Using the Quick Search Bar

You can use the Quick Search bar in Manage mode to quickly locate files or folders. You can use the Quick Search options to refine or expand your search, and view the results in the File List pane.

You can choose whether the Quick Search searches just the files currently in the file list, or the entire database, by clicking this icon database search icon.

When performing a quick search, you can select the type of search to perform by clicking on the magnifying glass icon found directly to the right of the Quick Search field.

Search types will utilize different separators: Delimiters, Operators, or none:

  • Delimiters are commas and spaces. Search types that use delimiters will separate search terms by commas or spaces.
  • Starts With and Ends With do not use any separators. All text typed is literal. For example: Cat, Dog will search for "Cat, Dog", including the comma and space.
  • Classic Quick Search uses the operators + , -, |, and space (which is treated the same way as a +).

Quick Search Types:

Search Type

Result

Separators

Examples

Contains Any

Searches for items that contain any terms specified within the search criteria. Includes sub-string searches.

Delimiters

Cat, Dog returns all results containing Cat or Dog or any combination of the two. This includes sub-string searches, for example: Searching for Cat would also bring results for words that have cat in them, such as catalog.

Contains All

Searches for items that contain all terms specified within the search criteria. Includes sub-string searches.

Delimiters

Cat, Dog returns all results containing both Cat and Dog.

Contains Words

Searches for items that contain whole words specified within the search criteria.

Delimiters

Cat, Dog returns all results that include the whole words Cat and Dog.

Does Not Contain

Searches for items that do not contain any of the terms specified within the search criteria. Includes sub-string searches.

Delimiters

Cat, Dog returns all results that do not include the search terms of Cat or Dog.

Starts With

Searches for all items that begin with the characters specified within the search criteria. Includes sub-string searches.

None

Cat returns all results that begin with Cat. This includes results that include but are not limited to the searched term, such as catalog.

Ends With

Searches for items that end with the characters specified within the search criteria. Includes sub-string searches.
Please note: If searching for a file name, you must include the file extension.

None

Sing returns all results that end with Sing. This includes results that may not begin with the term specified, such as "rising".

Sing.jpg returns all results that end with Sing.jpg. This means only results that include sing, with a file extension of .jpg will be returned.

Classic Quick Search

Performs searches for items using ACDSee's legacy Quick Search engine. If searching for a file name, search will utilize the "Starts with" search style. All other search fields search for whole words.
Operators:

+: searches for all items containing both search terms. Items that only contain one of the terms are excluded. Spaces are also treated as + operators.

-: searches for all items containing the first search term, that don't also include the second term.

|: Searches for all items containing either of the search elements.

Operators

Cat -Dog returns all items that contain Cat, except those that also contain Dog. Be sure to insert a space before the minus sign. If you do not insert a space, ACDSee Free will assume you are searching for a hyphenated word.
Cat|Dog includes all items with either Cat or Dog in the search.

Cat+Dog+-Kittens returns items that include both Cat and Dog, but not those that include Cat and Dog and Kittens.
Cat+Dog or Cat Dog returns items containing both Cat and Dog.

Cat+Dog|Kittens includes items that contain both Cat and Dog, and those that contain Kittens.

Running a Quick Search:

Do one of the following:

  1. In the Quick Search bar, type the term or part of a term you want to search for.
  2. Click the drop-down list beside the Quick Search field and select a previously entered search term.

You can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + F to put the focus in the Quick Search bar and immediately begin typing.

Choosing Fields to be Included in Search:

  • Select Tools | Options.
  • Select Quick Search under Manage Mode.
  • Toggle fields to be included or excluded from the search, then select Ok.

See also: