the ESCAPE key.
-
- Pull-down menus
-
- Pull-down menus appear in boxes on the screen under the menu
- bar, with a cursor that moves up and down. To select a menu
- option, move the cursor to the option desired and press ENTER, or
- press the highlighted letter for that option.
-
- c. Dialog Boxes
-
- When you select a menu option to perform an action, such as
- viewing a document, performing a search, etc., a dialog box will
- appear. The top half of a dialog box may offer a list of options
- that you can change. The bottom half will contain several
- "buttons" that you can select to perform various actions. Select
- the buttons in the same way that you would select other menu
- options -- by moving the cursor to the option and pressing ENTER,
- or by pressing the highlighted letter in the button.
-
- Types of Options
-
-
-
-
-
- 16 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
- * Yes/No options. To change a yes/no option, just move the
- cursor to the option and press ENTER.
-
- * Text options. To change an option, such as a search request,
- that allows you to enter text, move the cursor to the option and
- press ENTER. A box will appear containing the current value of
- the option. You can edit or replace this text using the usual
- editing keys (Ins, Del, and the cursor keys). When you are done
- editing the text, press ENTER to save your changes or ESCAPE to
- restore the previous text.
-
- * Radio Buttons. Some options require you to select an item
- from a list of choices. When you modify these options, a list of
- choices will appear, like this:
-
- ( ) Red
- ( ) White
- (*) Blue
-
- The dot will appear next to the item that was previously
- selected. To move the dot, move the cursor to the choice you
- want and press ENTER.
-
- * Check Boxes. Check boxes are similar to radio buttons, and
- appear when you can select more than one item from a list, such
- as when you are selecting one or more indexes to search. A list
- of check boxes looks like this:
-
- [X] Banana
- [ ] Pear
- [X] Apple
-
- The "X" indicates that the item is selected. To select or clear
- an item, move the cursor to it and press ENTER. When you are
- done modifying a list of check boxes, press F10 to save your
- changes.
-
- d. Selecting a Directory
-
- The Select Directory dialog box displays a diagram of all of
- the directories on the current disk drive, displayed as a tree.
- To select a directory, move the cursor to it and press ENTER. To
- change the disk drive, hold down the control key and press the
- letter of drive you want. For example, to switch to drive C,
- press CTRL-C.
-
- If you want dtSearch to re-read the tree for a drive, press
- control and the letter of the drive you are viewing.
-
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 17
-
-
-
- e. Selecting Multiple Directories
-
- The Select Directories dialog box appears in two situations:
- when you are specifying directories to search, and when you are
- specifying directories to index.
-
- The dialog box has two parts. On the left is a diagram of all
- the directories on the current disk drive, displayed as a tree.
- Next to each directory is a check box ("[ ]" or "[X]") that you
- can use to select the directory. On the right is a list of disk
- drives and the number of directories currently selected in each.
-
- * To select a directory, move the cursor to it and press SPACE.
- An "X" will appear in the check box next to the directory,
- which means that you have selected the directory. The clear
- the "X", press SPACE again.
-
- * To select a directory and its subdirectories, press ENTER
- instead of SPACE.
-
- * To change disk drives, press CTRL + the letter of the drive
- you want.
-
- * When you are done, press the F10 key.
-
- The Select Directories dialog box remembers the directory tree
- for each disk drive. When the dialog box appears, it uses the
- directory trees that it remembers rather than re-reading every
- drive (reading the directories for every drive can take a long
- time). If you want dtSearch to re-read the tree for a drive,
- press control and the letter of the drive you are viewing. This
- is useful when you view directories on one floppy disk and then
- replace it with another, or if you have recently created new
- directories.
-
-
- f. File Name Filters
-
- A file name filter is a pattern, like *.*, *.DOC, or
- FILE??10.DAT, that you can use to tell dtSearch which files you
- want it to search or index in a directory. For example, if you
- have a directory of word processing files, and want to search all
- of the files beginning with SMITH and having the extension DOC,
- you would use the filter SMITH*.DOC.
-
- A "?" matches any single character, so SMITH?.DOC would match
- SMITH1.DOC, but not SMITH123.DOC.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 18 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
- An asterisk ("*") in a file name filter matches any number of
- characters, so SMITH*.DOC would match SMITH001.DOC, SMITHAAA.DOC,
- etc.
-
- If you want to use more than one filter, just list the
- filters, separated by spaces. Example:
- SMITH*.DOC JONES*.DOC *.DAT
-
- g. Selecting a File
-
- Whenever dtSearch asks you to select a file, a "Select File"
- dialog box will appear. The box looks like this:
-
- +-----Select File to View----+
- Filename --> | C:\WP51\SAMPLE.TXT |
- | |
- Directory and filter --> | C:\WP51\*.TXT |
- | +--------------------+ |
- List of files --> | | ABC.TXT | |
- | | DEF.TXT | |
- | | SAMPLE.TXT | |
- | | SUB1\ | |
- | | SUB2\ | |
- | | [-A-] | |
- | | [-C-] | |
- | +--------------------+ |
- +----------------------------+
-
- The "Filename" section at the top of the box allows you to simply
- type in a filename. The TAB key will move the cursor between the
- filename line at the top of the box and the list of files. If
- you type the name of a directory in the filename section, or type
- a name that includes a wildcard character such as "*.TXT", the
- list of files will contain all files in the directory you
- selected that match the filter you are using. You can then press
- TAB to move the cursor into the list of files, which you can
- scroll until you see the file you want. The list of files also
- contains any subdirectories of the directory you are viewing
- ("SUB1\" and "SUB2\" in the example above) followed by a list of
- disk drives ("[-A-]" and "[-C-]") that you can select to look for
- the file you want. You can change the directory by selecting one
- of the subdirectories listed in the file list or by typing in a
- new directory name at the top.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 19
-
-
-
- h. Function Keys
-
- F1 is always the help key. Press F1 at any time for an
- explanation of the current function or menu option.
-
- The following is a description of what the other function keys
- do:
-
- 1. When you are viewing documents or search results:
- F2 Find Text: find a string of text in the document.
- F3 Find Search Term: find one of the terms used in your
- search in the document.
- F4 Find Link: find next link to a retrieved document
- (useful in search reports).
- F5 Mark text to copy to notepad.
- F6 Paste text in notepad editor.
- F7 Switch Window: switch to a different window.
- F8 This key has two different functions. In a search
- results window, it produces a "KWIC" view of the
- document that the cursor is pointing to. In a document
- window, it launches the application that created the
- document.
- F9 Move or Resize Window
- F10 Menu. When you are viewing documents or search
- results, press F10 to get into the main menu. Press
- F10 in the main menu to get back into the document or
- search results window.
-
- 2. When you are viewing a help screen:
- F2 Find Text: find a string of text in the help document.
- F4 Find Help Topic: Move the cursor to the next highlighted
- help topic.
- F7 View the help message for the word or phrase that the
- cursor is on.
-
- 3. At all other times, F10 is a general "exit" key for all menus
- and dialog boxes, F1 is the help key, and the other function keys
- do nothing.
-
- i. Using Document Windows
-
-
- When you start dtSearch, you will see a bar at the top of the
- screen listing menu options and a bar at the bottom of the screen
- that explains the current menu option. The space in between will
- be blank. This area is a workspace, like a desktop, that you can
- use for searching and browsing documents. As with a desk
- surface, you can place several documents on the surface and move
- them around so you can see the one that you want to read. Menus
-
-
-
-
- 20 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
- and dialog boxes will pop up over the desktop, but the underlying
- documents will remain until you remove them.
-
- The simplest way to get a document on the desktop is the View
- Document option in the File menu. Simply select the file you
- want to view, press ENTER, the document will appear in a window.
- The top center of the window will display the document name and
- the position of the cursor (the current line and page number)
- will appear at the bottom left.
-
- When you are viewing a document, the menu cursor (the bar that
- moves from option to option) will disappear and a cursor will
- appear in the document. You can move the cursor around in the
- document using the cursor keys, Page Up and Page Down, etc., as
- you do in your word processor. To move the cursor back into the
- menu, press F10. Press F10 in the menu to move back to the
- document.
-
- There are several ways to create a document window:
-
- * Every time you do a search, a "Search Results" window appears.
- This window is just like a document window, except that it
- contains a list of documents instead of a single document. To
- view one of the documents on the list, move the cursor to it
- and press ENTER. The document you selected will appear in a
- second window, overlapping the first.
-
- * The View Directory function creates a document window that is
- similar to the Search Window -- to view one of the files or
- directories in the window, move the cursor to it and press
- ENTER.
