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FoxTrot Professional Search
FoxTrot Professional Search
7.0

5.0

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FoxTrot Professional Search free download for Mac

FoxTrot Professional Search7.0

14 July 2020

Networkable search for legal, media, mobile professionals.

Developer website
  • FoxTrot Professional Search for Mac - review, screenshots
  • FoxTrot Professional Search for Mac - review, screenshots

Overview

FoxTrot Professional Search extends far beyond OS X's buit-in Spotlight, building on years of experience in search functionality refined within CTM's PowerMail and FoxTrot Personal Search products; it includes:

  • Multiple categorizations of search results, relevance-ranked
  • Document preview and full view, with secondary document-level search
  • Multiple indexed collections and timed updates without the application launched
  • Client-server access to peer-to-peer and dedicated CTM FoxTrot Search servers

FoxTrot Professional is relevant to anyone with documents saved for future reference; in field testing, the product has been especially well received in legal (law firm and courts), media (newsrooms researchers, ad agencies and editors) and mobile contexts (MacBook users with document collections).

What's new in FoxTrot Professional Search

Version 7.0:
Important notes:

FoxTrot 7 is a paid upgrade for users of version 6 and earlier (free upgrade if you bought FoxTrot after March 1st, 2020). To download the demo of FoxTrot version 7 without replacing your current version, please visit foxtrot-search.com
New minimum requirements: macOS 10.12 Sierra or later

Performance improvements:
  • Much improved indexing time on multicore machines, especially when the index is stored on an SSD. This is however highly dependent on the type and size of the indexed files, and on the hardware configuration
  • Improved application launch time, when using multiple indices
  • Displaying large plain text documents containing no return character is now much faster
New search features:
  • Added an “All items of type” criterion to find all indexed files of a given file type (or even all indexed files, regardless of their file type), without searching for any particular text string. This can also be used in conjunction with the filters, to perform advanced filename, date, or regular expression searches
  • The date categorizer has been much improved and is easier to use; added a contextual menu to change the scale of the histogram, and to choose between creation or modification dates
  • Added a “filename extension” categorizer that can be used in addition to “item kind”
  • Added a visible / invisible categorizer
Other searching or indexing improvements:
  • Added more options to decide whether to index or not files in packages, applications and frameworks
User interface improvements:
  • Dark mode support (macOS 10.14 Mojave and later)
  • Modernized some UI elements: tab bar, icons etc
  • The thumbnail view has been improved: it is faster and more responsive
  • The PDF pages thumbnail view is now much faster to draw
  • Added a preference pane to customize the search history
  • Added a contextual menu in the bookmarks and history window
  • The proximity slider now shows a more precise tooltip
  • When multiple search criterion fields are visible in the search window, empty ones are now always ignored (you previously had to remove unused ones)
  • Added a “Search…” menu item, with command-L shortcut, to move the keyboard focus to the search field
  • The contextual menu “reveal in finder” now shows the complete path as a submenu
  • The “copy” menu item now copies the path of the selected files
  • Added a “display type” toolbar item to use alternate methods to preview documents (plain text, Quick Look preview…)
Miscellaneous improvements:
  • Use a modern API for language identification on macOS 10.13 and later
  • Highlighting found occurrences did not work for documents created with recent versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote
  • Added a hidden preference to use the NaturalLanguage framework for language identification on macOS 10.14 and later (defaults write com.ctmdev.FoxTrot UseNaturalLanguageIdentification -bool YES). This is slower, but may be more accurate
  • More secure network encryption (TLS 1.3) for shared indices
  • Estimation of the remaining indexing time is now more reliable
  • Some files could previously be added to the blacklist, although they had made the extractor crash only once; some third-party extractors can crash randomly, even when processing valid files
  • Indexer log files now contain much less useless information
  • Improved preview of some document types (e.g. Scrivener files)
  • A hidden (command-line) preference has been added to remove or speed up the animation of the categorizer pane
  • Some search templates could not work properly from the FoxTrot system menu
  • OpenMeta tags are no longer indexed, as they were replaced by Finder tags years ago. Note that you may need to rebuild your index if some tags appear twice in the tag categorizer
  • The regular expression engine now consider all unicode letter characters (instead of just ASCII letter characters) when evaluating \w or \b
Bug fixes:
  • The indexer could become unresponsive, and could refuse to stop, when compacting a very large index stored on a hard drive
  • The services menu could not work with some applications

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How would you rate FoxTrot Professional Search app?

