Search for text in a message doesn't work

[Stan Hadley]

I find that I cannot search for specific text within a message, where within
the message the text is found and highlighted. I tried following the
commands in the Help article: I open a message, open the Edit>Find window,
type in the text to be found (which I can see right on the screen), and
click Find. If I tell it to search messages (the default) then it simply
looks through all my messages and (eventually) shows the messages that has
that text. (My other gripe: why is finding text so slow in Entourage versus
Eudora? That is my biggest complaint about Entourage.)

If I select search Current Item instead of Messages, then when I click Find
the program just beeps, even though I can see the text right there.

I would think Entourage would have something as simple and useful as finding
and highlighting specific text within an email. How better to find specific
statements within a long message?

Stan Hadley

 

[Barry Wainwright]

I find that I cannot search for specific text within a message, where within
the message the text is found and highlighted. I tried following the
commands in the Help article: I open a message, open the Edit>Find window,
type in the text to be found (which I can see right on the screen), and
click Find. If I tell it to search messages (the default) then it simply
looks through all my messages and (eventually) shows the messages that has
that text.

With the message open in it's own window, you should select th e'current
item' radio button, not 'messages' fromt he drop down.

(My other gripe: why is finding text so slow in Entourage versus
Eudora? That is my biggest complaint about Entourage.)

Because eudora is only searching plain txt, entourage searches in unicode
text which, being a multi-byte character format makes things a lot more
complicated. Also, the database structure of entourage makes things a little
more complicated for searching than eudora's flat text file structure.
However, the database enables a lot more things than are possible in eudora.

If I select search Current Item instead of Messages, then when I click Find
the program just beeps, even though I can see the text right there.

Are these plain text messages, 'simple' HTML (with just font colouring,
attributes like bold & underline etc,) or 'complex HTML' (with tables,
embedded graophic or the like)?

I would think Entourage would have something as simple and useful as finding
and highlighting specific text within an email. How better to find specific
statements within a long message?

It does, but getting the text of some complex HTML seems to be
problematical.

 

[Allen Watson]

Because eudora is only searching plain txt, entourage searches in unicode
text which, being a multi-byte character format makes things a lot more
complicated. Also, the database structure of entourage makes things a little
more complicated for searching than eudora's flat text file structure.
However, the database enables a lot more things than are possible in eudora.

I'd have to say that the rather slow search is a common complaint. I'm
sure it is being worked on. And when the Spotlight service in Tiger
becomes available, if Microsoft is able to apply it to Entourage, we
may see a huge improvement in that area.

 

[Barry Wainwright]

I'd have to say that the rather slow search is a common complaint. I'm
sure it is being worked on. And when the Spotlight service in Tiger
becomes available, if Microsoft is able to apply it to Entourage, we
may see a huge improvement in that area.

Don't hold your breath

 

[Stan Hadley]

I did some checking as you suggest below. The messages where I have the
problem appear to have just fancy-formatted text, but if I start making a
reply, the text changes fonts and becomes searchable. So there must be some
type of html formatting in those messages that prevent searching. Other
emails, plain-text and fancy text, are searchable after all. I guess I
picked some bad (or good) examples to test it out the first time.

Thanks for the insights.

Stan