Tip #4209 - Copernic - Part 1
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Copernic
- Part 1
Do you ever find
yourself asking, “Where did I save that e-mail to Uncle Bert
telling him I was paying him a visit?”
Or, how about,
“Where on earth are those pictures from last year’s holiday?
I know I saved them somewhere on my computer!”
And, “I’m
sure I saved those MP3s that Brenda sent me. Where are they?”
If you've ever
experienced those frustrations, you know there are important documents,
photos, MP3s, etc. on your computer somewhere, but instead of being
able to find them easily, you're tearing your hair out trying to remember
where they are among the thousands of files on your computer.
Of course, there
is a Windows Search program you can use to locate them, but how long
does that take and how successful is it in reality?
Allow me to show
you how to do it easily, and for free, with a piece of software called
Copernic. It is a program that will save you a great
deal of time and a whole lot of frustration!
First of all,
here's a basic explanation of Copernic:
When the Windows
Search program does its job, it goes through every file on your hard
drive each time to see whether it contains the word or phrase you
are looking for.
On the other hand,
what Copernic does is build an index of all the files (well, the ones
you choose to be included) on your computer and it just searches that
index to retrieve the files you are looking for. Hence, the vast speed
up of time!
So, let’s
see (1) how to install Copernic, (2) how to index your files and (3)
how to initiate a search for a specific item. Now, there is a lot
of information here, so we will spread this out over two different
articles, but please don’t let that put you off. You can do
it far quicker than I can explain it in writing!
Installation
Here
is the download link that will lead you to this page:
Clicking the Free
Download link will take you here, where clicking the file
circled will allow you to download it:
Elect to Save
the file and when completed, click on the program setup file:
This will initiate
the setup process:
When completed,
you can run the program. To do so, click Finish.
You can now configure
Copernic to suit your needs.
As you will see
below, you are offered the choice of a recommended configuration or
a custom configuration. Normally, I would suggest the recommended
one, but in this case, you might be better off selecting the
Custom configuration:
Now, you can choose
what basic files you want to index/search for, including your local
files (for example, on this computer as opposed to a network), contacts
and e-mails from your e-mail client. You can even narrow those down
later on, along with your browser history and favorites if that’s
what you want (see below):
Now, it’s
time to narrow the search down a little (again, if you wish). Here
is the default list of folders that will be indexed. So, let’s
amend it to suit ourselves:
Click Next
to get here, which is where you can select a specific area you want
to narrow down (in my case, I don’t want all of my C: drive
to be indexed, because I store most of my data files on my D: drive).
So, I select C: and then Modify to allow me to make
changes, but do what's best for your computer:
As you can see,
this opens an Explorer-type window where you can just select the folders
you want to be indexed:
But, do note the
boxes I have circled. In my case, I only want to be able to find documents
on this drive, but you may want to find pictures, music and videos
on other drives, so just make sure you checkmark the relevant boxes.
In addition, if
you have folders below the main folder, you should also select the
Include Subfolders option.
Again, in my own
case, I have also told Copernic to index documents on my D: drive,
but not to index anything in my Desktop, My Documents, My Music or
My Pictures, because I don’t store files there. But again, you
must individualize this to your own needs.
Now, let's move
on to selecting the e-mail indexing requirements. Click Next
to get to this screen:
Select the e-mail
program you are using (in my case, it is Outlook, not Outlook Express).
Once you do that, this screen will open (some information has been
blanked out for the sake of my confidentiality):
You will see that
this lists all the folders you have in your Outlook or Outlook Express
and you can choose to have all of them or just some of them indexed.
Important
note: Outlook will archive older e-mails from time to time,
so if you want Copernic to work on those too (because often times,
it's the older documents you are trying to find), don’t forget
to select those too (see the picture below):
Clicking Next
brings you another choice:
Do you want Copernic
to keep a little box on your desktop that you can type a search directly
into (see picture below) and/or do you want a search bar to appear
in either Internet Explorer or Firefox?
Make your choices
and then click Next.
Here’s a
picture of the Desktop search box:
A final Next
will allow Copernic to accept those modifications and then
start the indexing process:
I will leave Part
1 at this point and we will take it up from here in Part 2 tomorrow.
We will then discuss how to make changes once you have set up Copernic
and how to modify it to suit your own needs. We will also go over
how to use Copernic to find those elusive files. So, be sure to stay
tuned for that in tomorrow's newsletter. See you all then!
~ David Woodford
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