-
- * When you are in a Search Results window, you can create a
- Search Report by selecting the Search Report option in the
- Search menu. The Search Report will list all of the "hits"
- found by your search, with a few lines of context. The Search
- Report is also a document window. As with the Search Results
- window, you can view a file by moving the cursor to the name
- of the file and pressing ENTER.
-
- * The Edit Notepad function in the File menu creates a "notepad"
- window that you can type into. You can clip text from other
- windows into the notepad window, edit the text in the notepad
- and write notes.
-
- All of these types of windows work in essentially the same
- way:
-
- * To move the cursor around, use the cursor keys.
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 21
-
-
-
- * To move from one window to the next, press TAB. SHIFT-TAB
- moves to the previous window.
-
- * ESCAPE closes a window.
-
- * To move or resize a window, press F9.
-
- You can print the contents of any document window using the
- Print Window function in the File menu. Save Window will copy
- the text from the window you are viewing to a file that you can
- then retrieve into your word processor.
-
- When you have one or more document windows on the screen, a
- line near the bottom of the screen will display a list of the
- windows. You can have up to five windows on the screen at a
- time.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 22 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
- j. Moving the Cursor in a Document
-
- Moving the Cursor
-
- Top of document Home, Home, UP
- End of document Home, Home, DOWN
- Start of line Home, LEFT
- End of line End
- Top of screen Home, UP
- or PgUp
- End of screen Home, DOWN
- or PgDn
-
- Searching
- Find text F2
- Find search term F3
- Find help topic F4
-
- Notepad cut and paste
-
- Start block F5
- Cut block DEL
- Copy block F5
- Paste F6
-
- Other
-
- Exit document ESCAPE
- Help F1
- Switch Window F7
- Move/Resize Window F9
- Menu F10
- View document at cursor ENTER
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 23
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 24 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
-
- 4. Building and Using Document Indexes
-
-
- a. What is a Document Index?
-
- A document index is a database that stores the locations of
- all of the words in a group of documents, except for noise words
- such as "but" and "if." Once you have built an index for a group
- of documents, dtSearch can use it to perform very fast
- index searches on those documents. A document index is usually
- about one fourth the size of the original documents, although
- this may vary considerably depending on the number and kinds of
- documents in the index.
-
- A document index can contain up to 15,000 documents. If you
- try to add more, you will get an "Index is Full" message.
- However, you will still be able to reindex documents that are
- already in the index. When dtSearch reindexes a document that is
- already in the index, it treats the document as a new document
- and marks the old version of the document in the index as
- "obsolete". When you compress an index, obsolete documents are
- removed. If the total number of documents, including obsolete
- documents, exceeds 30,000, then you will have to compress the
- index before you can update it.
-
- An index library is a collection of up to 25 indexes. Most
- people will only need a few indexes and so will not have to learn
- about index libraries. By default, dtSearch uses an index
- library called "IXLIB.ILB". If you need to use more than 25
- indexes, then you can create additional index libraries.
-
- To build an index of a group of documents:
- 1. Use the Create Index function in the index menu to create
- an empty index, and
- 2. Use the Add Documents to Index function to add documents to
- the index.
-
- As a shortcut, you can specify in the "Add Documents to Index"
- dialog box that you want to create a new index for the documents.
-
- b. The Index Menu
-
- Press 'I' in the main menu to get into the Index menu. The Index
- menu lists options to:
-
- * create,
- * update,
- * compress,
- * delete,
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 25
-
-
-
- * rename,
- * copy,
- * recognize, or
- * get information about
-
- a document index.
-
- It also lists options to create or select an index library.
-
- c. Creating an Index
-
- To create an index, you need to specify two things:
-
- * The name of the index. This can be up to 16 characters long
- and may include any combination of letters, numbers, or
- punctuation.
-
- * The directory to use for the index. This has to be a valid
- DOS directory name. The directory should not be one that
- already exists -- dtSearch will create a new directory for the
- index (using the name that you supply).
-
- If you "create" an index that already exists, you will clear
- the previously existing index (the documents will, of course, be
- unaffected). dtSearch will ask you to confirm that you really
- want to do this.
-
- d. Adding Documents to an Index
-
- To add documents to an existing index, you need to specify the
- following in the "Add Documents to Index" dialog box:
-
- * The name of the index to update, which you can select from a
- list of all of the indexes that you have created.
-
- * The directories containing the documents to add to the index.
-
- * The file name filters (e.g., *.DOC, *.TXT, etc.) to use to
- select documents to add.
-
- * Whether you want dtSearch to compress the index after
- updating. Compressing an index can take a while, especially
- with very large indexes, but it makes searches much faster.
- You can also compress an index using the Compress Index option
- in the Index menu.
-
- * Whether you want dtSearch to check all documents already in
- the index and reindex any that were modified since they were
- last indexed.
-
-
-
-
- 26 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
- After you have specified this information, select the "Add"
- button to start updating the index.
-
- The Add Documents to Index dialog box also contains a section
- that allows you to create a new index and add documents to it in
- a single step. To use this feature, set "Create Index?" to "Yes"
- and then fill in the information needed to create an index (the
- directory to contain the index and the name you want to use for
- the index). (After you have created an index this way, dtSearch
- automatically sets "Create Index?" back to "No" so that the next
- time you add documents to the index you do not "Create" it first,
- clearing out information about the previously-added documents.)
- See the manual section on creating indexes for more information
- about the Create Index function.
-
- In most cases, you will not have to worry about the file
- format of the documents being indexed because dtSearch will
- detect the format of each document automatically. However, some
- older word processor formats cannot be detected automatically.
- Of the word processors supported by dtSearch version 1.1, only
- WordStar versions before version 4.0 fall into this category. To
- tell dtSearch how to recognize WordStar files created by versions
- 1 through 3, you must set up WordStar as an application using the
- Applications menu and provide a filename pattern, such as *.WS,
- that dtSearch can use to identify WordStar files. See the manual
- section on the Applications menu for details on how to do this.
-
- NOTES:
- 1. You can halt indexing by pressing the ESCAPE key. dtSearch
- will stop after it finishes indexing the document it is working
- on.
-
- 2. If you are indexing documents stored on floppy disks, you may
- find it useful to store the documents on each disk in a
- subdirectory named after the disk. For example, if you have
- disks labelled "SMITH" and "JONES", move the documents on the
- SMITH disk into a directory on the disk called "SMITH", and move
- the documents on the JONES disk into a directory called "JONES".
- This will help you to locate the documents after a search. You
- can see which disk has the documents you want by looking at the
- directory name in the search results window.
-
- 3. dtSearch automatically detects and ignores binary files when
- it builds document indexes.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 27
-
-
-
- e. Compressing an Index
-
- Compressing an index does two things: (1) it removes obsolete
- information about documents that have been reindexed, and (2) it
- reorganizes an index for faster searching. The major
- disadvantage of compressing an index is that it can take a long
- time, since dtSearch copies the entire index when it compresses
- it. Compressing an index typically takes about half as long as
- it took to build the index.
-
- You can compress an index by selecting the Compress Index
- option in the Index menu. You can also tell dtSearch to compress
- an index after it is done updating it, by setting the Compress
- Index option in the Update Index dialog box to "Yes".
-
- You can halt compression of an index by pressing the ESCAPE
- key. When you halt compression, dtSearch will restore the index
- to its uncompressed state.
-
- f. Deleting an Index
-
- The Delete Index dialog box allows you to erase an index. The
- original documents will not be affected, but the index will be
- destroyed.
-
- To delete an index, select the index to be deleted and then
- select the "Delete" button. dtSearch will ask you to confirm
- that you really want to delete the index.
-
- g. Renaming an Index
-
- The Rename Index dialog box allows you to change the name of
- an index. To rename an index, select the index to be renamed,
- enter the new name for the index, and then select the "Rename"
- button. The name can be up to 16 letters long. Note that the
- name of the directory in which the index is stored will not be
- affected.
-
- h. Copying an Index
-
- The Copy Index dialog box allows you to make a copy of an
- existing index. To copy an index, you need to specify the
- following:
-
- * The name of the index to copy.
-
- * The name of the new index to be created.
-
- * The directory to store the new index in.
-
-
-
-
- 28 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
- Like the directory specified in the "Create Index" function, the
- directory that you copy an index to should not already exist. If
- the directory that you specify already contains in index,
- dtSearch will ask you to confirm that you want the new index to
- overwrite the old index. (A directory can only contain one
- index.)
