Search

The title bar field searches the displayed folder and its subfolders. The button to its right opens the options — that is where the search becomes precise.

Two fields, a single text

The search is written in two places, and it is the same text: the one in the title bar, and a bar at the bottom of the panel’s list, just above its number. What you type in one appears in the other, cursor included — it is not a copy, it is the same field shown twice.

Why the one at the bottom. The title bar field is single and serves the active panel: in front of a list of results, you read what you are searching for at the other end of the window, and nothing says which of the two panels carries it. The bottom bar is in the panel that is searching.

Ctrl+F opens it and puts the cursor in it, wherever you are — including from another field, which is precisely where you come from: you type a path, then search inside it. It also opens by itself as soon as a search is running, and its cross leaves it in one gesture — that is the mouse way out, whereas Esc requires the keyboard to be in the field.

The search options

Option	What it changes
Content	Each candidate file is read, not just its name: the search is slower.
Also read the text inside PDFs	Each candidate PDF is opened: slower still.
Regular expression	The name searched for becomes a pattern.
Search in file names / in folder names	Two separate boxes: you can target only folders, or only files.
Search inside compressed files	Archives are opened in passing.
Programs only	The execute bit on Linux, the extension on Windows.
Depth	All subfolders, or a number of levels.
Modified between	Two dates, either one optional.
Size	A bound, in whatever unit you like.
The X files that are the…	Largest, smallest, newest or oldest: how many to keep, by one ranking at a time. The searched name then becomes optional: it’s the way to find what fills a disk, or what changed yesterday.

Each option in use appears as a badge under the field; you remove it with a click on its cross. “Clear all” removes them all.

During the search

The bottom of the list names the folder being traversed — a whole disk takes tens of seconds — and what has already been found is displayed as it goes.

Stop, clear, go back

Stop the search halts the traversal and keeps what was found: the list stays there, you work in it.
The field’s cross clears the search: the panel goes back to the folder it was showing.
Esc leaves the field; the same cross, or “Reset the filter”, gives back the whole list.
The recent searches are offered when you return to the field.
The Content field keeps its last ten texts, under its history button: an error message is searched from one folder to the next without retyping it.

What it does not enter

Traversing sometimes costs more than what you are looking for. A NET entry would open a connection, a MAIL account would fetch five hundred summaries, a BDD query would run: the search stops in front of them, and you enter to search inside.

Nothing is hidden for all that: those rows are still compared to the query, and so are found by their name as well as by what their columns show. Ticking them forces the traversal — you then pay for the connection of only the entries you have designated.

A result opens in its place

“Open in its location” leads to the folder that holds the result and points to the row. It is the action that turns a search into a starting point.

Meneaufile manual, in English.