22 Reviews of FoxTrot Professional Search

5
Francisco-Medina-Espinosa
29 February 2012
Version: 4.0b7

Most helpful

I recently have purchased a license of FoxTrot Professional and it's really one of the best software investments I've made: At work, it has signified for me much less stress to find that letter, that PDF, that report, that email where the information I urgently needed was —having very often someone at the other side of the phone waiting for it. I also use it at home to find that citation I needed among my research papers or OCR scanned documents. I used to have other database applications, more tag orientend, but having to deal with Gigabites of texts, it simply was not the best approach. Now, although I still classify my info in mayor cathegories, I don't spend more time in tagging files, trying to guess when will I need to find them in order to arrange them accordingly. With FoxTrot I can find the context in the document I'm looking for, and not just the file to search in it. And the time scroll also lets me narrow the results, in real time. I also use Yojimbo very much, and it was a so nice surprise to find out that FoxTrot even searches the Yojimbo database without necessarily having it running. A computer is as powerful as the programms you run in it, and FoxTrot has really empowered me to instantly find the right information. It's excellent!
(3)
Pirx
24 January 2020
Version: 6.6.3
Actually, the personal version is much cheaper than the professional one. I buy it now, as Spotlight doesn't do the job.
(1)
5
Silkrd
10 February 2019
Version: 6.5.2
Apple's Spotlight is to FTP what TextEdit is to an advanced word processor. I've been using FTP for several years now: it's search capabilities are unmatched and I've never had a problem with their support; once they responded only after a couple of weeks but to tell me that my problem was solved, that it would be integrated in the forthcoming update and gave me a link to its beta version. For me, FTP is a 'must have'.
(1)
5
Bort1611
12 July 2017
Version: 6.0
Works perfectly, I can search through nearly 1TB of files (almost 200,000 of them) in a matter of seconds. I've never found anything else to compare with it, not DEVONthink or Yojimbo or Evernote or Leap or Yep any other program. It searches through my files perfectly, it ranks the results, it previews the files. It does what I want perfectly.
(3)
5
Morlo
17 March 2017
Version: 5.7.1
support is not helpful via "help-Send message to support", but (after years of using this app) I learned that support is available and quick to respond at google groups, so I'm back to give this amazing app 5 stars again. the option is in the help menu under "visit foxtrot discussion group" ....
(0)
3
Morlo
08 February 2017
Version: 5.7
while i've always raved about foxtrot, i have to echo the voices here complaining about support. there's absolutely no response by the support team. it's a pity because it's such a fast search tool.
(0)
1
Nitroxer
04 July 2015
Version: 5.0.2
A licensed program is only as good as its support. Efforts to reach FTP support via the app and by email have not been answered. The app's Indexer spontaneously crashes multiple times per day and with every attempt to update the index. I've attempted to reinstall without success. Have abandoned hope and removed the app. Inexcusable for a program at this price point.
(0)
4
MacDev
12 March 2015
Version: 5.0
Software looks nice, but I didn't see a way to search for either:

1. Hidden files (files that start with a "."), or
2. Files inside of Mac Package files (for example an "App" file in the applications folder).

Note that EasyFind, a free search tool can do both 1. and 2. above.

These omissions, if I'm right, are a deal breaker.

