WinFindr’s natural language search helps you find files when the words you remember differ from the filename. Choose a mode to match related word forms, similar spelling, similar sounds or words that appear close together.
Proximity search
WinFindr supports proximity search. Proximity search means a type of search where you define two or more search terms, and the maximum proximity between the search terms and all WinFindr will find all the matching files. For example, you can define search words “Apple” and “Pie” and a proximity of 2, and WinFindr will find all files whose name contain the words “Apple” and “Pie”, and these words must be within 2 words of each other.
Ignore derived words and conjugations
Another natural language search feature is called “ignore derived words and conjugations” search. It means you can find data even if you don’t know the exact spelling of the word. For example, in this search mode a search term “invoice” would match files such as “invoicing.pdf” and “invoices.pdf” and “invoiced.pdf”. This works, because WinFindr comes with a built-in dictionary of words and their derivations in English.
Phonetic search
WinFindr also support searching by how words sound like. This is called phonetic search. For example, you can search for “John” and WinFindr will find files such as “Jon.pdf”, because the two words sound alike. Or, searching for “peace” will also match “piece” because the words are read in a similar way in English.
Search by similarity
The similarity search means WinFindr will consider something a match, if the words are similar in spelling, such as “WinFindr” would match “WinFinder”.
How to find files with natural language search
To find files by natural language search in Windows with WinFindr, you need to follow these steps:
- Open WinFindr. Download it now if you haven’t already.
- Enter one or more search terms, one per line. For example, “Apple” and “Pie”.
- Select the natural language search mode you want to use. For example, “Ignore derived words and conjugations”.
- Control-Click on the “Files” checkbox to only search for files. (Optional step)
- Click on the “Start” button to start the search.
- WinFindr will now search for all files using the natural language search mode you selected.
This is how a natural language search looks:
Use natural language matching inside documents
These matching options also work with document content search. Follow the guide to finding documents by content to search inside supported files. If you need to describe a specific character pattern instead, see the regular expression search tutorial.
Download WinFindr
What are you waiting for? Download WinFindr now. It won’t cook you breakfast but it will make your life easier.