Office 97 includes two tools that help make Office documents on local or network drives easier for your workgroup to find: Find Fast and Web Find Fast. With both of these tools, the Find Fast indexing engine indexes Office documents, as well as other document types such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) documents. End users can then search this index file for specific words, phrases, or document properties.

• Use Find Fast to index local or network drives (Windows only). Then users can search the indexes through the Open dialog box (File menu) of Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Office Binder, and Project, or through the Find Items command (Tools menu) of Outlook.
• Use Web Find Fast to index shared folders or drives on Windows NT Server or Windows NT Workstation computers configured as Web servers. Then users can search the indexes through Web browsers on Windows or Macintosh client computers on your intranet.

Differences Between Find Fast and Web Find Fast

Depending on your workgroup's network environment, you may find both Find Fast and Web Find Fast to be useful. This section describes the architectural and administrator differences between the two tools.

Note   In this section, the term Find Fast refers to searching through the Open dialog box (File menu) of Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Office Binder, and Microsoft Project, or through the Find Items command (Tools menu) of Microsoft Outlook.

System Requirements

From an administrator's perspective, the main difference between Find Fast and Web Find Fast is the computer environment on which they run:

• Indexing and searching with Find Fast work on any computer running the Windows 95 or Windows NT operating system.
• Indexing with Web Find Fast requires a Windows NT Server or Windows NT Workstation computer configured as a Web server with software such as Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS). Searching requires a Web browser on a Windows or Macintosh client computer. For more information about Web Find Fast system requirements, see "Supporting Web Find Fast" later in this chapter.

Note   If you are using Windows NT Workstation, make sure you do not violate the connection license agreement with your HTTP server.

Index Structure

Both Find Fast and Web Find Fast make use of index files created by the Find Fast indexing engine. However, the two searching methods differ in other ways.

When users search for documents with Find Fast, they specify a default start location for the search. For example, in the following illustration, the folder My Documents is the default start location.

Find Fast looks for an index file in the My Documents folder. If it does not find one there, it looks up the folder tree, all the way to the root of the drive. Find Fast uses any index file it finds in or above the default start location in the search.

Tip   In the Advanced Find dialog box, you can specify more complex search criteria using AND and OR conditional values. To display the dialog box, click Open on the File menu of any Office application, and then click Advanced. For more information about using search criteria in the Advanced Find dialog box, see online Help.

If you select the Search subfolders check box in the Advanced Find dialog box, Find Fast also looks for index files down the folder tree, below the default start location of the search. In the following example, if the nested subfolder Market Testing had been indexed, Find Fast would use that index to speed up the search for that subfolder.

Searching with Web Find Fast uses a different approach. In this case the user submits a search query from an HTML page (Query.htm, for example) in a Web browser on a client computer on the intranet, and Web Find Fast processes the query on a Web server computer. The query page is linked to a specific Find Fast index, and only that index is searched. You must specify the index on the query page by editing its HTML code in a text editor. For more information, see "Supporting Web Find Fast" later in this chapter.

Unlike an index created with Find Fast, a Web Find Fast index can include multiple disjointed folders or drives on the same Web server, plus additional shared folders or network drives on other computers on the network. You can think of a Web Find Fast index as consisting of at least two components: the base index component of the Web server on which the index file resides, and additional index components that cover additional shared folders or drives on the network.

As mentioned earlier, the formats of the index files used by Find Fast and Web Find Fast are identical. If Find Fast encounters an index created by Web Find Fast, Find Fast searches the base index component of that index file.

Accuracy of Index Search Results

Another distinction between Find Fast and Web Find Fast searches is that Find Fast results are potentially more accurate. Find Fast returns search results based on the index files it finds, but then performs an additional accuracy check. Find Fast compares the last modified date of the indexed documents as recorded in the index with the actual last modified dates of the documents. Wherever Find Fast finds differences in those dates, it performs a brute force search of the document in question (Find Fast compares the search criteria to the document content directly) and updates the search results if necessary.

Web Find Fast, on the other hand, relies solely on the index to which it is linked. If that index is out of date, the search results are similarly out of date.

User Interface

For the end user, the most obvious difference between Find Fast and Web Find Fast is the interface.

• The user initiates a Find Fast search through the Open dialog box (File menu) of Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Office Binder, and Microsoft Project, or through the Find Items command (Tools menu) of Outlook.

  

• The user initiates a Web Find Fast search through an HTML query page in a Web browser.

  

As mentioned earlier, each Web Find Fast query page is connected by HTML code to a specific Web Find Fast index on a Web server. If you index multiple Web servers, you can connect each index to a query page, or you can customize a singe query page so that users can select the index they want searched. For more information, see "Supporting Web Find Fast" later in this chapter.

Summary of Differences

The similarities and differences between these methods of finding documents are summarized in the following table.

The remainder of this section describes issues that apply to both Find Fast and Web Find Fast.

What Types of Documents Can Be Indexed

You can specify the file types to be indexed only when you create an index. You cannot change the indexed file types for an existing index; you must delete the index, and then recreate it.

To specify the file types to be indexed

1. On the Windows 95 or Windows NT Workstation version 4.0 Start menu, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.