Didn't see a way to contact the company other than a Google group I didn't want to "join" just to ask a question.
(0)
Show comment (1)
5
Sgmiller
01 November 2014
Version: 5.0
Let me first say that it was this program that allowed me to make the switch from PC to Mac in 2006 as I had been using Copernic Search on the PC and there was no Spotlight at that time. Over the years, Spotlight has improved substantially but still cannot match FoxTrot for: 1) A viewer that highlights search terms 2) The ability to search inside package files 3) The ability to create a custom index Of the above, the first two are absolutely essential for me and I would be hard-pressed to do with out them. Yes, there have been hiccups over the years but every problem has been fixed. Just this week, the crawler stopped working for me after the Yosemite update and the next day following my panicked email to tech support (in the evening), I got a response. The problem was not easy to solved but in two says they sent me a brand new build which completely resolved the issue. I would say tech support cannot be better than that! So, if you need search capabilities beyond what Spotlight can provide (and there are far more than what I listed above), then Foxtrot is the only game in town. I would still like them to work on the interface to make it more Mac-like, but that is a small thing in comparison to what it provides.
(1)
Show comments (2)
5
Aydinyulug
29 May 2014
Version: 4.6
It's worked well for me, especially when I need to find and edit something in multiple documents. Technical support was indeed an issue 2 years ago but I received an instant reply to my latest query so that seems to have changed as well.
(0)
0.5
markrfriedman
19 February 2014
Version: 4.6
A SYSTEM-DEGRADING and USELESS product with ATROCIOUS technical support! I've never slammed a product like this before - this is the first time. Technical support and disregard for the customer is at the heart of the problem. Their background indexing processes hang. Always. Repeatedly. And when they do, my machine slows down so much, no other processing is possible - like backups. I've sent them crash reports, copies of the Activity Monitor screens and samples - no reply. I've attempted to post these issues in their Yahoo Group, but they review every posting and nothing negative or suggesting their product is less than stellar is allowed to post. I'm angry because I'm dependent upon this tool - or one like it (I can't find anything similar — if you can suggest something, please do). So, here's a potential 5-star product that, because of product mis-management and unreliability, is useless. It's really a shame.
(1)
Show comments (2)
4.5
Morlo
08 February 2013
Version: 4.1
Ok.. will start by stating that i have tried every document organizer/manager for mac out there: Devonthink, Eaglefiler, together, Yojimbo.. even Sente, Papers, Bookends and similar research tools. Spent many hours experimenting and looking for the tool to round off my workflow. In terms of indexing speed, which in my case is very important because I use hundreds of thousands of files, non of the above come close to Foxtrot. It is extremely fast. Indices are easy to manage, it has tabs, searches are bookmarked, layout works fine. I could not find a way to edit or add OpenMeta tags which would be nice. UI is not as polished as Devonthink, Together or Papers. I would also like to see it pick up my document's custom icons. Support seems distant and slow and they have only two tweets on their twitter account which is pretty sad considering its value. For this reasons I gave it a 4.5 instead of a 5.
(3)
5
Francisco-Medina-Espinosa
29 February 2012
Version: 4.0b7
I recently have purchased a license of FoxTrot Professional and it's really one of the best software investments I've made: At work, it has signified for me much less stress to find that letter, that PDF, that report, that email where the information I urgently needed was —having very often someone at the other side of the phone waiting for it. I also use it at home to find that citation I needed among my research papers or OCR scanned documents. I used to have other database applications, more tag orientend, but having to deal with Gigabites of texts, it simply was not the best approach. Now, although I still classify my info in mayor cathegories, I don't spend more time in tagging files, trying to guess when will I need to find them in order to arrange them accordingly. With FoxTrot I can find the context in the document I'm looking for, and not just the file to search in it. And the time scroll also lets me narrow the results, in real time. I also use Yojimbo very much, and it was a so nice surprise to find out that FoxTrot even searches the Yojimbo database without necessarily having it running. A computer is as powerful as the programms you run in it, and FoxTrot has really empowered me to instantly find the right information. It's excellent!
(3)
5
markrfriedman
04 October 2011
Version: 3.2.1
Even though two emails to the company went unanswered, I bought it. This is the equivalent product to DTSearch on Windows and performs just as well. It indexes files and content (including system files in both Libraries) so you can look for any word or phrase and expect a return set of what it found and where. It's so fast and the results so complete (on my early 2008 MacBook Pro) that no other desktop search product is worth paying for. My sole regret is the lack of responsiveness of the developers. But it's a hell of a product!
