# Recoll user manual
Searching with the Qt graphical user interface

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### The default result list

After starting a search, a list of results will instantly be displayed in the main list window.

By default, the document list is presented in order of relevance (how well the system estimates that the document matches the query). You can sort the result by ascending or descending date by using the vertical arrows in the toolbar.

Clicking on the `Preview` link for an entry will open an internal preview window for the document. Further `Preview` clicks for the same search will open tabs in the existing preview window. You can use Shift+Click to force the creation of another preview window, which may be useful to view the documents side by side. (You can also browse successive results in a single preview window by typing Shift+ArrowUp/Down in the window).

Clicking the `Open` link will start an external viewer for the document. By default, Recoll lets the desktop choose the appropriate application for most document types (there is a short list of exceptions, see further). If you prefer to completely customize the choice of applications, you can uncheck the Use desktop preferences option in the GUI preferences dialog, and click the Choose editor applications button to adjust the predefined Recoll choices. The tool accepts multiple selections of MIME types (e.g. to set up the editor for the dozens of office file types).

Even when Use desktop preferences is checked, there is a small list of exceptions, for MIME types where the Recoll choice should override the desktop one. These are applications which are well integrated with Recoll, especially evince for viewing PDF and Postscript files because of its support for opening the document at a specific page and passing a search string as an argument. Of course, you can edit the list (in the GUI preferences) if you would prefer to lose the functionality and use the standard desktop tool.

You may also change the choice of applications by editing the `mimeview` configuration file if you find this more convenient.

Each result entry also has a right-click menu with an Open With entry. This lets you choose an application from the list of those which registered with the desktop for the document MIME type.

The `Preview` and `Open` edit links may not be present for all entries, meaning that Recoll has no configured way to preview a given file type (which was indexed by name only), or no configured external editor for the file type. This can sometimes be adjusted simply by tweaking the `mimemap` and `mimeview` configuration files (the latter can be modified with the user preferences dialog).

The format of the result list entries is entirely configurable by using the preference dialog to edit an HTML fragment.

You can click on the `Query details` link at the top of the results page to see the query actually performed, after stem expansion and other processing.

Double-clicking on any word inside the result list or a preview window will insert it into the simple search text.

The result list is divided into pages (the size of which you can change in the preferences). Use the arrow buttons in the toolbar or the links at the bottom of the page to browse the results.

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