   – or –

   In Windows NT Workstation version 3.51, double­click Control Panel in the Main group in Program Manager.

2. Double­click Find Fast.
3. On the Index menu, click Create Index.
4. Under In and Below, select the drive or folder that contains the documents you want indexed.

   This location is also where the index files are stored.

5. In the Of type box, select the file types you want indexed.

When you specify the type of documents to be indexed in the Create Index dialog box, Find Fast includes the document types described in the following table.

Note   When you select All Files in the Create Index dialog box, Find Fast does not index file types that do not have textual content, such as BMP, COM or EXE files. For more information about excluded file types, see "File Types That Are Not Indexed" later in this chapter.

In addition to the Office document types listed in the preceding table, Find Fast can index the following document types if their installed conversion filters support minimal RTF mode:

• Lotus 1­2­3 version 2.x – 4.0
• RFT­DCA
• Microsoft Works version 3.x for Windows
• Word version 4.x – 5.x for the Macintosh
• Works version 4.0 for Windows
• WordPerfect version 5.x
• WordPerfect version 6.x
• WordStar

You can determine whether the filters you have installed support minimal RTF mode by examining the Windows registry. In the registry, view the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Text Converters\Import.

Each filter listed that includes a subkey named NoDialogs should support minimal RTF mode and therefore can be used by Find Fast.

Find Fast indexes other document types using its own internal text filters. In all cases, however, words more than 40 characters in length are not indexed.

File Types That Are Not Indexed

Some file types, such as applications (EXE) and pictures (BMP), do not contain meaningful words that Find Fast can index. These file types are referred to as excluded file types. Even if you specify to index all files when you create an index, Find Fast ignores files of the types that appear on its excluded file type list to minimize the size of the index files.

The following table lists the excluded file types.

Note   This list is for reference only; you cannot add to the list to prevent Find Fast from attempting to index additional file types.

Words That Are Not Indexed

Some words, such as and, of, and or, occur frequently in most documents. Because these words are of little value as search words, Find Fast does not index them. Words that are not indexed are referred to as stop words.

Stop words have no effect in searches. A search for the phrasethe schedule is the same as a search for * and schedule, so Find Fast looks for any word and schedule. A search for "the schedule" (enclosed in quotation marks) has the same effect as the search for "anyword schedule": Find Fast looks for any word followed by schedule.

Security Issues

It is usually a more efficient use of disk space, index time, and search time to work with a single large index at the root level of a local or network drive rather than with several smaller indexes. However, large indexes introduce the following access and security concerns:

• When sharing a folder on a local drive where the entire drive is indexed, users who connect to the shared drive do not have access to its index because it resides at a location above the shared folder. Users can still search the shared drive, but the search takes much longer because it does not use an index.

  For example, if you share the folder C:\My Documents\Public as \\Mycomputer\Public, and you have indexed the entire C: drive, users who connect to \\Mycomputer\Public cannot use the index because they do not have access to the root of the C drive. To provide users with an index of \\Mycomputer\Public, remove the index of C: and create an index of C:\My Documents\Public through the Find Fast control panel.

• When you are supporting remote users, make sure that they have read permission for all documents included in the index.

  Potentially, anyone with access to an index can run word association queries and determine that a certain document contains certain words — even if that user does not have read permission for the document itself. For that reason, all users with access to the index should also have read permission for the documents.

The Find Fast Indexer Log

The Find Fast indexer log is a text file in which Find Fast enters summaries of indexing tasks. The indexer log is named Ffastlog.txt and is stored in the Windows\System or System32 folder as a hidden file. Indexer log entries include completed or failed index creation and updating, and the names of files that could not be indexed (password­protected documents, for example).

Indexing task entries are ordered so that the most recent events appear at the end of the file. The indexer log is limited in size to 24 KB. When the file exceeds 24 KB, the oldest entries are deleted.

To view the indexer log

1. On the Windows 95 or Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Start menu, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.

   – or –

   In Windows NT Workstation 3.51, double­click Control Panel in the Main group in Program Manager.

2. Double­click Find Fast.
3. On the Index menu, click Show Indexer Log.

Tip   You can prevent the indexer log from being truncated at 24 KB. Change the command­line arguments in the shortcut to Find Fast in the Startup folder: Add a /v at the end of the line. Or, if you are using Web Find Fast, add a registry value of any type named verbose to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Find Fast\97. Do not assign any data to the value. When you use this technique, the indexer log is not truncated. You should truncate it manually from time to time, however, to conserve disk space.

What Happens to Office 95 Indexes in Office 97

The file formats for Find Fast 97 and Find Fast 95 differ. An index created by Find Fast 97 cannot be used by Office 95 applications.

When Find Fast is installed with Office 97, it immediately locates all indexes created by Find Fast 95. Those indexes are automatically deleted and replaced by Find Fast 97 indexes with identical index scope and settings. After you upgrade to Office 97, you can create additional indexes as well. If you create a Find Fast 97 index that is above, below, or at the same location as a Find Fast 95 index in a folder hierarchy, Find Fast 97 prompts you to delete the older index and replace it with a new index.

