VII. Index search

Like filtering, index searching leverages FTK’s indexed data to quickly and precisely return files meeting certain conditions. Unlike filtering, index searching is most powerful when it is used to find specific text strings in the case data. Index search also has its own tab in FTK. While FTK’s Live Search feature initiates a process to search all data in the case, index searching is able to produce much faster results by searching the index stored in FTK’s database. Since the work has already been done to crawl all text in the case, index searching can recall highly precise search strings very quickly.

Using the Index Search tab can seem dizzying at first because its default formation is four total panels, while other tabs normally include three. The flow of the interface is as follows:

Use the search panel to enter search terms and add them to a criteria list. Click Search Now to conduct the search.

The Index Search Results panel populates with a drilldown tree to view files and hits. Click on an entire search (the highest line in the hierarchy) to produce all file results in the File List. Click on a hit to open the search string in the given file.

Use the File List to view items returned in the search and click on a file to view it in the File Content viewer.

The File Content Viewer can be used to show the file contents and metadata. By opening a hit directly in the Index Search Results panel, the File Content Viewer will automatically open the file at the line where the hit occurs. The search string will be highlighted.

Figure 1. The Index Search tab interface.

For example, we can search a common string in the case data to easily bring up all files where the string occurs. Bill Baird (Papers of Bill Baird, MC 831) signs his letters and other professional correspondence with the phrase “Yours in Freedom.” By searching “Yours in Freedom” in the Index Search tab, we can quickly summon a list of professional correspondence files to add to bookmarks.

Figure 2. An index search in the Bill Baird case. Viewing a hit opens the file in the file content pane and highlights the search string.

In another example, we can search the name of some important individual who may need to be described in the finding aid. Index search can return every occurrence of the name in the data. With the below example, the search term is Goodridge, as in the surname of the plaintiffs in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, the case that established the legal right to marry for same-sex couples in Massachusetts. Here, the index search returns a record for the couple in a customer list for the Records of Ruby’s Provincetown Fine Jewelry (2016-M181).