By Tisha Davis, Derek Ametam and Joe Wanzala
This is the second post in a multi-part blog series on using the dtSearch software. It guides you through configuring user preferences.
Setup/Preferences
After you install dtSearch, there are a few settings we recommend changing.[1] These changes will stay in place on that computer going forward. If you installed dtSearch on additional computers using the same license key, the settings on each computer will need to be changed in the same way.
Start by going to “Options” in the menu ribbon and selecting “Preferences”, as shown below.
Indexing options
For Indexing options, select the checkboxes shown above. If you want to know why, the reasons are listed below.
“Index file names as text”. dtSearch can be configured to include filenames in the searchable index by appending each document’s filename to the end of its text during indexing. This allows terms in filenames to be searched in the same way as regular document content. If the Include path information option is also selected, the full file path along with the filename will be indexed and searchable, rather than just the filename.
“Index database files as plain text”. If you do not select this option, dtSearch will treat each cell within an Excel file as a separate record, which makes your search results harder to read and digest.
“Ignore common HTML file names in XML data”. Malformed XML data can sometimes contain HTML tags in text fields (e.g., <P>, <I>, <B>, etc.). dtSearch will detect and disregard these common HTML tags during the indexing process so they don’t interfere with XML field searching. This allows for more accurate and efficient searching of the actual XML content.
“Index XML files as plain text.” With this option selected, XML files are indexed without including field attributes. All the text, including field names, remains searchable, but XML content treated as plain text, which makes indexing and searching faster.
“Index database files as plain text without field searching.” With this option selected, database files such as Microsoft Access (*.mdb, *.accdb) and CSV files are indexed without treating each row as a separate document, and without including field attributes. All the text, including field names, remains searchable, but database content is combined into a single plain text document, which makes indexing and searching faster.
Filtering Options
For Filtering Options, select “Do not index” as shown above.The reason is when this option is selected, dtSearch will bypass all binary files during index creation, ensuring that even those not included in the default file type list are excluded. For unusually large and diverse discovery sets, the NLST has developed a curated list [2] of file extensions to capture the broad range of file types that may contain substantive information. [3]
Leave the “Exclude filter list for new indexes” blank.
Search Results
Under “Items to include in search results”, select “Checkbox” and “Type”. The former makes selecting results easier, while the latter makes it easier to sort the results by file type.
Under “Window Layout”, select “vertical split”. Most documents are in portrait orientation. Selecting this option will make it easier to preview documents and the results list.
PDF View Options
Check the “if the 64-bit version of Acrobat is installed, run the 64-bit version of dtSearch Desktop so it can use Acrobat for viewing PDF files” option. This allows the plug-in to work in dtSearch and preview PDF search results. This will work whether you have the 64-bit or 32-bit versions of Acrobat installed.
The box towards the bottom of this set of options references the status of the dtSearch PDF Search Highlighter tool. This is a free plug-in that highlights your search terms in the preview pane. If you do not have the plug-in or if you are using the 64-bit version of Acrobat and are not using the updated version of the tool, your search hits may not be highlighted in the preview pane. The dtSearch PDF Search Highlighter plug-in can be downloaded here: https://www.dtsearch.com/pdfhl/
Once your preferences have been updated, close out of the dtSearch program to save your changes.
[1] Installation instructions are included in the email that is sent out after the license request form is completed.
[2] The following extensions are commonly included when indexing large discovery collections: “*.7zip *.accdb *.bmp *.chm *.csv *.doc *.docm *.docx *.eml *.gif *.hta *.htm *.html *.inf *.jpeg *.jpg *.mbox *.mht *.msg *.odp *.ods *.one *.pdf *.png *.ppt *.pptm *.pptx *.pst *.pub *.rar *.rtf *.tif *.tiff *.txt *.wpd *.xls *.xlsm *.xlsx *.xml *.zip *.zipx”
[3] If you choose this option, you can cut and paste this list into the ‘Create Index’ dialog box that we shall look at in the third part of this series.