Installing Find Fast

Find Fast is installed during Setup when you choose a Typical installation. When Find Fast is installed, it automatically indexes all Office documents on each local drive in the computer on which it was installed. If you install Find Fast on a network drive, however, you must manually start index creation through the Find Fast control panel.

Creating and Maintaining Indexes with Find Fast

You can open the Find Fast control panel to create additional indexes (for example, on a network drive), delete indexes, and set other options. In general, however, Find Fast indexes Office documents automatically and requires no end­user action.

By default, Find Fast creates a single index on each hard drive on your computer. (Find Fast does not automatically index removable drives.) However, you may want to create multiple indexes on a single drive (especially on shared or network drives). You can do so, although you cannot create indexes that overlap. For example, if you have a Find Fast index of the drive C:, you cannot then create an additional index of the folder C:\My Documents. To create an index of C:\My Documents, you must first delete the index of the drive C: through the Find Fast control panel.

Should I index the entire drive or just the folder? The following are examples of when you might be better off creating multiple indexes on a single drive, rather than one large index: When sharing a folder on a local drive If the entire drive is indexed, users who connect to the shared drive do not have access to its index because it resides at a location above the shared folder. By creating an index specifically for the shared folder (and its nested subfolders), you allow users who connect to the shared folder to search its index. For an example of this situation, see "Security Issues" earlier in this chapter. When maintaining multiple folders on a network drive If your organization's relevant documents are concentrated in a few folders on a network drive, you can index just those folders. For example, if one folder contains documents intended for public viewing, and other folders are intended for private use or storage by individuals, you could index just the folder intended for public viewing.

Locating Index Files

Find Fast index files are located at the topmost level of the hierarchy of the indexed folders. For example, if you index an entire drive, the index file is located at the root of that drive. Find Fast index files are hidden files with the base name of Ffastun and the following extensions.

Because you create and maintain index files through the Find Fast control panel, you do not normally need to work with these files directly. Do not attempt to copy, move, or change the attributes of these file types. If you need to delete or move a set of indexed folders, delete the index first through the Find Fast control panel, and then recreate the index after you move the folders.

The index files typically require about 7 percent of the space of the text component of the documents they index, or about 1 percent to 3 percent of the total document size.

Using Startup Switches for Find Fast Troubleshooting

In some circumstances you may want to start Find Fast in a special mode. You can do so with the following startup switches. You can use startup switches only when Find Fast is not already running. You can add a switch to the Find Fast shortcut in the Startup folder and then restart your computer, or you can close Find Fast by selecting the Close and Stop command (Index menu) in the Find Fast control panel and then restart Find Fast with a startup switch.

Note   These startup switches are supported by Find Fast only. Do not attempt to use startup switches with Web Find Fast.

To run Find Fast with a startup switch

1. In Windows 95 or Windows NT Workstation 4.0, click Start, and then click Run.

   – or –

   In Windows NT Workstation 3.51, click Run on the Program Manager File menu.

2. Type the path and name of the Find Fast program, followed by the startup switch you want.

   For example, to run Find Fast in verbose mode, type "C: \Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Findfast /v" (if the path includes spaces in folder names, you must enclose the entire path in quotation marks, as shown here).

Tip   In addition to running these startup switches at the command prompt, you can add them to the Find Fast shortcut in your Startup group, so that Find Fast starts with the switches you specify each time your computer starts.

The startup switches available include the following.

Finding Documents with Find Fast

Document searching functionality is built into the Open dialog box (File menu) of Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Office Binder, and Microsoft Project. The Text or property box and all controls in the Advanced Find dialog box (viewable by clicking the Advanced button in the Open dialog box) rely on indexes created by Find Fast.

In Outlook, this functionality is viewable by clicking the Advanced tab in the Find dialog box (Tools menu).

If users attempt to search a folder or drive that has not been indexed, they can still enter search criteria into the Text or property box or the Advanced Find dialog box; however, these searches take much longer to execute because each file needs to be compared against the search criteria individually.

Tip   You can search multiple folders or drives simultaneously through the Advanced Find dialog box. In the Look in box, select the first drive or folder you want searched. Then enter additional drive or folder names separated by a semicolon. For example, if you enter C:\My Documents;D:\;E:\Public in the Look in box, Find Fast searches the folder My Documents on the C drive, the entire D drive, and the Public folder on the E drive. These drives may be any combination of local or network drives. Note that there are no spaces before or after the semicolons in the string.

Outlook uses the document properties cached in a Find Fast index, if available, when displaying Office documents in table views.

Find Fast caches document properties by default. If document properties caching is turned off, you can turn it on by selecting the Speed up property display check box in the Create Index dialog box (Index menu) of the Find Fast control panel.

This index file extension	Indicates this type of file
.ffl	Document list
.ffx	Index
.ffo	Cache of document properties such as Author and Title
.ffa	Status file
This startup switch	Has this effect
/u folder namewhere folder name is the path and name of a folder	Starts Find Fast, updates the index in this folder, and then closes Find Fast. Do not combine this switch with other switches.
/v	Runs the Find Fast log file in verbose mode, so that it is not automatically truncated at 24 KB.
/showui	Displays the Find Fast user interface.
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