There are 3 ways to search for files and populate the found item list. A Simple Search, an Expert Search and a List Dropped items.
Simple and Expert searches allow you to search the files within a given folder/disk using different criteria and options like, filename, content, creation and modification date, type & creator, invisible items, search within the filePackages... iPassepartout will quickly list all the items satisfying the search criteria. Then, even while the search is still running, you can browse the found items list and see, read, play, select, copy, drag the content of the files to other applications' documents. In a while.
More, iPassepartout can list all the files/folders you drag from the Finder onto the found item list or onto the iPassepartout application icon in the Finder or in the Dock. This way you can easily browse the content of all the files the dragged folder contains. iPassepartout will scan and list the files nested in all the subfolders too.

• Simple search:
The Simple Search is the one ready to use on the Console window. It grants the simplest and most used way to define a search.
In order to perform a simple search you have to define the source folder/disk to search in and a set of criteria like whether searching by filename of by content. See here below the details::

• Folder:
  define, in the text field Folder in the console, the source folder/disk to search in. You can define the folder to search in, in 3 different ways:
  a) Drag a folder onto the text field Folder in the console.
  b) Type the pathname of the folder into the text field Folder:, e.g. /Users/Me/Documents
  c) Click on the icon Folder at the right side of the text field Folder: in the console and choose the folder by the dialog Choose.
  d) The cases above a and b allow you to even define a sinle file Package as source folder. This is very useful when you are looking for resources like icons, images, text, frameworks... embedded within (e.g.) the Cocoa applications or within the RTFD files.
  Also, see the Expert search to know how to perform a search in a Folder or Disk and scan within all the file Packages met.
  
  
• Search Words:
  type here the string you want to find, either in the filename or within the content of the text files. You can define more than one word (multiple search), simply separating the words by a space. e.g: To search either sales plus john plus convention you simply type: sales john convention. More than the Find command of the Finder, iPassepartout have no limits on the number of the words that can be searched at the same time. And even more than the Find command of the Finder, iPassepartout allows you to search for words containing the special character @ as email addresses (e.g. johnsmith@mac.com).
  Another features that iPassepartout grants more than the Find command is searching for entire strings containing spaces like John Smith. If you want to search the entire string John Smith (2 words joined together and separated by space) and not all the John and all the Smith, you have to type the string within the quotes like "John Smith" (including the quotes) in the Search Word text field. The quotes simply make the strings containing spaces be treated like a single search request and not like several single words search requests.
  You can even mix this methods, e.g. if you want to search the whole string John Smith plus convention you have to type: "John Smith" convention.
  
  
• Filename:
  if marked, iPassepartout will perform a search of the Search Words in the filenames of the files placed within the source folder. If you don't specify any filename to search, iPassepartout will list all the items placed within the source folder and its subfolders. When this option is on, a new option will be available: Exact Match.
  
  
  • Exact Match:
    this option is available only in case of searches for filenames.
    If marked, iPassepartout finds all the files whose filename is exactly what you typed in the field Search Words.
    If unmarked, iPassepartout will find all the file whose filename contains the Search Words.
    e.g.: If you defined ReadMe as Search Word, and this check-box is NOT marked, iPassepartout will find filenames like ReadMe.txt, ReadMe.rtf, ReadMe.pdf, The ReadMe File.
    e.g.: If you defined ReadMe.rtfd as Search Word, and this check-box is marked, iPassepartout will find only files whose filename is ReadMe.rtfd, and will exclude files whose filename is ReadMe, ReadMe.rtf, ReadMe.pdf, The ReadMe File.
    
    
• Content:
  if marked, iPassepartout will perform a search of the Search Words within the content of the Text files found inside the source folder.
  This options is useful to find text files containing a given word. For example, this option is very powerful to find informations within archives like emails, articles, documentation, news, sample source code...
  iPassepartout will scan inside the content of all the Text Files whose extension or type is listed and marked in the Extensions list or in the Type list shown in the Preference panel (see the chapter Preferences later in this document). The user can easily customize this list adding/removing or activating/deactivating each extension and type.
  For searches in the content, iPassepartout doesn't require the data be indexed. The search speed is very high anyway. This is a big benefit in all the cases where the files on your disks change continuosly. In addition to this, a cache mechanism increases the search speed dramatically after the first search within the same folder.
  Once you got the found items list, you will be able to browse the text files, show any occurrence of the words searched, define and find other words to search within the text, select, copy and paste or drag the text to other application's documents (see the Browse Text chapter later in this document).
  When this option is enabled, a new option will be available: Whole Word.
  
