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Appendix

Application Icon   Search window

The Search Window and its Elements

The search window is where you start search runs and work with the results. You open a new search window with File > New Search In its minimized form, the search window consists only of an entry field for the query, a pop-up menu for selecting the search sets to be used, a Start/Stop button, and an Append button. In maximized form, it is divided into four tabs: Digest, Results, Log, and Settings. You can switch between minimized and maximized form by clicking the green window gadget. Also, you can choose whether you want to open new search windows as either minimized or maximized in the preferences, "General" tab.

To start a search run, select the correct search set from the magnifier pop-up menu in the entry field, enter your query and click the Start button. DEVONagent Pro then queries all search engines and scans all webpages defined by the search set. As soon as the search run has finished (or you have clicked the Stop button), DEVONagent Pro expands the search window, if necessary, and presents the results in either the Digest or the Results tab, depending on your preferences.

If you have already performed a search run, you can also use the Append button instead of Start to append the search results to the previously collected ones instead of replacing them.

Note: DEVONagent Pro limits search runs to 500.000 result pages and 32 GB of data. This prevents flooding your hard disk when your search query or your Follow Links settings are too broad.

Magnifying glass pop-up menu

The magnifying glass pop-up menu lets you select the search set you want to use for your search. For a general search, use the search set Web (Fast). You can define your own search sets in the Search Sets window, which you can open by selecting Edit Search Sets from the magnifier pop-up menu.

User-defined plugins are listed in bold.

Note: You can easily create a new search set by using the + button left of the search term field. Use this to run the same query with exactly the same settings again in the future.

Plugins: In addition, this pop-up menu gives you direct access to every installed plugin. This way, you don't have to define a search set just for querying a special search engine once. You can simply pick the one you want to use, enter the query and hit the Start button. Tool tips give you more information about each plugin.

Recent searches: The magnifying glass pop-up remembers the last 25 search terms (when private browsing is not enabled). You recall the terms simply by selecting them from the Recent Searches part of the menu. Remember to select the correct search set or plugin. Clearing the recent serarches empties the system-wide find pasteboard too.

Recently used: Finally, find here the most recently used plugins or search sets for quick access.

Status bar

The status bar below the search field shows information about the number and size of the downloaded files, found results and objects, as well as unread results.

Digest tab

DEVONagent Pro's search window is divided into three views, each presenting different aspects of the information that has been collected in a search run. You switch between the views by clicking the tabs separating the search field from the rest of the window.

The digest differs from what traditional search engines and applications display. This is what makes DEVONagent Pro unique. Instead of simply listing the URLs of found pages, the digest shows a list of topic words and two- and three-word expressions that DEVONagent Pro has extracted from the collected data. This list not only includes the entered search words, but also many other words that the artifical intelligence core of DEVONagent Pro found to be important and related to the query. You can sort this list by topic or relevance by clicking the column headers. The number of sentences with occurences is shown for each topic word.

The topics map

Topics map: In the right-hand side pane, DEVONagent Pro shows short paragraphs from every found webpage until you select one or more topic words. DEVONagent Pro shows an AI-generated visual representation of the selected topic and its relations to other topics in a mind-map style. Two-and three-word word expressions do not show a topics map; for multiple selected topic words DEVONagent Pro always picks the top one.

The selected topic becomes a big blob in the center of the map with related topics arranged around it. The larger a blob, and the more orange or red it is, the more important it is. Topics that are related to the selected word but are not part of the topics list on the left, are shown in blue. Light grey lines indicate closer relationships between topics. Move the mouse over the topic blobs to highlight the connetions to other topics in the graph; click a blob to select it. Double-click a topic in the map to make it the center of the graph. DEVONagent Pro will recalculate the map accordingly. This is similar to selecting another topic word from the list on the left.

Use the arrow buttons in the bottom bar of the topics map area to navigate back and forth through the results in the digest.

Summary: Finally, below the topics map, DEVONagent Pro shows a summary of the extracted information, sorted by relevance. At the end of each extract, you'll find a link to the original source where DEVONagent Pro extracted the data from (click the link with ⌘ held to open it on a new tab instead of in a new window). The summary delivers the actual answer to your query, effectively eliminating the need to go through a long list of links or visit hundreds of webpages manually.

The summary dynamically changes with whatever topic word or words you select in either the left-hand side pane or the topics map. This way, you can use the topics map to navigate through the found information and refocus the summary to whatever you are interested in. You can also click words in the summary with ⌥ held to refocus the topics map on the clicked word.

Note: You can also select multiple topics with the ⇧ and ⌘ keys, or enter your own keywords separated by spaces, into the text field below the topics list. For the topics map, DEVONagent Pro will only use the first selected topic word. It does not work with words you enter into the keyword text field.

Results Tab

List or Cover Flow: The Pages tab is similar to what most search engines deliver: a list of all found URLs including the name of the webpage and a two lines excerpt from where the search terms are found on the page. Sort the list by all the criteria that you can find in the Sort menu. You can also drag results to DEVONthink to quickly archive them in your database.

The Pages tab

You can browse the results also with Cover Flow. Double-click a page in Cover Flow to open it in a new web browser window; hold the ⌘ key to open the new window in the background.

All pages that you haven't checked yet show a dot in front of them, similar to unread messages in Apple Mail. You can also select results and drag them to other applications, such as an open TextEdit window, DEVONthink, or the Finder, or delete pages from the list that you have found to be unrelated to your research. A badge shows the number of found scanner objects.

