How do I use the new project search functionality in the SnapGene 7 Interface?
The interface in SnapGene 7.0 or later provides powerful document search capabilities, allowing you to search the contents of all SnapGene files in a nominated Project folder, including searching for file names and file attributes, sequence and sequence attributes, and annotation (features, primers and enzyme sites) information.
SnapGene 7.1 provides further refinements to the search tool and now each filter includes a contextual drop-down tool to assist with building search queries.
Start A Search
Open a 'Project' folder (see Use the SnapGene 7.0 Interface) then click within the Search and filter files field to start a Search.
Search for a File Name
if you type a plain search phrase, SnapGene will search for the phrase in all file names, and within all sequences.
In search phrase nomenclature, searching for "AMP" is the equivalent of "name:AMP" and/or "sequence:AMP".
Start typing a search phrase in the Search and Filter files field to search for all file names that contain the search phrase.
All matching results found in the Project folder will be listed.
Click See all results to view all results in a new tab.
Double click on a search "result" to open the file as a new tab.
Search Using Basic Filters
SnapGene provides 5 basic filters for use in the default search and filter all files dialog:
- Feature name
- Sequence
- Name
- Note
- Modified
To use a filter, click on the filter and use the drop-down to build a search phrase, then click Apply (or hit the Return key) to start the search.
For example, to search for all files that contain a Feature with a name containing "Amp", you would click on the "Feature name" filter, type "Amp" as the search phrase, then click Apply to start the search and see all files that match the search query.
To revise a search phrase, either:
1. Edit the phrase directly in the top search field.
2. Click on the blue "active" filter and revise your search text, then hit "Apply".
To view all search results in a new tab, click See all results.
Search Using Advanced Filters
To access all available Search filters, click in the Search and filter all files field, then click the "Advanced search" link in the bottom right corner, or click the "Advanced Search" button on the top right.
A new "Search results" tab will open and provide a list of all available search filters.
1. Click on "File Information", "Annotations", "Sequence Properties" or "Sequence Metadata" to limit display to subsets of filters.
2. Click on any filter to open the filter drop-down, and create a search phrase.
For example, to search for DNA sequence files with linear topology, click "Sequence Properties", click on the Topology filter, then select the desired topology.
SnapGene will generate the appropriate search phrase. Hit return to view all sequences found with the filter.
The "Search Results" tab
In the "Search Results" tab:
- Double click on any result to open and view the corresponding file in a new tab.
- Click on Filter, or More Filters to refine your search by adding further filters to the search query.
Select any file in the list and click the "Quick Actions" contextual menu to choose to display the result as a Tab or in a new window, or choose from the other file management options.
View Recent Search Queries
To view recent search queries, click in the Search and Filter files field then click the Recent History button to see a list of recent searches.
Click on a recent search phrase to display results found for that phrase.
The results will be displayed in a new tab. Double click on any search result to view the file in a new tab.