The majority of presentations are created with MS PowerPoint which is a user friendly and accessible application even for users with minimal software and computer experience. The greatest advantage of File Search Assistant is that once missing files that meet search criteria are located, it is possible to preview them without opening relevant text editors and applications, MS PowerPoint in our case. It is possible to search in MS PowerPoint documents without running this software. The convertor should be enabled in the Text filters pane. It is convenient to check out the context in which keywords are used to be able to choose required PowerPoint presentation.
MS PowerPoint Convertor
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Excel files are commonly used in work. The majority of financial reports, price lists, budget estimates and other financial documents are created in Excel. Of course, loss of these docs can cause serious problems for any company. That is why it is important to be able to easily find MS Excel documents. File Search Assistant does not only looks for missing Excel files but also converts them into plain text so that users can look at search results in preview mode. Thus, there is no need to manually open several Excel files located by FSA (since they all may meet search criteria).
MS Excel Converter
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Looking for videos can be a daunting task, since video files do not contain as much info that can be used in search as text documents. At the same time, File Search Assistant can use the minimum of information to find multimedia documents. As known, multimedia files may have tags. Thus, if a video has tags, FSA will use this info to locate missing music and clips. By the way, to make search more efficient, it is recommended to apply search filters to ignore non-multimedia extensions. In such a way, FSA will focus only on multimedia files which will definitely narrow down search results.
Multimedia Convertor
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It is not easy to find missing pictures since there is less available information and criteria for a successful search. However, File Search Assistant has pictures convertor that can use info contained in tags to pictures to find missing photos. The converter can be enabled in Text filters pane. It is also recommended to use customized search and ignore other extensions. Of course, not all pictures may have tags. However, if FSA detects them it will be easier to find pictures files. One should bear in mind that picture search in FSA is not as powerful as search for text files.
Pictures Convertor
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RTF extension is often used in offices since the majority of text editors and processors can easily open rtf docs. File Search Assistant can also work with these file types and find RTF documents. However, the best part is that FSA offer previews of located files that meet search criteria which simplifies tasks for users (it may happen that several docs meet search criteria, thus users should select the desired doc). RTF convertor should be ON, which is possible to do in the Text filters tab of FSA. Password manager will simplify access to protected files which makes preview process easier than ever.
RTF Convertor
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Word documents are perhaps the most widely used for a variety of purposes. Thus, MS Word is installed in virtually any PC. Thus, if you need to find MS Word files and be able to preview search results in FSA, one should enable Word convertor so that software automatically converts word docs into plain text. Converters are helpful in cases software has located a dozen of documents that meet search criteria. Sometimes it takes a while to open a huge Word document. FSA does this job for users and displays search results in the preview pane. Thus, there is no need to manually open docs to make sure this is the exact missing file.
MS Word Convertor
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PDF documents are quite popular. The majority of product descriptions and commercial offers are made in Adobe PDF docs. This is a common extension for various reports, scientific researches and e-books. To search in PDF documents, relevant convertor in FSA should be turned on. The software is able to convert pdf docs into plain text format so that users can look at context in which keywords are used in the preview pane. Traditionally, password managers will ease access to password protected files. One should be patient with particularly large files since it may take a while to fully convert them.
Adobe PDF convertor
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Since lots of users prefer free applications, Open Office files are quite common. This is a great alternative to MS Office applications, thus, sometimes users might need to find missing open office files. To search in Open Office documents with File Search Assistant users should make sure the relevant converter is on (Text filters tab – Open Office files). FSA will automatically convert open office extensions, such as odf. File Search Assistant has also an inbuilt password manager which means if missing files are password protected, FSA will still have access to display part of text with keywords in the preview pane.
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Sometimes, documents may have unusual encoding or current encoding is wrongly set. If users know for sure that missing files may have a particular encoding, for example, ASCI, UFT 8 and UTF 16, one should search Unicode documents. This feature is available in FSA. There are two options – Autodetect which is enabled by default and ASCI, UFT 8 or UTF 16. It may happen that missing documents have wrong encoding markers, thus FSA users may manually set encoding types. This feature is particularly helpful for programmers.
As known, character encoding is used due to the reason documents are created in different languages and various characters are used. That explains why sometimes browsers or software may incorrectly display characters of text. To view pages in readable format browsers and software auto-detect encoding type, however sometimes it is necessary to choose encoding by hand and in such a way narrow down search results since the software will look for the particular encoding type.
Easy way to search unicode documents
As already said above, in FSA autodetect is a default setting. However, users may choose between ASCI, UFT 8 and UTF 16 as per their needs. The before-mentioned encoding formats are most widely used, especially for English language.
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It is not a secret that missing files might be located anywhere, including local network computers. Users of small networks often save files in shared directories so that everyone engaged in certain projects and tasks can accessed the newest files. However, if files are located at someone else’s PC, it is necessary to search local network. FSA is the right tool to use to find missing files in local network.
Search over network and find missing files in LAN computers
File Search Assistant can connect to other computers in a local network to search files that have been missing. The software can access only shared folders with no restrictions like passwords, firewalls etc. To find file in network, one should specify local computer and even destination folder in the format //username/destination_folder. In local network search all filters FSA features may be used for better performance, i.e. search by date, size and type. By specifying network folders users will require less time since FSA will scan only those folders instead of entire local network drives. Since files are located at remote computers FSA may require a little bit more time to scan hard drives and folders, however this does not affect search efficiency in any way.
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