FamEx

There might come a time when you want to find a particular document, yet you do not remember the name or format of the document. If you do, however, retain some keywords or expressions from its content, then it is perfect. The problem is that there are few programs out there capable of allowing you to do that, and the few of them that exist aren't exactly beginner friendly. One such application is FamEx, which is a command line-based word searcher.

Most of you might be used to having a UI where you press a few buttons and insert some parameters, and the job gets done. Unfortunately, this isn't the case with this Java-written text finder. Using this app is relatively simple, as you first need to modify the configuration.txt file and run FamEx. While inside the configuration.txt file, you need to write a list of files that you would like to search in the [files] section, while also keeping in mind that files listed first will also be examined first.

Without exiting the configuration.txt file, you then have to go under the [strings] section write a list of words, that you would like to search for. If you are a more advanced user and are used to writing down command lines, then you could try writing a list of regular expressions that might match the searching pattern under [regex] section.  One thing you mustn't forget is that the expressions must be written in a way that is easy to understand for Java. Once all the configurations have been set, all you need to do is run the application.

While not everyone might be able to wrap their around the way FamEx works, those that do will realize quickly enough how useful this tool can be for finding the documents they need.