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Let Windows Grep do the searching

• Tags:
• ASCII,
• Grep,
• Text Strings,
• Text

Mary Ann Richardson

Published: 25 Apr 2002 12:26 BST

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To display the search results (Figure D), click the Finish button.

Note that the Windows Grep search results screen is divided into two sections. The upper section lists the files that were found. Clicking on an individual file in the list displays the line(s) where the text string occurs (Figure E).

Right-clicking a file in the list displays a menu with a number of options (Figure F). For example, when you select Edit , the file will open in the default text editor. When you select Launch Associated Application, the file will open in the proper application, in this case, Microsoft Word. This makes it convenient for me to access the files I need, since almost immediately after Windows Grep finds the file, I can begin working with it.

Using Windows Grep in Expert Mode
While working in Beginner Mode is useful, Expert Mode provides us with the full functionality of the UNIX grep. To switch to Expert Mode, select it from the Options menu, as shown in Figure G.

Then, when the Search menu or Search button is clicked, the Search Criteria dialog box will be displayed.

Expert Mode's Search Criteria dialog box provides additional search options. For example, it allows zipped files to be searched; that is, it will first search for any files of the type specified (e.g., *.doc) in a zipped file and, if those files are found, extract them to a temporary folder and search for the string in the extracted files. The Text File Format Tab allows you to specify a delimited or fixed-length format that will enable delimited or fixed-width lists to be searched at an individual field level. Filters can be set via the Filters tab so that only those files that fall within a certain date/time or size range will be searched. As in Figure H, I used the Search Criteria dialog box to search for course materials on "Goal Seek." The results ofthis search are shown in Figure I.

Where to get Windows Grep

Windows Grep is a shareware program that you can download from the Windows Grep Web page. After downloading it, you can install the program within minutes. Windows Grep is provided at no charge for a 30-day trial period. A single user license fee is $30. Site licenses are also available.

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