Entrian Source Search: QuickStart Guide
Installation
When you first install Entrian Source Search and enable it via Tools / Add-in Manager, it adds a new tool window to Visual Studio. It's a good idea to dock this along the bottom of your workspace.
Indexing
Entrian Source Search builds a full-text index of all the text files in one or more folder trees - when you load a solution that it hasn't seen before, you tell it which root folder(s) to index. (So it indexes files that Visual Studio doesn't know about - ChangeLogs, documentation, header files, everything.)
Indexing happens automatically, first when you load a solution, and then when any of the files under your chosen root folders are changed (even if they are changed outside of Visual Studio). The indexer is non-invasive - it runs in a low priority background thread, pauses when you interact with the search box or the search results, and it throttles itself while you're interacting with your PC.
Irrelevant files like binary files and output files are excluded from the index. Binary files are excluded automatically, and there's a configurable list in More / Options of text file extensions to exclude.
You can start searching as soon as you like - even if not all of your files have been indexed yet, you can search those that have.
Searching
- You can search for words, "quoted phrases" and wildcar*. Wildcard asterisks can appear *any*where* in a word.
- You can filter your search, limiting it to only files with certain extensions ext:cpp or certain names file:ChangeLog or in certain directories dir:lib\server.
- You can filter on text or phrases as well: "find this phrase" +"only in files containing this phrase".
- Filters can exclude as well as include: -ext:html, -"exclude files containing this phrase".
- To search for an asterisk, rather than have it indicate a wildcard, use a quoted phrase: "char*".
Keyboard shortcuts
The main keyboard shortcuts are configurable - these are the defaults:
- Alt+= takes the word under the cursor (or the selected text if there is any) and searches for it. If you've specified any filters (eg. ext:cpp) these will be left in place.
- Alt+] jumps to the next hit, loading the source file into the editor.
- Alt+[ jumps to the previous hit.
- Shift+Alt+] jumps to the first hit in the next file, skipping the rest of the current file.
- Shift+Alt+[ jumps to the first hit in the previous file.
The three keys used here, =, [ and ] make a triangle on most Western keyboards. Note that if your keyboard has an AltGr key, you can use that as an alternative to the Alt key.
Here are some more shortcuts:
- Ctrl+[ in the Search box takes you Back in your search history.
- Ctrl+] in the Search box takes you Forward in your search history.
- F2 in the Search box shows or hides the autocomplete list (but mostly you won't need this, because the list will pop down automatically as you type).
- Down Arrow in the Search box takes you down into the results.
- Up Arrow in the first result takes up back up into the Search box.
- Escape in the Search box puts you back into the source editor window.
Search results
The search results show the folder and filename of each hit, along with the icon for that file type. The hits are syntax coloured - what you see is what you get.
The filename of the first hit in each file is shown in black, with subsequent hits from that file in gray. Likewise folders - the first hit in each folder is black.