-
- i. Recognizing an Existing Index
-
- Although dtSearch provides a way to copy indexes, you may in
- some cases wish to copy indexes using another program and then
- use dtSearch to search the indexes. For example, if someone
- created an index and gave you a copy, you might want to just copy
- the disk or disks using the DOS copy command. However, if you
- then tried to search that index with dtSearch, the index that you
- copied would not appear in the "Select Index" list because your
- copy of dtSearch would not know about the index.
-
- The Recognize Index function solves this problem. In the
- Recognize Index dialog box, select the directory in which the
- index you copied is stored, enter a name for the index, and then
- select the "Recognize Index" button. dtSearch will look in the
- directory for the index and then add it to the list of indexes
- that you can search or update.
-
- j. Index Information
-
- The Index Information option in the Index menu provides a way
- to get the following information about an index:
-
- * When it was created
- * When it was last modified or compressed
- * How much disk space it occupies
- * How many words it contains
- * How many documents it contains
-
- The Index Information screen also lists the number of "Obsolete"
- documents. When dtSearch reindexes a document that is already in
- the index, it treats the document as a new document and marks the
- old version of the document in the index as "obsolete". When you
- compress an index, obsolete documents are removed.
-
- k. Verify Index
-
- The Verify Index option in the Index menu allows you to check
- whether an index has been damaged. As dtSearch examines the
- index, it will list every word, filename, and directory name in
- the index. When dtSearch is done verifying the index, it will
- tell you two things: (1) whether the index has been damaged, and
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 29
-
-
-
- (2) if the index was damaged, whether the Rebuild Index function
- can reconstruct it.
-
- l. Rebuild Index
-
- The Rebuild Index option in the Index menu allows you to
- reconstruct a damaged index. To rebuild an index, you need to
- specify:
-
- * The name of the index to rebuild.
-
- * The new name for the index.
-
- * The directory to use for the new index.
-
- dtSearch will create a new index in the directory you specify and
- then add all of the documents that were in the old index to the
- new index. As with the Add Documents to Index function, you can
- tell dtSearch to compress the index after it is done for better
- performance.
-
- How Rebuild Works
-
- Each index has a list of the files that it contains. Rebuild
- disregards all other information in the index and simply creates
- a new index based on the list of files in the old index. Thus,
- if the list of files is intact, Rebuild will be able to
- reconstruct the index regardless of how damaged the other files
- might be. If the list of files is damaged, Rebuild will extract
- as many filenames as it can from the list.
-
- After Rebuild Index is done, the old damaged index will still
- exist. You can delete it by using the Delete Index function.
-
- m. Index Libraries
-
- An index library is a collection of up to 25 indexes.
- dtSearch uses index libraries to record the names and locations
- of the document indexes that you create. When you select indexes
- to search, or pick an index to update, compress, etc., the list
- of indexes displayed comes from the current index library.
-
- If you do not need to use more than 25 indexes, you do not
- need to worry about index libraries. (25 indexes will hold a
- total of up to 375,000 documents.) dtSearch starts out with a
- library called "IXLIB.ILB" that will hold any indexes that you
- create.
-
- If you need to use more than 25 indexes, use the Index Library
- dialog box to create additional index libraries.
-
-
-
- 30 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
- * To create a new library, give it a name (8 letters or
- numbers) and select the Create Library option in the Index
- Library dialog box. The new library will be empty. You
- can then create and add documents to the indexes that you
- want the new library to hold.
-
- * To select an existing library, enter the name of the
- library and select the Select Library option. dtSearch
- will then load the library you specified and you will have
- access to all of the indexes that it contains.
-
- If you want, you can have a single index appear in multiple
- libraries. To do this, use Recognize Index, which adds an
- existing index to the current index library.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 31
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 32 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
-
- 5. Searching for Documents
-
- a. The Search Menu
-
- Press 'S' in the main menu to get into the Search menu. The
- Search menu offers three ways to search for documents:
-
- * An index search -- searches one or more document indexes.
- * An unindexed search -- directly searches files in one or more
- directories.
- * A "combination" search -- combines both of the above types of
- searches.
-
- Other functions in the Search menu are:
-
- * Search Report -- prepare a search report (a list of all search
- hits found, in context) based on your most recent search.
-
- * Kwic View -- prepare a summary of a retrieved document,
- listing hits found with a few lines of context.
-
- * Display results of previous search -- dtSearch saves the
- results of the last 10 searches you have performed. This
- option allows you to retrieve the results of any of those
- searches.
-
- * Modify display format -- allows you to specify the information
- you want displayed in a search results window.
-
- b. Index Searches
-
- An index search is the fastest way to search for documents.
- To start an index search, select the "Search" option in the main
- menu and then select "Index Search". A dialog box will appear,
- listing two options:
-
- * Request -- enter or modify your search request.
-
- * Indexes to Search -- pick the indexes that you want dtSearch
- to search.
-
- At the bottom of the box there will be a "Search" button and a
- "Cancel" button. Select the Search button to start the search,
- or select the Cancel button to return to the main menu.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 33
-
-
-
- c. Unindexed Search
-
- In an unindexed search, dtSearch directly searches every file
- that you ask it to search, looking for documents that match your
- search request. Unindexed searches are much slower than index
- searches.
-
- To start an unindexed search, select the "Search" option in
- the main menu and then select "Unindexed Search". A dialog box
- will appear, listing three options:
-
- * Request -- enter or modify your search request.
-
- * Directories to Search -- pick the directories that you want
- dtSearch to search.
-
- * File Name Filters -- dtSearch will only search files matching
- the file name filters that you specify. (See the manual
- section, "File Name Filters")
-
- At the bottom of the box there will be a "Search" button and a
- "Cancel" button. Select the Search button to start the search,
- or select the Cancel button to return to the main menu.
-
- d. Combination Search
-
- A combination search allows you to combine an index search and
- an unindexed search in a single search request. To start a
- combination search, select the "Search" option in the main menu
- and then select "Combination Search". A dialog box will appear,
- listing the following options:
-
- * Request -- enter or modify your search request.
-
- * Indexes to Search -- pick the indexes that you want the
- program to search.
-
- * Directories to Search -- pick the directories that you want
- dtSearch to search.
-
- * File Name Filters -- dtSearch will only search files matching
- the file name filters that you specify. (See the manual
- section, "File Name Filters")
-
- At the bottom of the box there will be a "Search" button and a
- "Cancel" button. Select the Search button to start the search,
- or select the Cancel button to return to the main menu.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 34 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
- e. Indexes to Search
-
- In an Index Search or a Combination Search, use the "Indexes
- to Search" option to tell dtSearch which indexes you want to
- search.
-
- When you select "Indexes to Search", a list of all of the
- indexes that you have created will appear with check boxes ("[ ]"
- and "[X]") next to them. An "[X]" next to an index means that
- the index will be searched.
-
- * To check or clear a box, move the cursor to the index name and
- press the ENTER key.
-
- * When you are done, press F10 to save your changes to the list.
-
- * If you want to restore the list to the way it was before you
- started changing it, press the ESCAPE key.
-
- f. Displaying Search Results
-
- After a search is complete, the "Display Search Results" menu
- will appear, listing several different ways to display the
- results of your search:
- * Sorted by name, in alphabetical order
- * Sorted by numeric name, in numeric order (that is, so that
- "9.TXT" will be before "10.TXT")
- * Sorted by number of hits (descending order)
- * Unsorted -- displays documents in the order they were found
- * Do not display -- return to menu without viewing search
- results.
-
- g. Search Reports
-
- A search report lists each hit found in each document and up
- to 99 lines of context surrounding it. To create a search
- report,
-
- * Perform the search that you want the report to be based on.
- * Select the way you want the search results sorted from the
- Display Search Results menu. The documents retrieved by
- your search will appear, sorted as you requested.
- * Press F10 to get into the main menu.
- * Press 'S' to get into the Search menu.
- * Select the "Search Report" option in the Search Menu.
- * In the Search Report dialog box, select the number of lines
- of context you want surrounding each hit, and then select
- the "Report" button.
-
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 35
-
-
-
- Preparing a search report may take a while since dtSearch has
- to scan every document retrieved to get the text to display.
-
- When you are viewing a search report, you can see all of a
- document by moving the cursor to the name of the document and
- pressing ENTER. The F4 ("Find Link") key will move the cursor to
- the next document name. The F3 ("Find Hit") key will move the
- cursor to the next hit in each document.
-
- h. Kwic View
-
- The "Kwic" function will display only the part of a document
- that contains terms matching your search request. When you are
- viewing search results, move the cursor to the name of the
- document that you want to see and press the F8 key. dtSearch
- will ask how many lines of context you want. This is the number
- of lines surrounding each hit that you want to see. Enter the
- number of lines that you want and press ENTER.