  
  • Whole Word:
    if marked, iPassepartout will match the file, only if the Search Words are really separated words and not substrings of a word within the document. The words' separators, more than the simple space, are puntuaction marks like , . : ; ( ) / - _ [ ] { }
    e.g.: if you defined past as search word, and this check-box is NOT marked, iPassepartout will find text files containing strings like past, paste, pastel, pastiche...
    e.g.: if you defined past as search word, and this check-box is marked, iPassepartout will find text files containing strings like past, but not paste nor pastel... It also will find text files containing the string past-tens (because the character - is a separator of words).
    
    
• And/Or:
  if you search for more than one word, the option And/Or became available.
  For example, if you defined as search words john sales and you marked the radio button And, iPassepartout will find all the text files containing both the words john and sales. iPassepartout will skip all the text files containing one only of the two words.
  Instead, if you defined as search words john sales and you marked the radio button Or, iPassepartout will find all the text files containing at least one of the two words searched.
  In case the radio button Or is selected, iPassepartout will sort the found item list by Rank. The rank describes the relevance of the words found.
  
  
• Start the Search:
  to start the search, after defining the parameters above, simply press the button with the Lens icon, and wait for iPassepartout begin to list out the first results. You can even start the search pressing the Return key if one of the two text fields Folder or Search Words are selected. The spinning cursor and the status field at the bottom of the window, indicate that the search is in progress. If the search takes more than 5 seconds, the status field is being updated with the current amount of files found, files scanned and elapsed time.
  At the end of the search, the status field at the bottom of the window will report the final number of the items found and the time elapsed for the whole search. The spinning cursor will disappear and the items found table will list all the items found. Then you can click on any single item of the list to see/read/play/select/copy/drag the content of the file. Even while iPassepartout is still searching, you can browse the content of the found items list. You can sort the items found list by Pathname or by Rank clicking on the correspondent column header (see the chapter Found Items List).
  
  
• Stop the search:
  at any time you can stop a running search pressing again the green lens icon. All the files found until this moment will be displayed in the found item list. Don't press this button many times. Press once and wait for one or two seconds, just to let iPassepartout close the current search session.
  
  

Technical Notes: the Simple Search doesn't scan within the filePackages located within the folders (file packages are all the Cocoa applications, the RTFD files, ...). But it can scan within one only filePackage if this is defined as source folder. To scan within all the filePackages (to search for resources, icons) located within the source folder and all of its subfolders, please consult the the Expert Search chapther later in this document.

• Expert search:
iPassepartout can search the files in expert mode by:

• Content (case sensitive, whole word) + (and/or)
  
• Filename (contains, starts with, ends with, is) + (and/or)
  
• Creation Date (is, is not, is before, is after, is today, is yesterday)
  
• Modification Date (is, is not, is before, is after, is today, is yesterday)
  
• Type (is, is not)
  
• Creator (is, is not)
  
• Kind (File, Folder, File Package)
  
• Invisible Files
  
• Search within file packages: if marked iPPT will search even within all the filePackage met. Useful to search for resources like icons, images...
  
  
  
  After selecting one or more criteria press the button Find at the righ bottom of the expert dialog window to start the search.
  Like in the Simple Search, even while iPPT is still searching, you can browse the content of the found items list.
  
  
  

• List Dropped Items:
If you want to quickly see what a given file or folder or disk contain, simply drag the file or folder or disk onto the Found Items List. iPassepartout will list all the items dropped there and all the items located within the folders or disks dropped, recursively. Even if the list already contains some items, you can insert the dropped items between the items in list. iPassepartout will not remove the items already in list. In order to remove all the items in list you have to Call the menu Edit:Select All, then press the backspace key. This will now delete the selected items from the disk, but simply will remove the selected items from the iPassepartout found item list.




You can even drag files and folders onto the iPassepartout icon in the Finder in order to get the list of the dropped items. If iPassepartout is not launched, it will do quickly, then it will list the dropped items.