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What is the currently best Desktop Search software?
Armando:
Thanks Carol for all the screenshots and comments !
Does it index outlook tasks and calendar events ?
I wonder if what Curt said about uninstallation is a common problem...
Also :
KNOWN LIMITATIONS
- Only the first 100 pages of big office files are indexed.
-Exalead ReadMe
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-Curt (October 15, 2007, 11:49 AM)
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A limitation of the free version, I assume... That means that for a few users, only the paid version ($50) would be interesting.
Lashiec : as you probably know, there are some “industrial strength” solutions, (like dtSearch — tried it and didn’t like it), but most are not affordable or not that great for everyday use (large indexes, poor GUI designs, rigid features, expensive updates…).
Armando:
Just wanted to add another X1 flaw (might get fixed though, if enough people complain...):
It converts everything to lower-case...
(This is what I wrote in their forum)
Potentially a big problem : cases can be an important part of a file-naming protocol (for classification and readability purpose, if you’re sharing files with a Linux/UNIX system, etc.), and this X1 “flaw” makes it nearly impossible — in certain conditions — to use the program for other things than strictly searching. I.e.: no opening of files with X1 and resaving them after, no dragging and dropping files from X1 into an explorer folder, etc. Why? Because these actions will transform all involved filenames to lower-case -- and this can potentially have chaotic and disastrous effects on one's system. Not good.
So, here' another point for Archivarius....
Carol Haynes:
Thanks Carol for all the screenshots and comments !
Does it index outlook tasks and calendar events ?
I wonder if what Curt said about uninstallation is a common problem...
Also :
KNOWN LIMITATIONS
- Only the first 100 pages of big office files are indexed.
-Exalead ReadMe
--- End quote ---
-Curt (October 15, 2007, 11:49 AM)
--- End quote ---
A limitation of the free version, I assume... That means that for a few users, only the paid version ($50) would be interesting.
Lashiec : as you probably know, there are some “industrial strength” solutions, (like dtSearch — tried it and didn’t like it), but most are not affordable or not that great for everyday use (large indexes, poor GUI designs, rigid features, expensive updates…).
-Armando (October 16, 2007, 12:01 AM)
--- End quote ---
Hmmm ...
I did post a follow up to this but I must have forgotten to press POST ...
Answers to questions:
1) Yes it does index Tasks and Calendar (useful)
2) By setting up an alternative Outlook profile (Start > Control Panel > Mail) it does index all my PST files and I seem to be able to preview things. I have noticed some odd effects though but they may have been because I was too impatient and tried to preview things before the index was complete.
3) Uninstall worked fine for me ... I also installed the trial version of the Pro edition and uninstalled that without issue.
4) It seems to limit the number of pages even in the pro edition. I have just emailed their support to see if there is any way round this. One of the really useful functions of this kind of software is to be able to find info from PDF manuals - and given that most apps have large manuals (I have some that are in excess of 1000 pages) limiting searches to the first n pages seems pointless in the extreme. [Edit ... actually the Pro version does seem to go beyond 100 pages - there is no readme file with the Pro version, which is strange. What I have found though is that exact phrase searching doesn't seem to work. For example I have the Band-in-a-box manual - about 600 pages of PDF - if I search for Vocal Wizard it finds all occurrences of Vocal and Wizard but even using advanced search and specifying exact phrase still doesn't limit the results to "Vocal Wizard". I presume this must be a bug that has somehow crept in!]
5) The Pro version seems to have better support for previewing - PDFs appear as PDFs whereas in the Free version I found PDFs appeared as text files - not sure if this was supposed to happen though. [Edit - the PDF preview is actually an image snapshot of the pages - not the original document]
Anyway for now I have removed it [Edit - and reinstalled the Pro version again to carry on experimenting] - if the limited page scanning can be addressed [see edit above] I may well have another bash with this - but having said that the Pro version is quite expensive at $60 and it is locked to a single Windows installation.
It does say on the website external drive and network drive indexing is limited to the Pro version - but I found my external USB drive indexed fine in the Free version.
I have to say I liked the program a lot - it was up there with X1 in features and is very easy to use. I suppose my biggest puzzle is the lack of configuration options.
Armando:
Thanks for the info Carol! Very helpful.
Darwin:
Just to drop in and note that I am running the latest beta of X1 v.6 and like it so far. It's a lot more responsive than the last version that I tried (5.64). The Outlook issue with standby/hibernate persists but I've discovered that if I disable the system tray icon all is well (for at least one cycle of putting the notebook into standby and waking it up again, anyway). The Stellent viewers are SWEET. I'm going to play around with this for a while. Will probably also try out Exalead in the near future...
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