Searching the archive

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Document Management

Click on the 'Search' button (or use the shortcut Ctrl+F) to search for documents and folders.

Simple search

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Document Management

By default, the following window will appear:

  • RetSoft Archive will search for documents and folders that match all of the words you have submitted in the 'Search for' field. Each submitted word must match at least part of one of the document's properties or content. 
  • If you enter more than one word, RetSoft Archive will search by an 'and-and' way. This means that it will return all folders and documents that contain all of the submtted words in at least on of their properties or content. 
  • If you want to search for a sequence of words such as a firstname/lastname combination you can do so by surround them in quotes. If, for example, you enter "John Smith" RetSoft Archive will search for all documents and folders which have one ore more properties containing the text John Smith. 
  • It is also possible to search for folders and documents which must match given words but must not match other words (or a sequence of words). If a certain word or phrase is not allowed to occur, it has to be prefixed with a minus sign (-). Words or phrases that must occur can optionally be prefixed with a plus sign (+). Phrases have to be enclosed between quotes.If you would for example submit +birthday -"John Smith", RetSoft Archive will return all documents (and folders) that contain birthday but not John Smith.
  • Searching is case insensative. 
  • All words (longer than three characters) that are found in the content of a PDF's or RetSoft-documents will be yellow highlighted.* 
  • In order to speed up the search, the maximum number of results has been limited to 100. If you would like your search to return an unlimited number of results, click on the 'Advanced' button to start an advanced search. 

* In order to highlight all words that are found by RetSoft Archive, it is important to apply text recognition (OCR) to the documents first. 
When the search results are not highlighted, this may be because text recognition has not yet been applied. 
Also, make sure that the 'Highlight search results' option available at the Settings window has not been unchecked. 

Advanced search

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Document Management

Click on the 'Extended' button inside the simple search window to start an advanced search.

Note that the description of most of the fields that describe a document can be modified at the settings window. This means that the names of the fields referenced below might be different.

As for a 'Simple search', an advanced searching goes by the 'and-and' way. 
In this case this means that when you have added a document with a single key word 'apple' (no other key words set), you will NOT find the document if you type 'apple' at the 'Word 1' field and 'banana' at the 'Word 2 field. 
The only documents that will be returned by the search are the ones that have both 'banana' and 'apple' set as key words.

Search fields
All search fields are 'optional'. This means that when you leave them empty (or unchanged), they will be ignored during the search.

  • Metadata
    • The 'Name' field can be used to search for documents or folders with a specific name. Enter (part of) the name to search by name. You can also select one of the predefined names from the drop-down list. 
    • A document can contain up to five different key words. The optional fields 'Word 1' through 'Word 5' can be used to search for documents with specific key word properties. Note: The order in which the words are submitted does not matter. Each of the 'Word' fields will try to match each of the five key words of the documents.
    • Use the 'Zip code' field to search for documents with a specific zip-code.
  • Date / Expiration date
    • RetSoft Archive sets the default dates between the date of the 'oldest' and the 'newest' document in the archive. Change these dates in order to narrow your search by date. 
    • You can also search for files that will expire by a certain date.
      • Not applicable: the expiration date will be ignored during the search. 
      • Expired after: search for documents that have an expiration date, but are not yet expired. 
      • Expired on: search for documents that expire on the specified date. 
      • Expired before: search for documents that are already expired. 
  • Notes / memos
    • Use the 'Notes/Memos' field to include notes/memos in the search process.
  • Content
    • If you are using the OCR Add-on, you can search for text through the contents of the documents. To do so enter one or more words to search for in the 'Contents' field.
    • There are documents that contain a barcode. If you wish to search for a barcode, you can enter (a part of) it in the 'Barcode number' field. Currently only available in measure made solutions.
  • Options
    • 'Maximum number of results' - Limit the maximum amount of search results. This option can speed up an unspecified search. Leave 0 for no maximum.
    • 'Only search for folders' - By checking this option only folders will be returned during the search.
    • 'The (folder) name must be exact' - If this option is checked, documents/folders must exactly match the submitted 'Name'.
    • 'Only search the current and its sub folders' - If this option is checked all documents and folders that are located in the currently selected folder will be included in the search.
    • 'Include folders that have been excluded from search results' – If this option is checked folders and documents that have been excluded from search results will be shown in the search results as well. 

Search results

  • The results will be displayed in the search results tab on the main screen. You can safely switch between 'Search results' and 'Documents', the search results will be preserved until you have executed a new search or have loaded another archive.
  • On the 'Settings' window, there is an option available called "Yellow highlight search criteria in content". When this option is checked, search criteria longer than three characters, which isfound in the content of PDF's and RetSoft-documents will be yellow highlighted. ATTENTION: In order to highlight words, documents need to be processed by OCR text recognition. 
  • When you open a document or folder from the Search results window, this document or folder changes color to indicate that it was viewed (opened).
  • To change the advanced search window back to the simple search window, use the 'Simple' button.

Searching in a document

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Document Management
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If you want to search for a specific word or phrase inside an open PDF or RetSoft-documents, you can use the option 'Search in document' to do so. 
If you right-click on the graphical document, a popup menu will appear. This menu contains an option called 'Find in document'. You can also use the shortcut keys 'Ctrl+G'. 
The following window will appear:

Submit your word or phrase in the 'Search for'-field. Next, press the 'Enter' key or click 'Next'. 
Repeat this for all instances of the given text inside the document. The results will be highlighted in blue. 

Using wildcards

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Document Management

RetSoft Archive supports the use of wildcards when searching, '%' and '_' can be used as wildcards .
The '%' stands for any number of any kind of characters. For example, you want to find all the documents which names end with receipt. In the "Name" search field enter: %receipt
The '_' stands for any single character. For example, you are trying to find all the documents which names contain the codes 1224a through 1224z. In the "Name" search field you would enter: 1224_. 

Excluding folders

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Document Management

You can right click a folder and select 'Exclude from search results' to exclude it from search results or set this setting inside a folder's properties, all folders inside will also be excluded.