Search For Documents In Lucion FileCenter

Search For Documents In Lucion FileCenter

FileCenterWhen Windows users ask me about document management software, I almost always point them to FileCenter by Lucion. I can’t think of one person who hasn’t liked it.

It can be simple to use and it can be extremely powerful, and searching for files in FileCenter is a perfect example. I get questions from time to time on how to do it, so here is a primer.

Which Search Are You Using?

FileCenter can use either the built-in Windows Search or its own custom search. FileCenter search may be a bit more powerful, but in my opinion it is generally easiest to use Windows Search.
To see and choose which search you are using, click on the Search tab.

FileCenter Search Bar

Then click the Settings button.

FileCenter Search Button

Then in the Search menu, see what you have set in Default Search Engine.

FileCenter Search Engine

Problems Using Windows Search?

If you have it set to Windows Search but you can’t find any words, you may have a problem with the PDF indexing on your computer. It is very common.

See this blog post about fixing Windows PDF Search, which will likely help.

Set Up FileCenter Advanced Search

If you want more power than what Windows Search provides, you need to do some setup.

First follow the instructions above but set Default Search Engine to Advanced Search.

Enable Indexing

The first thing to do is turn on Indexing for your Cabinets. This may have already been done, but it is good to check.

In FileCenter, click on Tools and then Settings.

FileCenter Tools Settings

Next, click on Advanced Indexing on the left and make sure the following is set:

  • Enable Auto Indexer is checked
  • Run indexer every n hours is selected
  • Run every has a reasonable number of hours set. Maybe 1–3?
  • All your relevant cabinets are selected in the Cabinets to be Auto Indexed box. If you want FileCenter to be able to find documents in your Inbox, check Inbox. If not, leave it unchecked.

Hit OK

Do An Initial Index

An index is an internal FileCenter thing where it keeps track of your documents and their contents. Since we have enabled auto-indexing, it should take care of it for you, but to kick it off, let’s do an initial run.
Click on the Tools near the top, and then choose Advanced Indexing Options….

Tools Advanced Indexing

Then check the Cabinets you want to index and hit Start Indexer. Once you do this, search should be ready to roll.

Searching For Documents

To find a document in FileCenter, you want to click the Search tab at the top.

The options that you have to search with depends on which search engine you are using (Windows Search or Advanced Search), and you can choose which method you want at the time of searching.

You can enter a keyword in the Search for box, and it will search by file name or contents. You can control what types of files are searched for and which Cabinets are used to search.

FileCenter Search

Remember, if you are using Advanced Search, FileCenter will only search the cabinets that you have selected to be indexed. If it is not finding something that you think it should, that is the first place to check.

You can also search for files in a specific folder. When you are looking at a folder in the Manage view, click the Search button in the top-right corner of the folder pane. You can then do a quick search.

FileCenter Search Folder

That is probably more than you ever wanted to know about Search in FileCenter.

As with many things in technology, it can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it. Check the Help for more tricks you can do such as “fuzzy search”, stemming, and having a centralized search index for your whole company.

About the Author

Brooks Duncan helps individuals and small businesses go paperless. He's been an accountant, a software developer, a manager in a very large corporation, and has run DocumentSnap since 2008. You can find Brooks on Twitter at @documentsnap or @brooksduncan. Thanks for stopping by.

Leave a Reply 7 comments

www.youtube.com - August 18, 2014 Reply

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Jeff - April 2, 2014 Reply

Nice that you did a post about the FileCenter once again.

After you recommended it some years ago, I started using the pro-version. En general, I like the program. It gives a lot of structure to your filingsystem and gives you the feeling that you’re in control of your digital filing cabinet. What I really like is that it uses windowsfolders that you just can keep using simultaniously.

A negative thing is that it can be really slow compared to windows 7 or 8. Also the preview function and the enhanced thumbnails can’t handle as many filetypes as windows and can really slow thing down.

At times – when I have to be fast – I don’t use FileCenter but switch to “Folder Scout”, that directs me lightning fast to the windows folder I’m looking for.

    Brooks Duncan - April 2, 2014 Reply

    Thanks for the report Jeff. Very cool – I wasn’t familiar with Folder Scout before. Looks interesting! Sort of like Alfred on the Mac.

Philippe - March 30, 2014 Reply

Thank you for this topic Brooks
It looks like Advanced Indexing options is only available on the pro version.

Unfortunately, OCR is not working for encrypted files. I understand why but we miss a great function. I use Boxcryptor (Free, easy to use) to keep my files protected in the cloud but a search can be made only by the name of the file.
Today, there is no perfect tool to keep our files in the cloud. Evernote is great, OCR works very well but the security level is not at the top. Cloud storage in encrypted softwares ( SpiderOaks, BoxCryptor…) are very secure but searching a file by a keyword is not possible.

Fred - March 25, 2014 Reply

What do recommend that is similar to FileCenter for Mac?
Thanks.

    Brooks Duncan - March 25, 2014 Reply

    I haven’t found a true equivalent. I personally just manage and process my documents in Finder with no additional software. The closest I’ve found to FileCenter is Presto! PageManager, which I wrote about here: http://www.documentsnap.com/presto-pagemanager-9-mac-review/.

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