-
- A file displayed in Kwic mode contains highlighted line and
- page markers to show where in the document the text appeared.
- These highlighted markers also act as hypertext links to the full
- text of the document. For example, suppose that you are viewing
- a document in Kwic mode and see a block of text with a marker
- "[Page 10 Line 15]". If you move the cursor to the marker and
- press ENTER, dtSearch will display the full text of the document,
- positioned to line 15 of page 10.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 36 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
-
- 6. Search Requests
-
- a. Overview
-
- A search request consists of a group of words, phrases, or
- macros linked by connectors such as "AND" and "OR" that indicate
- the relationship between them.
-
- If you use more than one connector, you should use parenthesis
- to indicate precisely what you want to search for. For example,
-
- apple and pear or orange
-
- could mean "(apple and pear) or orange", or it could mean "apple
- and (pear or orange)".
-
- dtSearch supports the following connectors:
-
- AND Both words must be present
- OR Either word can be present
- W/n First word must occur within n words of the second.
- NOT What follows the NOT must not be present.
-
- Additionally, the CONTAINS and TO connectors are used for segment
- searches.
-
- b. Search Terms
-
- A search term is simply one of the words in your search
- request. Some words, such as "if" and "the", are defined as
- "noise words" because they are so common. Noise words cannot be
- used as search terms.
-
- Connectors, such as "AND" and "OR", also cannot be used as
- search terms.
-
- A search term can contain the "wildcard" characters "*" and
- "?". A "?" in a word matches any single character, and a "*"
- matches any number of characters. The wildcard characters can be
- in any position in a word. For example:
-
- appl* would match apple, application, etc.
- *cipl* would match principle, participle, etc.
-
- Use of the "*" wildcard character near the beginning of a word
- will slow searches somewhat.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 37
-
-
-
- To handle plurals, an "s" at the end of a word is always
- ignored. Thus, a search for "cats" would find both "cat" and
- "cats".
-
- Punctuation inside of a search word is treated as a space.
- Thus, "can't" would be treated as "can t" (two words) and
- "1843(a)(2)(ii)" would become "1843 a 2 ii" (four words).
-
- dtSearch uses two built in search words to mark the beginning
- and end of a file -- XFIRSTWORD and XLASTWORD. The terms are
- useful if you want to limit a search to the beginning or end of a
- file. For example, "apple w/10 XLASTWORD" would search for the
- word "apple" within 10 words of the end of a document.
-
-
- c. Phrase Searches
-
- A search term can consist of several words, such as "first
- class mail". A search for this phrase would retrieve only files
- containing the words "first," "class," and "mail" in exactly the
- order specified.
-
- If a phrase contains a noise word, then you cannot search for
- it as a phrase, since the noise word will not be found. For
- example, you could not search for the phrase "statue of liberty",
- since the noise word "of" will not be in the index. Instead, use
- the W/N connector to search for "statue w/2 liberty".
-
- d. Noise Words
-
- A "noise" word is a word, such as the or if, that is so common
- that it is not useful in searches. To save space and time, such
- words are ignored in index searches. You can modify the list of
- words defined as noise words by editing the file "NOISE.DAT".
- You can use the Notepad Editor in dtSearch to edit NOISE.DAT, or
- you can use your word processor. If you use your word processor,
- make sure that you save the file as a DOS text file so that
- dtSearch can read it.
-
- The words in NOISE.DAT do not have to be an any particular
- order, and can include "wild card" characters such as * and ?.
- However, noise words may not begin with wild card characters.
-
- Each index has its own copy of NOISE.DAT (called INDEX_N.IX).
- Changes you make to NOISE.DAT will be reflected in future indexes
- you create but not in existing indexes. If you change the
- INDEX_N.IX file for an index, the modified list will control any
- updates to the index but will not affect information already in
- the index.
-
-
-
-
- 38 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
- e. Search Macros
-
- A macro is a way to abbreviate a search request that you use
- frequently. A macro has two parts: a name, which is what you
- type into the "Search Request" box, and the expansion, which is
- what the macro is expanded to. For example, if you defined the
- macro "@IRC" to mean "internal revenue code", and then searched
- for "standard deduction w/3 @IRC", dtSearch would search for
- "standard deduction w/3 internal revenue code".
-
- A macro name must begin with the "at" sign ("@") -- this is
- how dtSearch distinguishes macro names from ordinary words in a
- search request.
-
- A macro may contain anything that may be put in a search
- request. To create or edit a macro, use the Edit Macros option
- in the Options menu.
-
- Macros can be useful for:
- * Abbreviating long names or phrases that you use frequently
- * Abbreviating segment definitions in segment searches
-
-
- f. AND connector
-
- Use the AND connector in a search request to connect two
- expressions, both of which must be found in any document
- retrieved. For example:
-
- * "apple and pear" would retrieve any document that contained
- both words.
- * "(apple or banana) and (pear w/5 grape)" would retrieve any
- document that (1) contained either the word apple or the
- word banana, and (2) contained the word pear within 5 words
- of the word grape.
-
- g. OR connector
-
- Use the OR connector in a search request to connect two
- expressions, at least one of which must be found in any document
- retrieved. For example, "apple or pear" would retrieve any
- document that contained apple, pear, or both words.
-
- h. W/N connector
-
- Use the w/N connector in a search request to specify that one
- word or phrase must occur within N words of the other. For
- example, "apple w/5 pear" would retrieve any document that
- contained the word apple within 5 words of pear.
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 39
-
-
-
- The following are some examples of search requests using the
- w/N connector:
-
- * (apple or pear) w/5 banana: either apple or pear must occur
- within 5 words of "banana".
-
- * (apple w/5 banana) w/10 pear: apple must occur within 5 words
- of banana, and pear must occur within 10 words of both.
-
- * (apple and banana) w/10 pear: both apple and banana must
- occur within 10 words of pear.
-
- Some types of complex expressions using the w/N connector will
- produce ambiguous results and should not be used. In general, at
- least one of the two expressions connected by w/N must be a
- single word or phrase or a group of words and phrases connected
- by the "OR" connector. For example:
-
- * (apple and banana) w/10 (pear or grape): both apple and
- banana must occur within 10 words of either pear or grape.
-
- * (apple and banana) w/10 orange tree: both apple and banana
- must occur within 10 words of the phrase "orange tree."
-
- The following are examples of ambiguous search requests:
-
- * (apple and banana) w/10 (pear and grape): ambiguous
-
- * (apple w/10 banana) w/10 (pear and grape): ambiguous
-
- i. Segment Searches
-
- A segment search is a search request that must be satisfied
- within a certain defined segment of a document. The segment is
- defined by words or phrases at the beginning and end of the
- segment.
-
- The form of a segment definition is: beginning TO end, where
- beginning is the word or phrase that defines the start of the
- segment, and end is the word or phrase that defines the end of
- the segment. The only connector allowed in the beginning and end
- expressions in a segment definition is OR. Examples:
-
- * name to address: the segment begins with "name" and ends with
- "address."
- * name to (address or xlastword): the segment begins with "name"
- and ends with "address" or the end of the file.
-
- To search for an expression within a segment, use the CONTAINS
- connector. The expression in front of CONTAINS is the segment
-
-
-
- 40 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
- definition, and the expression following CONTAINS is what you are
- searching for. Examples:
-
- * (name to address) contains john smith
-
- * (address to phone) contains (oak w/10 lane)
-
- Segment searches work well with documents that are broken into
- standardized segments. For example, a group of employee records
- might be in a standardized documents formatted like this:
-
- NAME: John Doe
- ADDRESS: 123 Oak Lane
- PHONE NUMBER: 555-1234
- SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER 000-00-000
- etc.
-
- You can name segments using macros. In the above example, you
- could use the following macros:
-
- @NAME: (name to address)
- @ADDRESS: (address to phone number)
- @PHONE: (phone number to social security number)
-
- Then you could do a segment search like this:
- (@NAME contains John Doe) and (@ADDRESS contains Oak)
-
- If a document contains more than one instance of a segment,
- dtSearch will search each instance separately for text matching
- the search request.
-
- j. Date and Filename Searches
-
- To search for a file with a specific name, include in your
- search request the following:
-
- XNAME "FILENAME.EXT"
-
- The name, like other search terms, can include wildcard
- characters, so, for example, you could search for "*.TXT,"
- "SMITH??.*," etc. Unlike other search terms, a filename must be
- in quotation marks. This enables dtSearch to recognize special
- characters in the filename (such as the dot) that are not allowed
- in other search words. The filename cannot include a directory
- name or disk drive.
