MORE INFORMATION
The Find Fast utility is installed to the Control Panel
when you install Office. Unlike the previous version of Office, Find Fast does
not automatically create an index for each drive after it is initially
installed. You must run Find Fast from the Control Panel to create indices.
Find Fast can create indices for files on local, shared, or networked drives.
These indices contain words, titles, and OLE properties for each file on that
drive. The indices help speed up finding and opening files when you use the
Advanced Find and
Open commands in the Office programs. Although you can directly use
Find Fast in the Control Panel, Find Fast indexes Office documents
automatically when you use the
Open or
Open Office Documents commands and requires no user interaction.
You may
create multiple indexes on a single drive, especially on shared or network
drives, but you cannot create indexes that overlap. For example, if a Find Fast
index exists on the root of drive C (C:\), you cannot create an additional
index for files in the My Documents folder on drive C. To create an index of My
Documents, first delete the index for drive C through the Find Fast Control
Panel.
Description of the Index Files
Find Fast index files are located in the folder in the topmost
level in the hierarchy of indexed folders. For example, if you index an entire
drive, the index file is located at the root of that drive. Find Fast index
files are hidden files. These index files and their functions are listed in the
following table.
File Name Type of File
---------------------------------------------------------
Ffastun.ffl Document list
Ffastun.ffx Index
Ffastun.ffo Cache of document properties
(for example, the author and title)
Ffastun0.ffa Status file
Because you create and maintain index files through Find Fast in
the Control Panel, it is not necessary to work with these files directly.
NOTE Do not attempt to copy, move, or change the attributes of these
file types. If you must delete or move a set of indexed folders, first delete
the index through the Find Fast Control Panel, and then recreate the index
after you move the folders.
Index files typically require about 7
percent of the space of the text portion of the documents that are being
indexed, or about 1 to 3 percent of the total document size.
Files That Can Be Indexed
When you specify the type of documents to index in
Create Index, Find Fast includes the document types that are listed in the
following table.
Document type File name extension
------------- -------------------
MS Office and Web Documents All the Microsoft Excel, Microsoft
PowerPoint, Microsoft
Project, and Microsoft Word document types
listed in this table. Microsoft Binder
(.odb, .obt) and Microsoft Access (.mdb)
files. Note that in .mdb files, only
document properties are indexed.
Word documents .doc (document),
.dot (template), .ht* (Hypertext Markup
Language document), .txt (text file), .rtf
(Rich Text Format) files, Excel workbooks
.xl* files
PowerPoint .ppt (presentation), .pot (template), .pps
(auto-running presentation) files
Microsoft Project files .mpp, .mpw, .mpt, .mpx, .mpd files
All files *.* files
In addition to the Office document types that are listed in the
table, Find Fast can index the following document types if the associated
conversion filters are installed and support minimal RTF mode:
Lotus 1-2-3 version 2.x - 4.0
RFT-DCA
Microsoft Works version 3.x for Windows
Word version 4.x - 5.x for the Macintosh
Works version 4.0 for Windows
WordPerfect version 5.x
WordPerfect version 6.x
WordStar
NOTE: When you click
All Files in the
Create Index, Find Fast excludes file types that do not contain text, such as
.bmp, .com or .exe files.
Creating an Index
You can specify the file types to index only when you create an
index. You cannot change the indexed file types for an existing index; you must
delete the index, and then recreate it. To create a Fast Find index, use the
following steps:
- Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
- Double-click Find Fast.
- On the Index menu, click Create Index.
- Under In And Below, select the drive or folder that contains the documents you want
to index. This location is also where the index files are stored.
- In the Of Type list, click the file types you want to index.
- Click OK.
Deleting an Index
To delete a Fast Find index, use the following steps:
- Click Start , point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
- Double-click Find Fast.
- On the Index menu, click Delete Index.
- In the In And Below box, click the location of the Find Fast index you want to
delete.
- Click OK.
For additional information about disabling Find Fast, please
see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
199787OFF2000: How to Turn Off the Find Fast Indexer