Chapter 3. Search

Table of Contents
3.1. Simple search
3.2. The result list
3.3. The preview window
3.4. Complex/advanced search
3.5. Multiple databases
3.6. Document history
3.7. Sorting search results
3.8. Search tips, shortcuts
3.9. Customizing the search interface

The recoll program provides the user interface for searching. It is based on the QT library.

3.1. Simple search

  1. Start the recoll program.

  2. Possibly choose a search mode: Any term or All terms or File name.

  3. Enter search term(s) in the text field at the top of the window.

  4. Click the Search button or hit the Enter key to start the search.

The initial default search mode is Any term. This will look for documents with any of the search terms (the ones with more terms will get better scores). All terms will ensure that only documents with all the terms will be returned. File name will specifically look for file names, and allows using wildcards (*, ? , []).

You can search for exact phrases (adjacent words in a given order) by enclosing the input inside double quotes. Ex: "virtual reality".

Character case has no influence on search, except that you can disable stem expansion for any term by capitalizing it. Ie: a search for floor will also normally look for flooring, floored, etc., but a search for Floor will only look for floor, in any character case (stemming can also be disabled globally in the preferences).

Recoll remembers the last few searches that you performed. You can use the simple search text entry widget (a combobox) to recall them (click on the thing at the right of the text field). Please note, however, that only the search texts are remembered, not the mode (all/any/file name).

Hitting ^Tab (Ctrl + Tab) while entering a word in the simple search entry will open a window with possible completions for the word. The completions are extracted from the database.

Double-clicking on a word in the result list or a preview window will insert it into the simple search entry field.

You can use the Tools / Advanced search dialog for more complex searches.