DESKTOP
SEARCH TOOLS -- ONE-PAGE SUMMARY, ©2014
by
Donald R. Snow
This is a one-page summary of the full notes dated 2014-04-18 on http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html
. Numbering here corresponds to numbering on the full notes.
WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION
1. Instructor is Donald R. Snow ( snowd@math.byu.edu
) of Provo and St. George, Utah.
2. These notes with the Internet links active are posted on http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html
.
4. The problem: How to find things on your own computer,
documents, images of documents, photos, information in genealogy databases,
etc. Ideas and freeware to help.
TYPES OF SEARCHES ON YOUR OWN COMPUTER
6. Searching for files with text -- extensions like txt, rtf,
doc, docx, pdf, odt, xls, ods, ppt, etc.
7. Searching for files with images -- extensions like jpg, tif,
png, bmp, etc.
NAMING FILES SO YOU CAN FIND THEM LATER
9. Example of a timeline created by searching after using my naming
system -- uses the free program EVERYTHING discussed below
10. My system for naming document scans and screenshots for family
history
A. I use: "SurnameGivenNames(Married name)(birth
year-death year)-(Event date YYYY-MM-DD)-Event-Description--DateScanned.ext"
B. Example:
"ManwaringDiane(Snow)(1934-2012)-2012-10-10-Death-Obituary-SaltLakeDeseretNews-2012-10-13-Ancestry-com--2014-04-10.pdf"
F. Date format of YYYY-MM-DD is the International
Date Format and using it makes files alphabetize in chronological order so
newest is at the bottom
G. Including the date after the name and in International
Date Format makes the files automatically form a timeline for the person
when searching
11. My system for naming photos
of people. places, and events -- I use a different naming system
for camera photos than for documents.
A. I use:
"YYYY-MM-DD-HHh-MMm-SSs-[DescriptiveWords]-[camera name of photo].ext
B. Example:
"2004-01-20-10h23m16s-DianeManwaringSnow&DonaldRaySnowJrInBarbadosArchives--P1200004.jpg"
C. Freeware program NAMEXIF -- http://www.digicamsoft.com/softnamexif.html
-- copies date and time of photo from metadata and puts it in front of
camera's name of photo
D. Including date and time in front makes photos
alphabetize chronologically regardless of the camera they came from, if
the date and time were set correctly on the cameras
12. These naming methods make it easy to find images of documents and
photos; more details below and on my Screen Capture notes on my FH class
notes webpage
SEARCHING FOR TEXT FILES WHEN YOU KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT THE
NAME OR DATE
14. EVERYTHING -- http://www.voidtools.com/
-- free program, installed and portable versions, extremely fast -- you
enter any word or character in the title and results show all files with
that in title regardless of where they are on your computer; can use it to
find, launch, rename, or delete files; can use it in tandem with a Windows
Explorer-type program to organize files and for file maintenance; extremely
useful
15. NEMO-DOCS -- http://www.nemo-docs.com/
-- free program, shows document names on a calendar by the date they were
produced or modified
SEARCHING FOR TEXT FILES WHEN YOU KNOW SOMETHING INSIDE
THE FILE
17. INFORAPID SEARCH AND REPLACE --
http://www.inforapid.de/html/searchreplace.htm -- find and replace
text across multiple files, easy to use
18. FILELOCATOR LITE 2014 (same program as AGENT RANSACK) -- http://mythicsoft.com/page.aspx?type=filelocatorlite&page=home
-- installs in your context menu (right-click menu)
19. TEXTCRAWLER -- http://www.digitalvolcano.co.uk/content/textcrawler
-- find and replace across multiple files
21. Searching pdf's for given text
C. pdf books downloaded from FamilySearch have the text
layer with them; pdf books downloaded from Google do not have the text layer
and must be OCR'd to be searchable
E. Freeware PDF-XCHANGEVIEWER -- http://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-viewer
-- has a good OCR program built in
22. Searching your genealogy databases for names -- GENVIEWER -- http://www.mudcreeksoftware.com
-- will search within all your genealogy files in a folder for conditions
you specify, e.g. "Given Name Contains John" and "Spouse Name Contains
Margaret"
23. Searching for duplicate files -- DUPLICATE CLEANER -- http://www.digitalvolcano.co.uk/content/home
-- easy to use to find groups of duplicate
SEARCHING FOR IMAGE FILES
25. PICASA -- http://picasa.google.com
-- facial recognition, thumbnails around all faces; organize them into
groups that look like same person
26. AWESOME DUPLICATE PHOTO FINDER -- http://www.duplicate-finder.com
-- helpful freeware program to find similar and exact duplicate photos
27. SIMILAR IMAGES -- https://tn123.org/simimages/
-- free program to search in folders you specify to find exact or similar
images, shows them side-by-side so you can decide whether to keep both or
delete one
CONCLUSIONS
28. Our computers get loaded with information that we lose and forget where
it is, so hopefully this gives you some tools to help find it.