-
- To search for a file that was last modified on, before, or
- after a certain date, use the XDATE search command, like this:
-
- XDATE IS January 1, 1991
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 41
-
-
-
- XDATE BEFORE January 1, 1991
- XDATE AFTER January 1, 1991
-
- dtSearch can recognize a variety of date formats, such as:
- 1/1/91; 1/91; January 1, 1991; and Jan 1 91 (two-digit years are
- assumed to be in the twentieth century).
-
- You can combine name and date searches with other types of
- searches using the usual search connectors. For example:
-
- (XNAME "*.DOC") and (XDATE AFTER 1/1/91) and (apple w/5 pear)
-
- This would retrieve documents whose names end in .DOC, that were
- last modified after January 1, 1991, and that contain the word
- apple within 5 words of the word pear.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 42 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
-
- 7. The File Menu
-
- a. The File Menu
-
- Press 'F' in the main menu to get into the File menu. The File
- menu lists options to
- * view documents,
- * view a directory,
- * edit a notepad file,
- * save the contents of a window,
- * print the contents of a window,
- * create a DOS Shell, or
- * exit dtSearch.
-
- b. Viewing a File
-
- To view a file, enter the name of the file to view and select
- the "View" button. The document will appear in a window. Use
- the cursor keys, Page Up, Page Down, etc., to browse in a
- document once it is displayed.
-
- c. Viewing a Directory
-
- To view a directory, use the "View Directory" dialog box:
-
- (1) Select the directory you want to see using the "Directory
- to View" option. This option allows you to pick the directory
- you want from a tree diagram of all of the directories on the
- current disk drive.
-
- (2) Specify the file name filter (such as *.*, *.DOC, etc.)
- you want dtSearch to use when it lists the files.
-
- (3) Select the "List Files" button.
-
- A list of the files matching the filter will appear in a window.
- This window works in the same way that the "Search Results"
- window works. You can:
-
- * scroll the list up and down using the cursor keys;
- * view any file or directory in the list by moving the cursor
- to it and pressing enter; and
- * cut and paste from the list to the notepad.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 43
-
-
-
- d. The Notepad Editor
-
- The Notepad Editor allows you to cut, paste, and edit
- information collected from any document window, including a
- search results window or a search report window.
-
- Editing a Notepad
-
- A notepad file is a standard DOS text file. To edit a notepad
- file, select "Edit Notepad" from the File Menu. The Edit Notepad
- dialog box will appear. Enter the name of the notepad that you
- want to edit and select the "Edit" button. The notepad file will
- appear, displayed in a document window.
-
- The Notepad Editor provides limited editing capabilities,
- intended mainly for jotting down notes to accompany text clipped
- from documents. In the notepad editor, you can move the cursor
- around using all of the functions available in a document window.
- You can also type new text into the window. The status line will
- display "Ins" or "Typ" to indicate whether you are in insert or
- typeover mode. The INS key switches between insert and typeover
- mode. The DEL key deletes a single character.
-
- When you are done editing a notepad, use the "Save Window"
- option in the File menu to save it.
-
- Cutting and Pasting
-
- You can move or copy text between document windows using the
- cut and paste feature. You can also use the cut and paste
- feature to move text within a notepad file.
-
- Copying text: To copy text, start with the cursor at the
- beginning of the text you want to copy. Press the
- F5 ("Mark") key to mark your place in the
- document. Then move the cursor to the end of the
- text you want to copy and press F5 again.
- dtSearch will store the text you marked.
-
- Pasting text: To retrieve the text you marked, you need to be in
- the Notepad Editor. If a notepad window is
- already open, you can move to it with the F7
- ("Switch Window") key or the TAB key. If not,
- select "Edit Notepad" from the File Menu to open a
- notepad window.
-
- Move the cursor to the place in the notepad where
- you want the text to appear and press F6 ("Paste")
- to retrieve the text.
-
-
-
-
- 44 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
- Cutting text: Like "Paste," "Cut" only works in a notepad
- window, since it modifies the contents of the
- window. To cut text from a document, start with
- the cursor at the beginning of the text you want
- to copy. Press the F5 ("Mark") key to mark your
- place in the document. Then move the cursor to
- the end of the text you want to copy and press
- DEL. dtSearch will delete the text that you
- marked. You can then "paste" the text into a
- notepad using the F6 key.
-
- e. Saving a Window
-
- The "Save Window" option in the File menu will create a DOS
- text file containing a copy of the text displayed in any document
- window. It is useful in two situations:
-
- * After you are done editing a notepad file, use Save Window to
- save your changes.
-
- * You can use Save Window to save a copy of a document retrieved
- in a search, a list of documents retrieved in a search, or a
- search report.
-
- The Save Window dialog box contains two options and three
- buttons.
-
- The options are: (1) the name of the file to write, and (2)
- whether you want dtSearch to make a backup copy of the file. If
- you have set the automatic backup option to "Yes", dtSearch will
- preserve the previous version of the file you are saving in a
- file with the extension ".BAK".
-
- The buttons are:
- Save Save file
- Exit Save file AND exit the window
- Cancel Return to menu without saving
-
- NOTES:
- 1. Save Window does NOT preserve special formatting codes.
- If the document you are viewing contains any special formatting
- codes, Save Window will not copy these to the file. For example,
- suppose that you did a search of WordPerfect files and retrieved
- a document, "LETTER.TXT", and then, while viewing the document,
- saved it under the name "COPY.TXT". The file COPY.TXT would not
- be a WordPerfect file. COPY.TXT would be a DOS text file
- containing the text of LETTER.TXT.
-
- 2. Protected file types.
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 45
-
-
-
- To make sure that you do not accidentally destroy your original
- documents with the Save Window feature, Save Window will NOT
- overwrite files that it recognizes as having special formats.
- For example, if you were viewing the WordPerfect file LETTER.TXT
- and tried to use Save Window with the name "LETTER.TXT", dtSearch
- would check the existing file LETTER.TXT, discover that it is a
- WordPerfect file, and display the message, "Cannot write over
- protected file." dtSearch will NOT destroy the existing
- WordPerfect file LETTER.TXT.
-
- f. Printing a Window
-
- The "Print Window" option in the File Menu will send the
- contents of the current document window to the printer. You can
- use Print Window to print documents, search results, and search
- reports.
-
- When you select Print Window, the Print Window dialog box will
- appear. The Print Window dialog box allows you to set page
- length, width, and margins, and to select the printer you want to
- use, if you have more than one.
-
- To begin printing, select the "Print" button in the Print
- Window dialog box. A "Preparing print job" message will appear
- while dtSearch stores the contents of the document window for
- printing.
-
- To allow you to continue working while a document is printing,
- dtSearch uses a "print queue". When you ask for a document to be
- printed, that document is added to the print queue. When
- dtSearch is not busy performing a search or building an index, it
- checks the print queue for documents that need to be printed, and
- prints them. Thus, you can view documents and perform searches
- while dtSearch prints documents in its spare time.
-
- If you want to cancel a print job or monitor the progress of
- documents that are printing, use the "Display Print Queue" option
- in the Options Menu.
-
- g. DOS Shell
-
- The "DOS Shell" option in the File Menu allows you to access
- DOS from within dtSearch. When you start a DOS shell, dtSearch
- removes itself from memory to leave room for any programs you may
- want to run from DOS. The dtSearch screen will disappear and a
- DOS prompt will appear.
-
- To return to dtSearch from a DOS shell, type "EXIT" at the DOS
- prompt and press ENTER. The dtSearch screen will reappear, as it
- was before you entered the DOS shell.
-
-
-
- 46 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 47
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 48 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
-
- 8. Window Functions
-
-
- a. The Window Menu
-
- Press 'W' in the main menu to get into the Window menu. You can
- only get into the Window menu if you have a document window on
- the screen. All of the functions in the Window menu are
- accessible by using the function keys. The Window menu lists
- options to:
- * find text or search terms
- * cut and paste text using the notepad
- * resize or close a window displaying a document
-
- b. Find Text in Document
-
- Select the Find Text option in the View menu (or press the F2
- key) to search for any text in a displayed document. dtSearch
- will ask you for the text to search for. Type in the text you
- want to find and press the ENTER key. (Capitalization is
- ignored.)
-
- Since the program will only search for the text after the
- current cursor position in the document, you may wish to move to
- the top of the document before beginning a search.
