When you start the WilmaDesktop application, you will see a window consisting of, from top to bottom:

  • a menu bar (at the top of the screen on a Mac)
  • a tool bar for quickly performing common actions.
  • a results pane that lists the files found in a search.
  • a status line which gives information about what the program is doing. You can also use the mouse to drag this line and thus resize the results and contents panes.
  • a contents pane which displays the text contained in a file selected in the results pane.
  • tab selectors that allow the contents pane to be swapped for a command pane that allows commands to be sent to Wilma's command interpretor. Few users will find a use for this though.

In addition to the file name, the results pane also columns for:

  • the path of the folder containing the file. Note that if multiple indexes are being searched and the file was found in another index, the name of this path will begin with the name of the search referral.
  • the number of times (up to a maximum of 256) that search words occurred in the file
  • the last time the file was modified
  • the size
  • the files extension

The results can be sorted by any column by clicking on the column title. Clicking again will reverse the order of the sort.

Normally only the lines containing search words are shown in the contents frame, but clicking on the '+' icon on the tool bar (or pressing the '+' key on the keyboard) will switch to showing the full text. The tool bar icon will then switch to a '-' symbol and clicking on it (or pressing the '-' key on the keyboard) will switch back to the outline view. Note that the focus stays on the highlighted result when switching back and forth between outline and full more.

The right arrow key can be used to jump to the next result (found word) in the contents frame. The left arrow key can be used to jump back and the up and down arrow keys can be used to move to the previous and next files in the results.