Content Search
Content Search lets you search inside document files — not just by filename, but by the actual text content. Find that one PDF with the contract clause, or the Markdown note mentioning a specific topic.
Supported File Types
- PDF — .pdf
- Markdown — .md
- Word — .docx, .doc
- Excel — .xlsx
- PowerPoint — .pptx
How to Use
- Select a scope — Choose a directory from the Scope dropdown in the filter toolbar (e.g., Documents, Desktop, or use "Choose Folder" to pick any folder).
- Enable Content Search — Toggle the Content switch on. It appears in the filter toolbar after the case sensitivity picker. The switch is only available when a scope is selected.
- Type your query — Enter the text you want to find inside documents. Results will show files that contain matching text.
Search Results
When Content Search is active, results display differently:
- Each result shows the filename and path as usual.
- Below the filename, a matched snippet shows the surrounding text with your search terms highlighted in bold.
- If a file has multiple matches, click "N more matches" to expand and see all snippets.
Indexing
The first time you enable Content Search for a scope, AnySearch extracts and indexes the text content of all supported documents in that directory. This may take a moment depending on the number and size of files.
- A progress bar appears in the status bar showing indexing progress (e.g., "Indexing 42/150").
- You can cancel indexing at any time by clicking the × next to the progress bar.
- Once indexed, subsequent searches in the same scope are instant — the index is cached.
- If a file is modified, its content index is automatically refreshed on the next search.
Limits and Performance
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Max file size for indexing | 50 MB |
| Max extracted text per file | 1 MB |
| Index cache limit | 500 MB (oldest scopes evicted automatically) |
| Extraction timeout per file | 5 seconds |
Tips
- Content Search works best with text-based documents. Scanned PDFs (images without OCR) won't return results.
- Use a narrow scope for faster indexing — searching your entire home directory will take longer than searching a specific project folder.
- Content Search is a free feature — no Pro subscription required.
- Multi-word queries match files containing all the words (AND logic).