dtSearch Guide – Part III: Creating an Index

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This is the third post in a multi-part blog series on the dtSearch software. In this installment we cover how to create an index.

By Tisha Davis, Derek Ametam and Joe Wanzala 

The first step in creating a dtSearch index begins in Windows Explorer. Pick a location for your index where it won’t need to be moved later, and where the documents you plan to index can also be stored. It is important these things 1) stay together and 2) don’t move so that a search will produce results. A good location is on a flash drive.

Prepare your Folder Structure

  1. Open Windows Explorer.
  2. Select the drive or storage location where both your documents and index will reside.
  3. Create a main project folder (e.g., C:\CaseName). Inside it, add two subfolders:
    • Documents – for the files to be indexed (C:\CaseName\Documents)
    • Index – for dtSearch index files (C:\CaseName\Index)

Figure 1.

Create a Single Index

For smaller cases a single index is usually sufficient. You can always add more later. A single index allows dtSearch to search across all indexed files (e.g., finding every occurrence of “Undertaker”).

Best practice: Keep the index folder on the same drive as your documents (e.g., both on C:).
Important: Once created, do not move, rename, or delete your index folder or its contents. dtSearch relies on stable file paths to function correctly.

To create your first index:

  1. Open dtSearch.
  2. Select Index → Create Index.  (Figure 2.)
  3. Enter a clear name for the index (e.g., “Paul Lutz”).
  4. Browse to the Index folder that you created.
  5. Click OK.

Figure 2. Index Creation

Once you click “Ok”, you will be taken to another dialogue box with several options:

Figure 3.

  1. “Actions”: These first set of options are actions that can be applied to your index. These can be “Actions”: These first set of options are actions that can be applied to your index. These can be made during the initial index creation and modified later when you update your index. We recommend selecting “Index new or modified documents” and “Remove deleted documents from index”. (Figure 3) This will allow your index to be up-to-date and not contain data that is outdated or has been deleted or moved.
  2. “What to Index”: The second set of options pertain to what will be indexed. You can select files individually or at folder level. We selected the first batch of discovery that was produced. A plus sign (+) next to the folder indicates that your selection includes the top-level folder and any subfolders within the folder.
  3. “Filters”: The third set of options are filters, which are one way to optimize the indexing of large document collections. The “Exclude Filters” will ignore files with the extension listed. The “Filename Filters” will limit your index to only include files with the specified extensions. If, for example, you only wanted to search Word documents and PDFs and ignore everything else, you’d add .doc, .docx, and .pdf to the “Filename Filter”. 

Review the Index Log

After creating or updating an index, always review the Index Log.  (Figure 4)

The log includes a summary of:

  • The total number of files indexed;
  • Files that were not or only partially indexed (for reasons such as encryption, corruption, or missing OCR); and
  • A direct link to review any problematic files.

If you accidentally close the log window, dtSearch automatically saves the most recent log so you can reopen it later.

Figure 4.