Help & Support

Getting Started

1. Install Seeker

Download and install Seeker from the Mac App Store or Microsoft Store. Open the application after installation completes.

2. Add Folders

Go to Settings and navigate to the Indexing tab. Click "Add Folder" to select the directories containing your documents. You can add multiple folders.

3. Wait for Indexing

Seeker will automatically scan and index all supported files in your selected folders. Initial indexing may take some time depending on the number and size of your files. This is a one-time process — new and modified files are detected and indexed automatically.

4. Start Searching

Type your query in the search bar and results appear instantly. Navigate through your search results and open any file directly.

Search Guide

1. Keyword Search

Type any word or phrase and Seeker searches through the full text content of all indexed documents. Results are ranked by relevance and matched terms are highlighted in the preview.

2. Smart Search

Search by context instead of exact keywords. This allows you to find documents that are contextually relevant using local vector embeddings.

3. Exact Phrase Search

Enable "Exact Phrase Search" in Settings to match multi-word queries as an exact phrase rather than individual words. Useful for finding specific sentences or technical terms.

4. Search Operators

Combine terms with search operators for precise queries. Expand the reference guide below for full details and examples.

Filter Operators

type:pdf Filter by file type (pdf, docx, txt, md)

after:2025 Modified after date (YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD)

before:2024 Modified before date

size:>10MB File size greater than

size:<1MB File size less than

Examples

"invoice template" type:docx after:2025

report size:>5MB

insurance renewal exact-match:true

meeting notes type:md

Keyboard Shortcuts

Global

Show / Hide Seeker (Configurable in Settings)

⌘ Shift Space

Search

Navigate results	`↑` `↓`
Open selected file	`Enter`
Show in Finder	`⌘` `Enter`
Clear search text / Hide window	`Esc`

Settings

Open Settings	`⌘` `,`
Add folder	`⌘` `O`
Back to Search	`Esc`

Global

Show / Hide Seeker (Configurable in Settings)

Ctrl Shift Space

Search

Navigate results	`↑` `↓`
Open selected file	`Enter`
Show in File Explorer	`Ctrl` `Enter`
Clear search text / Hide window	`Esc`

Settings

Open Settings	`Ctrl` `,`
Add folder	`Ctrl` `O`
Back to Search	`Esc`

System Requirements

macOS

macOS 11.0 Big Sur or later
Apple Silicon Mac
~600 MB disk space + space for search index
OCR uses native Apple Vision framework (no extra install)

Windows

Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit / x64)
~600 MB disk space + space for search index
OCR uses native Windows Media OCR

OCR Language Support

OCR on macOS uses Apple's native Apple Vision Framework. Text recognition works automatically for all supported languages provided by your operating system without installing extra files.

OCR on Windows uses native Windows Media OCR.

Installing Additional Languages:
To enable OCR for additional languages on Windows, install the corresponding Windows Language Pack. Open Settings > Time & Language > Language & region, add your desired language, and ensure the OCR feature pack is installed.

Supported File Formats

Documents

PDF (.pdf) — including scanned PDFs with OCR
Microsoft Word (.docx)
Plain Text (.txt)
Markdown (.md)

Images (with OCR)

JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg)
PNG (.png)
TIFF (.tiff, .tif)
BMP (.bmp)
WebP (.webp)

Indexing & Restrictions

Maximum file size for document files (PDF, DOCX) is 100 MB
Standalone image files are capped at 25 MB max to protect memory during decoding
Maximum file size for text files (TXT, MD) is 5 MB
Encrypted or password-protected PDFs are detected and skipped
OCR must be enabled in Settings to extract text from scanned documents & images
Files outside your selected folders are never accessed
NOTE: NOTE: Indexing very large files takes longer and can significantly increase CPU and memory usage

FAQs

1. Does Seeker send my data anywhere?

No. Seeker processes everything locally on your device. No document content, file names, search queries, or analytics data are ever transmitted to any server or cloud service. All indexing and search operations run locally.

2. Does Seeker modify my files?

No. Seeker only reads files to extract their text content for indexing. Your original files are never modified, moved, or deleted.

3. How do I re-index my documents?

Go to Settings > Indexing tab. You can trigger a full re-index from there. Normally, Seeker automatically detects new and changed files and updates the index in the background.

4. Why are some PDFs showing no results?

Some PDFs may use legacy text encoding or custom character maps that prevent text extraction. Additionally, encrypted or password-protected PDF files cannot be indexed.

5. Does search support multiple languages?

Search works across many languages. Results and highlighting are generally strongest for languages with whitespace-separated words (such as English). Languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, RTL languages (Hebrew, Arabic, etc.) and some Indic languages may produce less precise search results/highlighting depending on the document content and text extraction quality.

6. How does OCR work for scanned PDFs & images?

For scanned PDFs (which contain image pages rather than text) and standalone image files, enable OCR in Settings > General. Seeker will use your OS native OCR engine to extract and index text.

7. What happens if I rename an indexed folder?

Subfolders: Renaming a subfolder (e.g. machines/phones to machines/laptops) is updated automatically in real time without re-indexing.

Top-level folders: Renaming a folder that was added via the Add Folder dialog (e.g. machines to devices) will mark it as unavailable. You can rename it back to machines and click Rescan, or click Relink Folder and select devices. Either option restores your index instantly without re-indexing any files.