Quick Start

FIND_AZ 2.1.5 helps you find files by filename, path, file contents, OCR text, video chapters, and video transcriptions. The GUI mode is recommended for normal use.

1. InstallDownload the installer for your platform, open it, and follow the on-screen instructions.

2. Select foldersUse Desktop 2 to select the top folders that should be indexed recursively.

3. Index and searchUse Desktop 3 to build the index, then Desktop 4 to search, tag, and export results.

Use Windows Command Prompt or Windows Terminal for Windows commands. Do not use PowerShell.

Installation

Keep an internet connection available during installation. Installation sets up required components and prepares folders. Daily use does not require admin mode.

Windows

Download the Windows .exe installer from your Find AZ account. If your browser warns about the download, choose Keep — the installer is unsigned, so this is expected.
Double-click the downloaded installer.
If Windows asks whether to allow changes, click Yes.
To add a Desktop icon, tick Create a desktop shortcut, then click Next.
On the Ready to Install summary, click Install. Higher indexing levels (Deep, Extreme) include more, so they take longer.
When it finishes, click Finish, then open Find AZ from the Desktop shortcut, the Start menu, or Windows Search.

If Windows shows “Windows protected your PC”: confirm that you downloaded the installer from your Find AZ account, click More info, check the app name, then click Run anyway. Windows may show Unknown publisherbecause the installer is unsigned. If that option is unavailable, do not disable Windows Security; contact your administrator or Find AZ support.

macOS Apple Silicon

Download the correct macOS .dmg installer from your Find AZ account.
Double-click the downloaded disk image, then drag the Find AZ icon onto the Applications folder.
Eject the Find AZ disk image.
In Applications, right-click Find AZ and choose Open. Right-click → Open is needed the first time because the installer is unsigned. Click Open again to confirm.

If macOS cannot verify the developer: try to open Find AZ once, then open System Settings → Privacy & Security. In the Security section, click Open Anyway, authenticate, and click Open when asked again. Only continue if the installer came from your Find AZ account.

Need Find AZ for Linux or an Intel Mac? Email support@findaz.app to let us know.

Installation Levels

When Find AZ opens, Desktop 1 (Install) asks how deeply it should read your files. Each level includes everything from the level below it and adds more. Pick a level, activate your license, then click Proceed with Installation. You can switch levels later from the same screen — your indexes, settings, and license are preserved.

MinimumThe basic level. Indexes all file names and paths, plus the contents of everyday documents — text, Markdown, PDF, HTML, SQL, CSV, Microsoft Office, and LibreOffice — and records video chapters.

DeepEverything in Minimum, plus text read from images (OCR), including images embedded inside PDFs, and Apple iWork documents (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) on macOS.

ExtremeEverything in Deep, plus audio and video transcription so you can search spoken words in your media (Windows and macOS Apple Silicon only). This is slower on a plain CPU; an NVIDIA GPU is recommended on Windows.

Start with Minimum for fast document search. Move up to Deep or Extreme when you need to search inside images or spoken audio, then re-index your folders on Desktop 3 so the new content is picked up.

GUI Reference

The app is organized into desktop screens. Most users can complete setup and search from Desktop 2, Desktop 3, and Desktop 4.

Desktop 1 — InstallChoose your indexing level (Minimum, Deep, Extreme), activate your license with your key and email, proceed with installation, and check for updates.

Desktop 2 — FoldersAdd the top folders to search (sub-folders are included automatically), remove folders, enable or disable them, and initialize a folder's index. Changes are pending until you click Save.

Desktop 3 — IndexBuild the index so files can be found. The first build is a full scan; later builds are incremental. Also sanitize invalid file names and set up an NVIDIA GPU on Windows.

Desktop 4 — FindSearch with include and exclude words, then act on results: open, copy paths, create files, convert text files, assign tags and context, save bookmarks, rename or move, and find related files.

Desktop 5 — PrefsFine-tune what Find AZ reads while indexing — image text, iWork text, PDF-embedded image text, audio/video transcription, and video chapters — with a Yes / No / Disabled choice per option.

Desktop 6 — ThemesChange the look: pick a theme (colors), a style (fonts and background image), and a font scale, then click Apply Theme and Style.

