Find those missing files
By MIKE BERMAN
Scripps Howard News Service
October 08, 2003

Here's the scenario:

You're the point person in a major, multi-trillion-dollar deal, the success of which is dependent upon your finding the original proposal that was drawn up eons ago and is sitting somewhere on your computer.

Do you:

a) Yell for your secretary and make her spend countless hours wading through tons of documents?

b) Plead ignorance, claiming that, if there was such a proposal, this is the first time you've heard about it?

c) Put a loaded revolver to your head and pull the trigger?

d) None of the above?

The correct answer of course, is "None of the above," basically because, if the other options were practical, there wouldn't be any reason for you to continue reading and I'd be out of a job.

Document indexing utilities have made this scenario a thing of the past, making it easy for you to find just about anything on your hard drive(s) simply by entering a word or phrase into the program's search engine.

One of the simplest to use is WizDoc for Office ($199) from WizSoft Inc.

This handy tool actually indexes all of your documents, including email messages, text files, PDFs, Web pages, various types of non-computer documents (such as business cards) and anything created in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint or Excel, enabling you to search all of them with a minimum of effort.

Of course the indexing process can be tedious, especially if you have tons of files stored on your hard drives, but the end result is worth it.

The process is simple. All you have to do is enter a search word or phrase, tell the program what type(s) of files to scan and you instantly receive a list of documents that fit your criteria. And, unlike the archaic tool that comes with Microsoft Windows, which gives you a simple list of file names and locations, WizDoc actually gives you a summary of each document found and sorts the list by relevance, increasing your chance of finding what you need quickly and easily.

Other features of the program include:

• It checks the spelling of words and names in your queries, suggesting alternatives if it can't find anything matching your criteria.
• It supports Boolean operators and searches for sequences of words, giving you the number of times the exact sequence was found on each page of a document.
• It expands your query by using a user-defined Thesaurus, allowing it to interpret the meaning of queries in natural language, eliminating confusion over words that may have several meanings.
• The indexing module is fully automatic, running in the background on a user-defined schedule. This eliminates the need to reindex your hard drives when new documents are created.
• It can run on a stand-alone PC or on a network.
• It runs on all versions of Microsoft Windows, including Windows 98, ME, NT, 200o and XP.

This is one extremely powerful, indispensable tool.

You can find more information and download a free demo of the program at www.wizsoft.com.

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