-
- c. Find Search Term in Document
-
- Select the Find Term option in the Window menu (or press the
- F3 key) to search for words from your most recent search request
- in the document that you are currently viewing. For example, if
- you had searched for "apple and (pear w/5 banana)", pressing the
- F3 key while viewing a document would cause dtSearch to locate
- the next occurrence of one of the words "apple", "pear", or
- "banana" in the document you are viewing.
-
- Find Term will only find words that match a search request.
- In the above example, Find Term would only find instances of
- "pear" within five words of "banana".
-
- d. Moving and Resizing Windows
-
- When you are viewing multiple documents on the screen, the
- documents will overlap. You can use the Move/Resize Window
- function to arrange the windows in a way that is convenient to
- view them.
-
- To move or resize a window, press the F9 key in the window.
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 49
-
-
-
- To move and resize a window, press the F9 key while you are in
- the window. A message at the bottom of the screen will indicate
- that you are in move/resize mode.
-
- * To move the window, use the cursor keys.
-
- * To change the size of the window, hold down the SHIFT key and
- use the cursor keys.
-
- * To "zoom" a window to the largest possible size, press F9
- again.
-
- * When you are done, press the F10 key to save your changes.
-
- * If you want to restore the window to the way it was before you
- started moving it, press the ESCAPE key.
-
- You may find that some windows cannot be expanded beyond a
- certain number of lines, even though there is still space on the
- screen for the window. This occurs when the file that the window
- is displaying is too small to fill the screen.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 50 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
-
- 9. The Applications Menu
-
- The Applications Menu provides a way to run application
- programs, such as word processors, from within dtSearch. This is
- frequently referred to as "launching" programs. When you launch
- a program, dtSearch removes all but 12k of itself from memory and
- starts the program you launched. When the program finishes, you
- will return to dtSearch and be able to resume working exactly
- where you left off. This is useful, for example, if you want to
- use WordPerfect to edit a WordPerfect document that you retrieved
- in a search.
-
- To set up an application so that you can run it from within
- dtSearch, select the "Add Application" option in the Applications
- Menu. The "Add Application" dialog box will appear, listing the
- following options:
-
- * Name of the application -- After you have added an
- application, it will appear in the Applications Menu as a menu
- option. The "name" of the application is what will appear in
- the Applications Menu. If you want one of the letters in the
- name to be highlighted, put a "^" (shift-6) character in front
- of the letter you want highlighted. For example, if you
- entered the name "Disk ^Backup" for a backup program, the "B"
- would be highlighted in the Applications menu and you could
- select the Disk Backup program by pressing "B" in the
- Applications Menu.
-
- * Execute file -- This is the name, including the disk drive and
- directory, of the program to be executed. For example, if you
- had WordPerfect in a directory called "WP51" on your C: drive,
- you would enter
-
- C:\WP51\WP.EXE
-
- * Directory to use -- This is the directory that you want to be
- in when running the program. In the example above, you would
- probably want to run WordPerfect from its own "home"
- directory, C:\WP51.
-
- * Filename patterns -- This option allows you to tell dtSearch
- which files belong with an application. You can list several
- filename patterns, separated by spaces. Filename patterns
- can, like DOS filenames, include the wildcard characters "?"
- and "*". Unlike file name filters, filename patterns can
- include directory names and disk drive information, and can
- have wildcard characters in any position.
-
- Examples:
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 51
-
-
-
- C:\WP51\* would match any file in the WP51 directory,
- including any file in a subdirectory of the C:\WP51 directory.
- ?:\WP*\* would match any file on any drive in a directory that
- began with WP.
- *XYZ* would match any file on any drive in any directory if
- the filename or directory name contained XYZ.
-
- * Command-line options -- Some programs have command line
- options, such as "/x" or "-l", that affect the way the program
- runs. List any options you want to use for the application
- here.
-
- * File format -- If the program being launched is a word
- processor, this option allows you to tell dtSearch what the
- file format is for the word processor. Although dtSearch can
- automatically detect many file formats, some formats cannot be
- detected with certainty, such as early versions of WordStar.
- If you specify a file format for an application, dtSearch will
- know that all files belonging to the application have this
- format.
-
- After you have set up the application, select the "Store"
- button in the dialog box to save the application. You can later
- modify the setup using the "Modify Application" option in the
- Applications Menu. The "Remove Application" option will delete
- an application from the menu.
-
- Once you have told dtSearch about an application, you can
- launch it in three ways.
-
- * First, you can simply select the application from the
- Applications Menu.
-
- * Second, you can press F8 ("Launch") while you are viewing a
- document. dtSearch will use the filename patterns that you
- supplied to determine which application should be launched,
- and will run the appropriate program with the document you are
- viewing. For example, if you are viewing "C:\WP51\SAMPLE.TXT"
- and you specified "*WP51\*" as a filename pattern for
- WordPerfect, dtSearch would see that SAMPLE.TXT must be a
- WordPerfect file and, after you press F8, would start
- WordPerfect editing SAMPLE.TXT.
-
- * Third, you can press CTRL-ENTER while the cursor is on the
- name of the file in a search results window. As with the F8
- key, dtSearch will determine which application belongs with
- the file and will run the application.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 52 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
-
- 10. Options
-
- a. The Options Menu
-
- The Options menu allows you to:
- * Select the type of monitor you have.
- * Change screen colors.
- * Edit macros.
- * Change the tab setting.
- * Change the keyboard speed.
- * Display the print queue.
- * Save your setup to a file.
- * Read a setup from a file.
-
- b. Monitor Type
-
- dtSearch keeps a separate table of screen colors for each of
- four monitor types: Color, Monochrome, VGA Laptop, and CGA
- Laptop. Each monitor type has a set of default colors that you
- can change. Use the Select Monitor option in the Options menu to
- select the monitor type that you want to use. You will see a
- list of the four monitor types and a fifth option, "Automatic".
- If you select the Automatic option, dtSearch will decide between
- the "Color" and "Monochrome" options each time it is run.
-
- c. Screen Colors
-
- Use the Modify Screen Colors option in the Options menu to
- change the way dtSearch displays documents and menus. When you
- select the Modify Screen Colors option, a list of the different
- screen objects, such as menus and viewed documents, will appear.
- To change an attribute, move the cursor to it and press ENTER.
-
- If you are using a monochrome monitor, a list of possible
- combinations will appear (e.g., black on white, white on black,
- underlined, etc.). Move the cursor to the one you want and press
- ENTER.
-
- If you are using a color monitor or an LCD monitor, a box will
- appear displaying all possible color combinations. Use the
- cursor keys to select the combination you want, and press F10
- when done.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 53
-
-
-
- d. Creating and Editing Macros
-
- Use the Edit Macros function in the Options menu to create or
- edit a macro. In the macro editor, type macro names under the
- "Name" heading and macro expansions under the "Expansion" box.
- Use the TAB and SHIFT-TAB keys to move between the "Name" and
- "Expansion columns", and the UP and DOWN arrow keys to move up or
- down in the macro table.
-
- When you are done editing, press F10 to save your changes. If
- you want to exit without saving your changes, press ESCAPE.
-
- e. Displaying the Print Queue
-
- Use the Display Print Queue option in the Options menu to
- monitor the progress of documents that are printing or to cancel
- a print job. To cancel a print job, move the cursor to it and
- press the DEL key. dtSearch will ask you to confirm that you
- really want to cancel the print job.
-
- f. Setup Files
-
- dtSearch remembers the macros you have created and other
- preferences you have specified (screen colors, tab size, etc.) in
- a "setup" file. dtSearch automatically reads this file when it
- starts running, and automatically saves it when you leave
- dtSearch. The default name of the file saved is "DTSEARCH.SET".
-
- You can create additional setup files using the Save Setup
- option in the Options menu. When you select Save Setup, a dialog
- box will appear allowing you to supply the name of the setup file
- to save. You can change the name "DTSEARCH.SET" to any other
- name you want to use. You can then read these setup files using
- the "Read Setup" option in the Options menu, and supplying the
- new name you used.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 54 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
-
- 11. Using dtSearch on a Network
-
- dtSearch can use network drives and supports multiuser access
- to indexes stored on networks. If an index is stored on a
- network drive, any user who has write access to the directory
- containing the index will be able to update the index in
- dtSearch. Any user who has read access to the index will be able
- to search the index or perform other functions (such as Verify
- Index and Copy Index) that do not require write access.
-
- Multiuser access is permitted only when no one is modifying an
- index. If one user is updating or compressing an index, other
- users will be locked out. A message "User XXXX is updating
- index." will appear when a user attempts to gain access to an
- index that is being updated. (The name of the user comes from
- the "User name" option in the Options menu.)
