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Guide: How to Mark Files for Searching with PowerGREP?

Published: POPSnail.com

I. Introduction of PowerGREP :

Description:

PowerGREP - Quickly find information in files and folders across your computer or network, even if you do not know in advance exactly what you are looking for. PowerGREP's rich Perl-compatible regular expression support allows you to search for virtually anything by specifying the form of what you want, and let PowerGREP find the actual text matching that form. PowerGREP's documentation includes a detailed regular expression tutorial, with many simple and complex examples.Search through plain text files such as source code, letters and correspondence, server or system logs, reference texts, historic archives, etc. Search through through binary files, Unicode files, UNIX and Mac text files, files stored in zip archives, Microsoft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, Acrobat PDF files, etc.

PowerGREP - Don't limit yourself to getting a list of files or search matches. Extract useful information from large sets of data or heaps of documents. Distill statistics and knowledge from all kinds of log files or archives.Perform comprehensive search-and-replace operations across large numbers of files for easy maintenance or fast editing of web sites, source code, reports, etc. Preview and inspect the results of the search and replace before actually modifying files. Replace or revert individual search matches in a full-featured file editor. Stay safe with a variety of backup options. Undo changes or clean up backup files in the Undo History.Save PowerGREP actions and invoke them from the command line to automate recurring tasks. Developers can integrate PowerGREP actions and results with enterprise software through PowerGREP's open XML file formats.

Key Features:

PowerGREP's rich Perl-compatible regular expression support allows you to search for virtually anything by specifying the form of what you want, and let PowerGREP find the actual text matching that form.
PowerGREP's documentation includes a detailed regular expression tutorial, with many simple and complex examples.
Search through plain text files such as source code, letters and correspondence, server or system logs, reference texts, historic archives, etc.
Search through through binary files, Unicode files, UNIX and Mac text files, files stored in zip archives, Microsoft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, Acrobat PDF files, etc.
Stay safe with a variety of backup options.
Undo changes or clean up backup files in the Undo History.
Save PowerGREP actions and invoke them from the command line to automate recurring tasks.
Developers can integrate PowerGREP actions and results with enterprise software through
PowerGREP's open XML file formats.

II. How to Mark Files for Searching :

PowerGREP-Step1: To include an individual file in the search, click on the file in the tree of files and folders, and then select the Include File or Folder item in the File Selector menu, or click the corresponding button on the File Selector toolbar. A green tick will appear next to the file.

PowerGREP-Step2: To include a folder, and all the files in that folder, click on the folder and use the same Include File or Folder command. A green tick will appear next to the folder. Gray ticks will appear next to the files in the folder.

PowerGREP-Step3: To include a folder, all the files in that folder, and all the files in all subfolders in that folder, click on the folder and then select Include Folder and Subfolders in the File Selector menu. A double green-blue tick will appear next to the folder. Gray ticks will appear next to the files. Double gray tick will appear next to the subfolders.

PowerGREP-Step4: To exclude a file that has a gray tick because you included its folder, click on the file and select Exclude File or Folder from the menu.

PowerGREP-Step5: To exclude folder that has a double gray tick because you included its parent folder, click on that folder and select Exclude File or Folder. Files and folders in that folder will be excluded as well.

PowerGREP-Step6: If you change your mind about including or excluding a file or folder, click on it and then select Clear File or Folder. To remove all markings, select the Clear item in the File Selector menu.

PowerGREP-Step7: If you want to search through files of particular types only, enter a semicolon-delimited list of file types in the "include files" box. E.g. enter *.txt;*.html to search through text files and HTML files only. To exclude certain types of files, enter their file types in the "exclude files" box. The File Selector reference explains the file masks you can use in the include files and exclude files boxes in full detail.

PowerGREP-Step8: Finally, if you only want to search through recently modified files, select "modified during the past..." in the File Modification Dates section. Then you can enter the number of hours, days, weeks, months or years. Other date options allow you to restrict the search to files last modified during a certain date range.