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# Introduction

The Truth Search Tool has been produced using DocFetcher, an Open Source desktop search application which allows for searching the contents of files on your computer. You can think of it as Google for your local files.

Index-based search: Since searching in the documents directly would be impractically slow for a larger number of documents, DocFetcher requires that you create indexes for the folders you want to search in. These indexes allow DocFetcher to quickly look up files by keyword, similar to how you would use the index in the back of a book. Creating an index might take some time, depending on the number and sizes of the indexed files. However, this needs to be done only once for each folder; afterwards you can search in the indexed folders as many times as you want.

Searching: Enter one or more words to search for in the text field above the result pane (the table with the column headers) and press the `Enter` key. The search results will be displayed in the result pane, sorted by descending score.

If you are reading this manual inside DocFetcher, following the instructions in the next paragraph will make the manual disappear. To restore it, click on the `'?'` button on the top right. You can also open the manual in your default web browser by clicking on the `Open in external browser` button directly above this pane.

Result pane and preview pane: Below the result pane (or to the right of it, depending on the current GUI layout), you can find the preview pane. If you select a file on the result pane, the preview pane will show a text-only preview of the file's contents. Notable features:

- Highlighting: By default, the search terms you've entered will be highlighted, and you can jump from one occurrence to the previous or next using the up and down buttons.
- Built-in web browser: In case of HTML files, you can switch between the text-only view and a simple built-in web browser. (Note: The latter is not available on some Linux variants.)

One shortcut you might find useful: Press `Ctrl+F` or `Alt+F` to move the focus back to the search field. To open a file in an external program, double-click on it in the result pane.

Sorting: You can change the sorting of the results by clicking on any of the result pane's column headers. For example, to sort the results by filename, click on the `Filename` header. Clicking the same header twice will sort by the corresponding criterion in reversed order. You can also change the order of the columns via drag and drop: For example, if you want `Filename` to be the first column, just drag the `Filename` column header to the left.

Filtering: On the left of the GUI, you can see various controls for filtering the results: (1) You can specify a minimum and/or maximum filesize in the `Minimum / Maximum Filesize` control. (2) The `Document Types` list allows you to filter the results by type. (3) By unchecking items in the `Search Scope` area, you can filter the results by location.