Tool Tip: For better windows file searching, use Agent Ransack

Agent Ransack (at www.agentransack.com) is the freeware version of a commercial product, File Locator Pro. Since learning of it, I never use the Extended Find feature of HomeSite/Studio/Dreamweaver to search across multiple folders anymore. (That feature is still certainly useful for searching across all open templates.)

AgentRansack is so much faster than that feature (and even faster than Windows Find). Unlike Windows find, it does search for content in ALL file types (If you've ever used it to search CFM files on XP and above, you may have noticed it never finds the expected files. It has an internal list of file types it will search, and all others it will simply ignore). And unlike HomeSite/Studio, it doesn't lock up your editor while it's searching away. I find it can search gigs in just a few moments--yet it DOES NOT rely on indexing the content in any way.

As I hinted above, beyond searching, AR is also great for its really nifty regular expression feature, to help build regex's declaratively (a wizard-like interface). I find myself opening it just to create a RegEx when needed. More than that, there is also a useful "test" menu option where you can enter a RegEx, and some text against which to search, and it will show what the regex would find in that text. Very handy.

Another great benefit it has over the other more traditional search approaches is that while the left pane is showing the files it found in its search, a right pane shows (for a selected file) the lines WITHIN the file that matched the search. (I realize that in the editors, the search results pane allows you to click a result to open the given file at the given location where the search result was found, but this approach in AR is just much simpler and more effective, I think.)

Perhaps most powerful, it also integrates with the Windows Explorer interface, so it's easily reached by a right-click on any folder (to search that folder and its children).

Everyone I've shown it to has been impressed. Check it out. You can see screenshots of 3 main parts of the interface in use (including the regex wizard and results viewing aspect) at http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/pageloader.aspx?page=screenshots.

Enjoy.

PS: I should admit that one area where Studio/HomeSite/DWMX's "extended find" feature has an advantage is in searching across RDS- and FTP-connected servers. Some might think that even AR could do it by leveraging the fact that a separate "virtual drive" is created in Windows Explorer/My Computer named  "Macromedia FTP&RDS", which has links to all the same FTP- and RDS-connected servers offered in those tools. Sadly, a right-click on these will NOT show AR as an option, nor can you point to them inside AR. Hey, we can't have it all. :-)

PPS: I think the only negative with the tool is its name. Some folks have cringed when I've proposed installing it while trying to help them solve one issue or another. But when they see it's a freeware version of a commercial tool, that generally tames their nerves. The very quick install and immediately obvious benefits quickly wins them over.