Search Reference

Search accepts include words and exclude words. A matching file contains all of the include words and none of the exclude words. Each word is matched against the file's name, path, and contents, and upper and lower case are ignored.

In the app (Desktop 4)

Type your words in Include Words, optionally add Exclude Words, and click Find or press Enter.

Matching is by substring, so deploy also finds deployment, deployed, and redeploy.
Several include words must all be found, each in the name, path, or contents.
Wrap words in quotes to match them as one phrase, e.g. "deployment guide".
Add -n at the end of Include Words to search file names only, or -p to search full paths only (contents are skipped).
Type / in either box to see the full list of known words and pick from it.
Synonyms broaden a search so a word also finds its close alternatives; maintain them with Edit Synonyms.

In terminal mode

fnd -i "Hello World" India -e "Maharashtra State" Gujarat
fnd "Hello World" India -e "Maharashtra State" Gujarat

-i defines include words.
-e defines exclude words.
-n searches filename only.
-p searches full path only.
-ns ignores synonyms.

Supported content

File names, file paths, and file contents (upper and lower case are ignored)
Text, Markdown, HTML, SQL, CSV, and other basic formats
Microsoft Office (docx, xlsx, pptx, and related) and LibreOffice (odt, ods, odp, and related) documents
Video chapters for mp4, mkv, mov, m4v, and 3gp (every level)
OCR text from PNG, JPG, JPEG, BMP, TIF, TIFF, and images embedded in PDFs (Deep level and above)
Apple iWork Pages, Numbers, and Keynote text on macOS (Deep level and above)
Spoken words from audio and video, transcribed and indexed (Extreme level, Windows and macOS Apple Silicon only)

Dictionaries & Synonyms

FIND_AZ maintains dictionaries for tags, search context, and find terms. Autocomplete uses these dictionaries while entering tags, context, include words, and exclude words.

Tags: stored in master_tags_list.json, start with #, and are maintained uppercase.
Context: stored in master_context_dict.json, case-sensitive, and can include quoted strings or bracketed strings.
Find terms: stored in master_find_dict.json, lowercase, and used for include/exclude autocomplete.

Use the Sync button to sync words across tag, context, and find dictionaries.

Synonyms

Edit synonyms.txt. Put one synonym set on each line. A synonym should appear in only one line.

"india" "bharat" "Hindustan"
"ebs" "ebusiness suite" "r12"

Terminal Utilities

Terminal mode is optional but useful for repeat workflows and older computers that do not support the GUI well.

cli
az2
setup
ind
fnd
act
upd

fcd / kmCreate and use shortcut names for frequently opened directories.

fpShow the full path of a file in the current directory.

fOpen a file's folder in Finder or Explorer and change terminal directory.

cChange terminal directory from a full file path.

ch / dhConvert text or Markdown to HTML using light or dark templates.

nOpen one or more files in a suitable text editor.

On Windows, GPU-based video transcription is available after installing Python 3.10 and running install_gpu_windows.bat. Use ind_gpu for GPU indexing.

Themes & Styles

Themes control app colors. Styles control background images, font family, font weight, font style, object opacity, and font scaling.

Themes and styles are independent, so you can mix any theme with any style.
Combine light themes with light styles, and dark themes with dark styles.
Neutral styles can be combined with any theme.
Set a font scale to size all text and controls — about 0.1 to 10.0, for example 1.0 (normal), 1.2 (a little larger), or 2.0 (double size).
Click Apply Theme and Style to redraw the app; your choices are remembered between sessions.
Back up themes.json, styles.json, and hot_data.json before editing.
If the app does not load after editing, restore from your backup or copy seeded files from COMMON_ALL.

Moving Installations

On Windows and macOS, use the application location created by the installer. The previous ZIP-folder moving procedure no longer applies; run the .exe or .dmginstaller again when you need to reinstall Find AZ.

Multiple installations are allowed. In one environment, only one FIND_AZ home is active at a time.

Uninstall

Windows

cd /d E:\FIND_AZ
uninstall.bat

macOS Apple Silicon

cd /VOLUMES/DATA/FIND_AZ
chmod +x uninstall.sh
./uninstall.sh

Third-party component notices are provided in NOTICES.txt.