(2)
tvalleau
30 September 2010
Version: 3.0
Has anyone figured out how to upgrade from version 2.5 to version 3? Several emails to the company have gone unanswered.
(0)
Show comments (2)
5
Ronkoller
11 September 2010
Version: 3.0b3
I am a management consultant that spends half his time writing proposals, writing papers for my doctoral studies or blogging. I'm always remembering an old file that I could use, but could never find ... that is until I found FoxTrot. On my old Windows system, I would use Google Desktop and maybe, after what seemed like an hour of searching, I might find what I was looking for. More often than not I would not find the file in question. Once I moved to Mac, the search function was just not enough. I bought an earlier version of FoxTrot and it was ready to go in almost no time at all. I was surprised at how fast it indexed all of my files. I have several old external drives hooked up and have more than a terabyte of old data. With FoxTrot, I was finding files that I didn't remember having. It was waaaaaay better than Google Desktop search. I now save countless hours of searching and have the confidence to know that if FoxTrot doesn't turn it up, I don't have the file. I sleep much better since I don't feel quite as disorganized. The newest version of FoxTrot put everything together in a seamless window rather than have optional windows to the side of the main search window. It is pretty darn simple. You search, you find, you get closure fast.
(2)
5
Rlevent
01 April 2010
Version: 2.6
Excellent fast search capabilities with document previews. It does much more than spotlight. It is faster (almost instantaneous) and highlights the hits inside the document preview. Could use better documentation. You need to explore its features to see what it can do. I use DevonThing to organize documents, Tinderbox to organize notes, and Firefox to search my hard drive. The three together are an excellent combination.
(1)
Tom-Smith
30 September 2009
Version: 2.5b6
I've noticed a couple of enhancements in 2.5 so far, more informative process icons for the indices and the ability to share archives over a local network. According to email sent to users there are also fixes for a few Snow Leopard issues
(0)
5
Zeb-B
24 September 2009
Version: 2.0.4
Nothing searches better than FoxTrot. My only gripe about it was that you could do very little with the found files except look at them. But I was wrong: I've discovered that you can drag from the list of found files into File Buddy and Leap windows. In File Buddy you can do almost anything to files except tag them, and Leap can do that. I'm now completely sold on this app.
(1)
Mike-1
28 July 2009
Version: 2.0.4
Foxtrot Pro Search has no support. It won't index my Mail - and I've tried to get support twice. I get an automated response - but they don't bother to reply. Be warned! It's a pity, because the indexer is otherwise very impressive, and I'd be tempted to buy it if they supported the product properly.
(0)
Show comment (1)
5
Sampler
04 January 2009
Version: 2.0.3
Support has improved, and I'll now rate FT Professional as a 5; there is, to my knowledge, no app better at what it doesw. Better documentation, including a list of exactly what data are indexed, is still needed.
(1)
Show comments (2)
Sampler
01 January 2009
Version: 2.0.3
I've tried all the search apps that I could find. In OS X, I previously used SpotInside, but I switched to FT Pro. It is the best, but, as the previous poster said, it is a work in progress. FT Professional is theapp that comes closest to the all time champion, the classic App Ultrafind (now free). But it's much faster. The Preview and View options quickly show words in context much more usefully than SpotInside does. One can choose the file types to view (mail, pdf's...) from a side bar, a great time saver. Documentation is sparse. FT builds its own index and does not use Spotlight's index. That's an advantage, but it does not index some document types that Spotlight can. For these, SpotInside is a good backup. The support, as the last poster says, is spotty. The Support staff has not responded (in public at least) to some recent serious issues. Seee the mailing list at http://www.mail-archive.com/foxtrot-discuss@ctmdev.com/ . I bought the professional version and don't regret it. I need the extra options, and the program has already paid for itself in time saved. However for most, the Personal version is the true bargain.
(0)
2
Espiridion
12 December 2008
Version: 2.0.3
FoxTrot Professional Search represents a poor implementation of a good idea. The search engine is incredibly fast, but unfortunately it has some accuracy problems. Loading the indices can be slow, and displaying the search results within the actual documents can also be slow. As far as I can tell, there was no version 1.0 of this program except for the Personal version of the program. At version 2.0.3 the Professional version feels like a work in progress and not like a finished product. Support is questionable. CTM has not replied to a "Customer service request" after 4 working days. The program could be great and its speed is impressive, but I'll wait for version 3 before giving CTM $150.
(1)
Show comments (2)

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5.0

App requirements: 
  • Intel 64
  • OS X 10.11.0 or later
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