-
- If the second user is also trying to update the index,
- dtSearch will ask if the user wants to "Continue anyway?". If
- the user answers "yes", dtSearch will attempt to access the index
- even though it thinks someone is updating the index. This option
- is useful because occasionally an indexing job will be
- interrupted abnormally (such as when someone turns off the
- computer) leaving the index "locked". "Continue anyway" only
- appears when a user attempts to update an index. "Continue
- anyway" will NOT override the network's read and write permission
- settings. It only tells dtSearch to ignore its own internal
- "index in use" flag and try to access the index. If the user
- does not have write access to the index, he or she will still be
- locked out.
-
- Write access to shared indexes should be limited as much as
- possible, preferably to one or two users. This will minimize
- locking out of other users while the index is being updated and
- will also protect the shared indexes against accidental erasure.
- Write and read access to shared indexes is controlled completely
- by the network's access permission settings.
-
- Each user on a network who will be using dtSearch needs to
- have his or her own copy of the program. This is because
- dtSearch uses an overlay manager that does not permit shared
- access to the program. The program can be stored on a network
- drive; it just cannot be shared.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 55
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 56 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
-
- 12. Program Limits and Requirements
-
- 1. Program limits: Indexes
- * A single index may contain up to 15,000 documents
- * A single document may contain up to 60,000 words
- (about 300 double-spaced pages)
- * You can have up to 25 indexes in each index library, and
- you can have an unlimited number of index libraries.
- * You can have up to 25 macro definitions.
- * A noise word list can hold up to 200 words. Words after
- the 200th word in a list will be disregarded.
- * There is no limit on the number of words in an index or on
- the number of words starting with a particular letter.
- 2. Program limits: Searches
- * A single search request may involve up to 100 words,
- including wildcard matches.
- For example, if an index contained 75 words beginning with
- 's' and 75 words beginning with 't', then you could not
- search for "s* or t*"
- * A search word can be up to 32 letters long.
- * A search request can be up to 180 characters long.
- 3. Hardware requirements:
- * dtSearch will run on an IBM-compatible computer with at
- least 384k of memory available, a hard disk, and DOS
- version 3.2 or higher.
- * dtSearch can use network drives and supports multiuser
- access to indexes stored on network drives.
- 4. Document Types
- dtSearch can read, search, and index documents in the
- following formats:
- * ASCII Text
- * Microsoft Word through version 5.5
- * Microsoft Word for Windows
- * Microsoft Rich Text Format
- * Multimate Advantage II
- * Multimate version 4
- * WordPerfect 5.0 and 5.1
- * WordStar through version 6
- * WordStar 2000
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 57
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 58 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
-
- 13. Error Messages
-
- "Application table is full"
-
- You can add up to 15 applications to the Applications menu.
- If you attempt to add more, this message will appear. (You
- can remove applications that you no longer need from the table
- using the Remove Application option in the Applications menu.)
-
- "Cannot copy an index onto itself"
-
- You have asked dtSearch to copy an index, and either (1) the
- directory to copy it to is the same as the directory the index
- currently occupies, or (2) the name of the index to copy is
- the same as the new name for the copied index. When you copy
- an index, the name and directory for the new index must be
- different from the name and directory of the existing index.
-
- "Cannot write over protected file type"
-
- The Save Window option in the File menu creates a DOS text
- file containing the contents of the current document window.
- To protect against accidental destruction of original
- documents, dtSearch considers all files with special
- formatting codes that it recognizes (such as WordPerfect
- files) to be "protected". dtSearch will not overwrite such
- files.
-
- "Cannot write ".BAK" files."
-
- dtSearch uses the extension ".BAK" to make backup copies of
- files. Therefore, a file cannot be saved with a name that
- ends in ".BAK".
-
- "Directory xxx already contains index yyy."
-
- A directory can only hold one index. If you try to use Create
- Index to create a second index using the same directory name,
- this message will appear.
-
- "Error launching program."
-
- dtSearch tried to execute a program and the program returned
- an error code. This means that something when wrong in the
- launched program.
-
- "Error(s) in search request -- CONTAINS without a TO"
-
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 59
-
-
-
- A segment search has the form beginning TO end CONTAINS
- contents. The beginning TO end part defines where dtSearch
- should search, and the contents part is what dtSearch should
- look for. If you leave out the "TO" part, dtSearch has no way
- to know what the segment to be searched is.
-
- "Error(s) in search request -- Illegal use of the TO connector"
-
- The TO connector is used to define a segment for a segment
- search. The format is for a segment definition is beginning
- TO end, where beginning marks the beginning of the segment and
- end marks the end. Both parts of the segment definition may
- consist only of words, phrases, and the OR connector -- other
- connectors are not permitted in segment definitions. Thus,
- "apple or pear to grape or fish" is legal; "apple and pear to
- grape or fish" is not.
-
- "Error(s) in search request -- Illegal use of W/N connector"
-
- Some search requests using the W/N connector are ambiguous or
- impossible to evaluate. See the manual section on the W/N
- connector for more details.
-
- "Error(s) in search request -- Invalid date"
-
- dtSearch will display this message if it finds XDATE in a
- search request without a valid date after it. Likely causes
- of this error are a misspelled month, a missing year, or a
- missing BEFORE, AFTER, or IS connector. A valid date search
- looks like one of the the following:
- XDATE IS date
- XDATE BEFORE date
- XDATE AFTER date
-
- "Error(s) in search request -- Missing words"
-
- This message appears when you have left one or more words out
- of a search request. Example: "apple and pear and"
-
- "Error(s) in search request -- Parenthesis do not balance"
-
- This just means that you have probably left out an opening
- or closing parenthesis in a search request.
-
- "Index already exists"
-
- If you try to create an index that already exists in a
- different directory, this message will appear. If you are
- trying to create a new index, try using a different name for
- the new index, or (if you don't want the old one) deleting the
-
-
-
- 60 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
- old index. If you are trying to re-create an existing index,
- make sure the directory you have selected is the same one that
- you used to create the original index.
-
- "Index is full"
-
- An index can hold up to 15,000 documents. If you try to add
- more than 15,000 documents to an index, you will get this
- message. (You can still reindex documents already in the
- index.)
-
- Even if you have less than 15,000 documents, you may still get
- this message if you have reindexed some documents without
- compressing the index. When you reindex a document, dtSearch
- adds information about the new document to the index but does
- not remove information about the earlier version. For
- example, if you have 10,000 documents in an index and you
- reindex them several times without compressing the index, you
- will get an "Index is full" message because the index will
- still contain information about obsolete versions of the
- documents. If you want to see how many obsolete documents are
- stored in an index, use the "Index Information" option in the
- Index menu. Use Compress to clean obsolete documents from
- your index.
-
- "Index library is full"
-
- An index library can hold a maximum of 25 indexes. If you try
- to create, copy, or recognize an index when you have reached
- this limit, you will get this error. Try either deleting any
- indexes that you do not need, or creating a new index library
- to use for the new index.
-
- "Index too large to fit on drive"
-
- You have asked dtSearch to copy an index and there is not
- enough space for the index on the drive where it is to be
- copied.
-
- "Invalid disk drive"
-
- This means that you have asked dtSearch to access a disk drive
- that does not exist on your computer.
-
- "Macro is circular"
-
- A circular macro is one that references itself, directly or
- through other macros. Such a macro would expand infinitely if
- used in a search request.
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 61
-
-
-
- "Macro not found"
-
- dtSearch assumes that any search term beginning with the "@"
- character is a macro name. If it does not find a macro with
- this name, this message appears.
-
- "Missing file"
-
- One of the files that dtSearch needs is missing. Try re-
- installing dtSearch to restore the missing file.
-
- "No application found for this file"
-
- You have tried to "launch" an application with a file, and
- dtSearch was unable to match the file with an application.
- When you launch an application with a file, dtSearch checks
- the filename patterns that you specified for each of the
- applications in the Applications menu and tries to find a
- pattern that matches the file. If this message appears, use
- the Modify Application function in the Applications menu to
- change the filename pattern for the application you wanted to
- launch. See the manual section on the Applications menu for
- more information.
-
- "No index selected"
-
- You have asked dtSearch to perform an action, such as
- deleting, renaming, updating, or copying an index, and have
- not selected the index you want to delete, rename, update, or
- copy.
-
- "No more search terms"
-
- You have pressed the Find Search Term (F3) key and there are
- no more search terms in the document.
-
- "No search terms"
-
- You have pressed the Find Search Term (F3) key in a document
- that does not contain any search terms.
