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DTSearch and Archivarius again
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Posted by Graham Smith
Jan 1, 2007 at 09:59 PM
Just in case this gets lost at the end of the previous thread, I have started a new one.
Having had the advantages of DTSearch pointed out to me after my last post. I have re-installed DTSearch and explored some of the features that Ike pointed out.
I now realise that I wasn’t really using DTsearch to its full capacity and it is back on my hard drive.
Given the way that I was using DTsearch, Archivarius still gives a really good alternative at a low price, but as I already have a DTSearch license, I am now looking at making more use of the features.
I’m still keeping Archivarius for searching The bat! mail base as it natively works with The Bat! files, but for general use I have gone back to DTsearch
So thank you Ike.
Graham
Posted by Ike Washington
Jan 2, 2007 at 11:42 PM
Graham
Glad you’ve found a good solution. I mentioned this thread to a friend and she recommended the free Copernic Desktop Search… I’ll report back.
Posted by Graham Smith
Jan 3, 2007 at 07:56 AM
Ike
I>Glad you’ve found a good solution. I mentioned this thread to a friend and she
>recommended the free Copernic Desktop Search… I’ll report back.
Whenever, I read comparative reviews of the range of free search engines different people seem to have strong opinions about which is the best option. Google seems to come out regularly as the best option, with many third party addins expanding its capability.
Woody’s Office Watch guide to Search engines is probably worth the $15.00 if you want a comprehensive comparison of the free Search engines.
http://shop.office-watch.com/eb/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=1
The curent version is January 2006, and its 157 pages long giving a very detailed comparison. Neither DTSearch or Archivarius are included.
I hae just become aware in the last few years how much I spend on upgrading software, of which I only use a fraction of its capability, and have started to look for FOSS or low cost alternatives.
Graham
Posted by Jack Crawford
Jan 3, 2007 at 08:16 AM
Graham
I assume you’ve considered X1. The desktop version is now free. I find its UI very appealing and its not too resource hungry. When I last looked about 12-18 months ago, X1 was well ahead of Copernic & Google Desktop searches in usability. As you can quickly cycle through the search results (including highlighted results inside the documents), I don’t need more sophisticated search expressions as in DTSearch which has a UI that only a mother could love.
With indexers, I refuse to have them running constantly in the background and dynamically updating the index. I fire X1 up only when I can’t find something in the obvious place, or need to do a full PC search.
I manually update the index every few days or when I’ve added a considerable number of new documents. That way the index is always reasonably, but not exactly up to date.
Your needs may differ of course.
Jack
Posted by Graham Smith
Jan 3, 2007 at 08:54 AM
Jack
>I assume you’ve considered X1.
Yes, thanks
Before my last upgrade of DTSearch, I looked at all the main contenders, including X1, and including installing the more likely candidates. In the end I stuck with DTsearch, as I already had it and the upgrade wasn’t that much money.
I just saw Archvarius suggested elsewhere and thought I would give it a try. At first I was very impressed because Archivarius did what I was doing in DTSearch and doing it faster, but Ike made me rethink how I was using DTSearch and I now feel I can make more use of it than I was.
I only index specific folders, which like you I manually update every now and again.
Graham