Preview area: In the lower pane of the Pages tab, DEVONagent Pro displays either a text preview of the relevant text passages for pages selected in the list above, or all objects found by the automatically applied scanners. Switch between the text preview and the objects returned by the scanners using the navigation bar above the preview.

In addition, you switch between small and large icons, download all or selected objects, and access the action menu from the navigation bar.

Log tab

The Log tab lists all pages that DEVONagent Pro has skipped.

DEVONagent Pro skipped them because they:

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    Did not match the query
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    Delivers an error message, e.g., the famous error 404 (file not found)
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    Are an advertisement
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    Are index spam created for fooling search engines

You can find a complete list of all codes used in the log in the appendix.

Effectively, the log lists all pages you did not have to look at yourself because DEVONagent Pro did that job for you.

The Log tab

You can sort the list by date, address, or error message by clicking the respective column headers. Click them again to reverse the sorting order. Use copy-and-paste or drag-and-drop to move or copy URLs to the Downloads panel, to a search set, to DEVONthink, or other applications, e.g., Safari.

Settings tab

The Settings tab contains some of the options from the General and Advanced of search sets and TEMPORARILY overrides these settings.

Settings Tab

The Settings tabs offers the following options:

Use the Settings tab to temporarily enable or disable options, e.g., to switch on a scanner without permanently messing up the search set.

Toolbar

The toolbar of DEVONagent Pro's main windows carries many commands for manipulating the way it displays information and for manipulating selected items. Many of these are simply shortcuts for menu bar commands. Here's a short list of the available tools:

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    Open: Opens the selected page(s) in a separate web browser window.
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    Launch URL: Opens the selected page(s) in your default web browser.
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    Export: Exports the selected page(s) as pure text, RTF(D) or HTML.
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    DEVONthink: Adds the selected page(s) to the currently open DEVONthink database in the format you choose from the pop-up menu. Only available if DEVONthink is installed on your Mac.
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    Add: Adds the selected page(s) to the internal archive.
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    Add All: Adds all found pages to the internal archive.
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    Archive: Opens a window for the internal archive.
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    Delete: Deletes the selected page(s) from the results list.
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    Print: Prints the results list.
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    Search: Searches the results on the Results tab. Use the magnifying glass pop-up menu to adjust your search options.
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    View: Enables or disables Cover Flow and shows or hides icon previews.

Note: Not all of these commands are always available. You can customize the toolbar by selecting Viiew > Customize Toolbar or by Control- or right-clicking the toolbar background and selecting Customize Toolbar from the context menu.

Shortcuts & modifier keys

Like any Mac application, DEVONagent Pro uses modifier keys or shortcuts to access frequently used functions or modify a standard behavior.

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    Command-click: Adds an item to the current selection of items.
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    Shift-click: Selects a range of items.
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    Space, Shift-Space: Scrolls down or up in non-editable text views, e.g., the summary.

Context menu

The context menu, which appears when you click something with the right mouse button or when you click while holding the ⌃ Control key down, offers a range of commands tailored to what you can do with the clicked object.

Most of the commands offered by the context menu have counterparts in a main menu, so you'll recognize them immediately. However, to save menu bar real estate, DEVONagent Pro gives you access to some options only via the context menu.

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    Open: Opens the selected pages in separate web browser windows.
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    Open In Tabs: Opens the selected pages in separate tabs in a new web browser window.
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    Copy URL: Copies the selected URL to the clipboard.
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    Launch URL: Opens the selected page(s) in your default web browser.
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    Reveal in Finder: Reveals an externally archived page in the Finder.
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    Add to DEVONthink: Adds the pages to your currently open DEVONthinkdatabase in a variety of formats. Same as Data > Add to DEVONthink. Only available if DEVONthink is installed on your Mac.
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    Add to Set > ...: Adds the addresses of the selected page(s) to the sites list of a search set.Select "New Set..." to create a new search set with the selected page(s).
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    Add to Archive: Adds the selected page(s) to the internal archive.
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    Add All to Archive: Adds all pages in the results list to the internal archive.
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    Export: Exports the selected page(s).
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    Mark As Read: Marks the selected pages as read or unread.
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    Delete: Deletes the selected page(s) from the results list.
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    Delete Domain: Deletes all pages from the selected domains from the results list.
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    Delete & Exclude Domain: Deletes the selected search page(s) from the results list and adds the domain(s) of the page(s) to the list of excluded domains. Use this to quickly exclude an unwanted domain, without having to block it via the preferences.
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    Sort by > ...: Sorts the results list by the criteria listed in the sub-menu. Alternative menu item to Delete Domains.
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    Clear Log: Clears the log for the search run. Same as Data > Clear Log.
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    Sort By: Sorts the results list by the selected sort key. Read more...

In text areas, e.g., the text preview on the "Pages" tab, DEVONagent Pro also offers the standard context menu commands for text views:

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    Search with Spotlight: Searches for the selected text using Spotlight.
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    Search in Google: Opens your default browser and searches for the selected text in Google.
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    Look Up in Dictionary: Looks up the selected piece of text in the system dictionary.
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    Cut/Copy/Paste: Same as "Edit > Cut/Copy/Paste".
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    Spelling > ...: OS X's integrated spell checker. Choose "Spelling..." to open the spellchecker panel, and "Check Spelling" to run the spell checker on the text. "Check Spelling as You Type" is not available in read-only text views.
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    Speech > ...: "Start Speaking" speaks selected text, "Stop Speaking" stops speaking, which is useful when speaking a very long piece of text.