-
- "No search results found"
-
- You have selected the "Display results of previous search"
- option in the Search menu, and dtSearch did not find any
- search results to display.
-
- "No files retrieved"
-
- Your search did not retrieve any documents.
-
-
-
- 62 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
- "Not enough memory"
-
- dtSearch did not have enough memory to perform a requested
- action. If you have a relatively small amount of memory
- available, you may get this message when you try to do a
- search or update an index while you are viewing documents or
- search results on the screen. Try closing all document
- windows, which should free enough memory to perform the
- requested action. Also, try removing some memory-resident
- programs to free more memory for dtSearch to use. dtSearch
- needs at least 384k of free memory.
-
- "Not enough space to compress or update index"
-
- dtSearch did not find enough disk space available to update or
- compress an index. dtSearch requires free space of about one-
- third the size of a group of files to index those files. To
- compress an index, dtSearch requires free space at least equal
- to the size of the index to be compressed. If you get this
- message, try removing some files from the disk or moving the
- index to a disk drive with more space available. Also, try
- indexing smaller groups of files.
-
- "Not found"
-
- You have used the Find Text (F2) key to search for text in a
- document, and the text was not found.
-
- "Printer error"
- "Printer out of paper"
- "Printer not responding"
- "Printer not selected"
- "Printer timeout"
-
- The printer did not respond correctly when dtSearch tried to
- print something. Check the cables and make sure the printer
- is turned on, selected, has paper in it, and is not jammed.
- dtSearch reports the problem that DOS told it about, but
- sometimes either the printer or DOS does not report the
- problem correctly. For example, you may get a "Printer out of
- paper" error when the printer is not turned on.
-
- "Printer queue full -- try again later"
-
- dtSearch stores print requests in a queue and prints when it
- has nothing else to do. If you make a large number of print
- requests, dtSearch will run out of space to hold them and
- display this message. Use the Display Print Queue option in
- the Options menu to see what is in the print queue.
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 63
-
-
-
- "Printer queue is empty"
-
- There is nothing in the print queue to display.
-
- "Search request is too long"
-
- It is possible, using macros, to generate search requests
- longer than the 180-character maximum. When this happens, you
- will get a "Search request is too long" error.
-
- "Too many words retrieved in index"
-
- Your search request contained extremely broad search terms,
- such as "(r* w/5 s*) and t*", that matched several hundred
- words in an index. Try using more specific search terms.
-
- "Too many windows open"
-
- You can have up to five document windows (including search
- results and search reports) open at a time. If you try to
- open a sixth document window, this message will appear.
-
- "Unable to access drive"
-
- You have asked dtSearch to access a disk drive and there is
- some problem with the disk drive. Make sure that there is a
- disk in the drive, that the disk is correctly inserted, and
- that the drive latch is closed. If you get this message with
- a hard disk, you may have a problem with your hard disk.
-
- "Unable to access executable file"
-
- dtSearch was unable to access a file that you specified as the
- file to execute for an application. Select "Modify
- Application" in the Applications menu to correct the name of
- the file to be executed.
-
- "Unable to access directory"
- "Unable to access input file"
- "Unable to read notepad file"
- "Unable to read index library"
-
- dtSearch cannot find the file or directory you specified.
- Check that the file or directory name is correct and that
- you are using the right disk or disk drive.
-
- "Unable to create backup file"
- "Unable to create directory"
- "Unable to write file"
- "Unable to write notepad file"
-
-
-
- 64 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
- "Unable to open temporary file"
- "Unable to save index library"
- "Unable to create index library"
-
- dtSearch cannot create the file or directory you specified.
- Check that the file or directory name is correct and that you
- are using the right disk or disk drive. These messages may
- also appear when a disk is full.
-
- "Unable to access index"
-
- dtSearch was unable to find the index where it was supposed to
- be. The most likely cause for this message is that part or
- all of the index was accidentally deleted.
-
- "User XXXX is updating index"
-
- This message appears in two situations: (1) On a network,
- this message will appear when one user attempts to use an
- index while another user is updating it. (2) The message will
- also appear if dtSearch was interrupted abnormally while
- updating an index (e.g., if someone turned off the computer).
- In the latter case, the index may be damaged. Try running
- Verify Index to check for errors.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 65
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 66 dtSearch User's Manual
-
-
-
-
- 14. Index
-
-
- Adding Documents to an Selecting Indexes to
- Index . . . . . . . . 26 Search . . . . . . . 35
- AND Connector . . . . . . . 39 Verify Index . . . . . . 29
- Applications Menu . . . . . 51 Launching Applications . . 51
- Association of Shareware License . . . . . . . . . . 6
- Professionals . . . . 6 Limits and Requirements . . 57
- Check Boxes . . . . . . . . 17 Macros . . . . . . . . . . 39
- Combination Search . . . . 34 Creating and Editing . . 54
- Compressing an Index . . . 28 Menus . . . . . . . . . . . 15
- CONTAINS connector . . . . 40 Moving and Resizing
- Copying an Index . . . . . 28 Windows . . . . . . . 49
- Creating an Index . . . . . 26 Networks . . . . . . . . . 55
- Date Searches . . . . . . . 41 Noise Words . . . . . . . . 38
- Deleting an Index . . . . . 28 Notepad Editor . . . . . . 44
- Dialog Boxes . . . . . . . 16 Saving a File . . . . . 45
- Directories, Selecting . . 17 Options Menu . . . . . 51, 53
- Directories, Viewing . . . 43 OR Connector . . . . . . . 39
- Displaying Search Results . 35 Overview . . . . . . . . . 3
- DOS Shell . . . . . . . . . 46 Phrase Searches . . . . . . 38
- Error Messages . . . . . . 59 Print Queue . . . . . . . . 54
- File Menu . . . . . . . . . 43 Print Window . . . . . . . 46
- Filename Searches . . . . . 41 Proximity Search . . . . . 39
- Files, Selecting . . . . . 19 Radio Buttons . . . . . . . 17
- Filters . . . . . . . . . . 18 Rebuild Index . . . . . . . 30
- Find Search Term . . . . . 49 Recognizing an Index . . . 29
- Find Text . . . . . . . . . 49 Renaming an Index . . . . . 28
- Function Keys . . . . . . . 20 Screen Colors . . . . . . . 53
- Help . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Search
- Index Information . . . 29, 30 AND Connector . . . . . 39
- Index Libraries . . . . . . 30 Combination Search . . . 34
- Index Menu . . . . . . . . 25 CONTAINS Connector . . . 40
- Index Search . . . . . . . 33 Date . . . . . . . . . . 41
- Indexes . . . . . . . . 25, 29 Filename . . . . . . . . 41
- Adding Documents . . . . 26 Index Search . . . . . . 33
- Compressing an Index . . 28 Indexes to Search . . . 35
- Copying an Index . . . . 28 Macros . . . . . . . 39, 54
- Creating an Index . . . 26 Noise Words . . . . . . 38
- Deleting an Index . . . 28 OR Connector . . . . . . 39
- Index Information . 29, 30 Phrase Searches . . . . 38
- Index Libraries . . . . 30 Search Menu . . . . . . 33
- Index Menu . . . . . . . 25 Search Reports . . . 35, 36
- Rebuild Index . . . . . 30 Search Requests . . . . 37
- Recognizing an Existing Search Terms . . . . . . 37
- Index . . . . . . . . 29 Segment Search . . . . . 40
- Renaming an Index . . . 28 TO Connector . . . . . . 40
- Types of Searches . . . 4
-
-
-
- dtSearch User's Manual 67
-
-
-
- Unindexed Search . . . . 34
- W/N Connector . . . . . 39
- Search Reports . . . . 35, 36
- Search Requests . . . . . . 37
- Search Results . . . . . . 35
- Search Terms . . . . . . . 37
- Segment Search . . . . . . 40
- Setup Files . . . . . . . . 54
- Shareware . . . . . . . . . 6
- Technical Support . . . . . 5
- TO Connector . . . . . . . 40
- Unindexed Search . . . . . 34
- Verify Index . . . . . . . 29
- Viewing a Directory . . . . 43
- Viewing a File . . . . . . 43
- W/N Connector . . . . . . . 39
- Window . . . . . . . . . . 20
- Cursor Movement . . . . 23
- Find Search Term in
- Window . . . . . . . 49
- Find Text in Window . . 49
- Move and Resize . . . . 49
- Print Window . . . . . . 46
- Save Window . . . . . . 45
- Window Menu . . . . . . . . 49
- XFIRSTWORD . . . . . . . . 38
- XLASTWORD . . . . . . . . . 38
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 68 dtSearch User's Manual