How to make File/Search work?

[Jonathan Sachs]

I'm having trouble making the File/Search command work. Currently it does
not find any files, even one that I know are matches.

The computer is running Windows XP and Word 2002.

I'm searching for files whose contents include a single word, "Mozart."
"Results should be" is defaulted to "Office files." I initially tried
searching a single directory which is known to contain matching files. When
that didn't work I tried searching the entire disk (an earlier thread in
this newsgroup suggested that would work), but I still got no matches. The
command came back with "No matches" instantly, which suggests to me that it
is not really searching at all.

Yes, I clicked the ballot box twice to make it display as a stack of boxes
with the top one checked. (I assume that this means "check this directory
and all subdirectories.")

 

[tjtjjtjt]

Are you certain you don't have any other search options selected? Such as files of a specific type? Or files created in a certain time frame? Match case
Look at all of the different search opions available and make sure one of those isn't messing up the search
Also, I think this is more appropriately a Windows question, not Word

tj

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I had a similar experience recently and realized that I had typed the search
text in the wrong box: If I type it into the "search text" on the Basic tab,
it seems to look for maybe a file with that name? If I enter it on the
Advanced tab as "Text or property includes <search text>," then the search
returns the desired results.

Are you certain you don't have any other search options selected? Such as

files of a specific type? Or files created in a certain time frame? Match
case?

Look at all of the different search opions available and make sure one of

those isn't messing up the search.

 

[Jonathan Sachs]

I had a similar experience recently and realized that I had typed the search
text in the wrong box: If I type it into the "search text" on the Basic tab,
it seems to look for maybe a file with that name? If I enter it on the
Advanced tab as "Text or property includes <search text>," then the search
returns the desired results.

Here's what I've got (following Suzanne's suggestion):

Property: Text or property
Condition: Includes
The box below the Add/Remove/Remove All buttons contains one line, "Text or
property includes Mozart".
Search in: selected locations (two directories which contain matches are
selected, both with the "...and subdirectories" option, although it
shouldn't be necessary).
Results should be: Selected file types, Office files

Still nothing. I tried the same search with the whole drive (and
subdirectories) selected. Again, it came back with nothing almost instantly,
suggesting that it isn't really trying.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

That does sound very discouraging. FWIW, that's why most of us use Search in
Windows Explorer instead of Word.

 

[Jonathan Sachs]

That does sound very discouraging. FWIW, that's why most of us use Search in
Windows Explorer instead of Word.

I didn't consider trying that, because in the past I have found that it was
just about useless for Word files (as distinguished from ASCII files). I
assume that it usually found an EOD character somewhere in the part of the
document file that precedes the text, and said, "That's all, folks."

I tried again (probably the first time I have tried it since Windows NT),
and it seems to be doing much better. Can you say whether it's truly
reliable for this application, or just better than nothing?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I've found that it always finds what I'm looking for.

 

[Jonathan Sachs]

I've found that it always finds what I'm looking for.

In that case it should fill my need. Thank you!

 

[lemo7]

*I'm having trouble making the File/Search command work. Currently it
does
not find any files, even one that I know are matches.

The computer is running Windows XP and Word 2002.

I'm searching for files whose contents include a single word,
"Mozart."
"Results should be" is defaulted to "Office files." I initially
tried
searching a single directory which is known to contain matching
files. When
that didn't work I tried searching the entire disk (an earlier thread
in
this newsgroup suggested that would work), but I still got no
matches. The
command came back with "No matches" instantly, which suggests to me
that it
is not really searching at all.

Yes, I clicked the ballot box twice to make it display as a stack of
boxes
with the top one checked. (I assume that this means "check this
directory
and all subdirectories.") *

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lemo7