Text Search in Vista

[outtolunch]

I'm not sure if I'm just dense but in XP under Advanced Search it was easy to
search documents for text even if you didn't know the documents name. You
could type in *.* or *.doc and then do a search for specific word or text. I
am unable to see how this is done in Vista. Can someone point to the solution?

 

[Ilia Sacson [MS]]

Hello,
To search all indexed locations for the document files, open Start -> Search, search for *.doc (slow) or ext:doc (fast). You can
also type in some words from the documents.
Thanks,
Ilia

 

[Guest]

Hi, I have a similar problem: In XP i could just type the search word, and it
came up with a list of files having that word in the title. But in Vista, I
type the word and before I'm done typing it is bringing up all kinds of junk
that has no relationship at all with the word I typed. PLEASE HELP! (This
added to multiple other outrages I am suffering from this worthless Vista OS
is ensuring that as soon as possible I will be stripping this trash off of my
computer and reinstalling good ol' XP... Microsoft should apologize by giving
us a free download to "upgrade" back to XP!)

 

[Neil Harley]

I'm not sure if I'm just dense but in XP under Advanced Search it was easy to
search documents for text even if you didn't know the documents name. You
could type in *.* or *.doc and then do a search for specific word or text. I
am unable to see how this is done in Vista. Can someone point to the solution?

Start (Orb) / type in the Start Search entry box.

If you want to locate specific text within an indexed location type the
phrase in commas. If a lot of results are returned just click on the
'Show All Results' and then you can filter by type (Docs, Music etc)

If what you're looking for isn't returned and you know for sure that it
should be, make sure the location where the file is stored is being indexed.

hth

 

[Guest]

Please try again to answer my question. Suppose I want to search for a
particular document occurring in a particular folder. In XP, we had the
option to browse for the folder we wanted to look in, and then we typed the
key word to be searched for, and bingo, it brought up any occurrence of that
key word in the title of any document within that particular folder. In the
new Vista search screen, I find no such option. Please help, it's driving me
crazy.

 

[Dave]

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/desktopsearch/addresources/advanced.mspx

filename:keyword
gets the file, but dunno about restricting it to a certain folder....

 

[Guest]

I am with you Leanna - I have followed all of Vista's search demos & it
certainly is not able to do any kind of "phrase" searching at all even with
"commas" - whereas XP just did it with no complication at all - & although it
looks very pretty, I am 100% frustrated with Vista - Windows Calendar did not
work at all & the hotfix patch that was emailed to me - crashed the operating
system on restart & I had to get a new key fr Microsoft to restart it which
took me hours. BTW, at least the Calendar works now!

 

[Sharon F]

but dunno about restricting it to a certain folder....

Right click any folder and Search is on the context menu. Selecting it will
limit the search to that same folder.

 

[Dave Wood [MS]]

As someone on the thread mentionned, by default Vista search searches both
the filename and contents of the file.

If you just want to search for the filename, type filename: before your
search word.

If you want to search for a phrase then enclose it in double-quotes.

If you want to limit the search to a specific directory then probably
easiest is to browse to that directory and use the search box in that
Explorer window, which will limit the search to just the directory you are
in.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Sharon.

Thanks for that tip! I didn't know that. ;<)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail beta in Vista Ultimate x64)

 

[Sharon F]

Hi, Sharon.

Thanks for that tip! I didn't know that. ;<)

Hi, RC!
You're welcome! ;-)

 

[Guest]

Hello.
I'm 100 with Leanna.
Finding text within a document (file) in Vista seems to be
a frustrating experience — despite the certifications of
other contributors between Leanna 6/28 and Leanna 6/29
…
Honestly: I don't understand what they mean or aim at
(Sorry Pru Joy, Dave Wood, Neil Harley, but it might be
because I am still missing something …): It still does not
work — properly.

Watch this:
(After some tedious laboration with "IndexAlternative");

Make a *.txt-file (F) (f.ex. in NotePad);
Type in some text;
Save (F) on a known directory (D);
Copy some text (T) in (F) to ClipBoard;
Open FileExplorer to location (D) (to be safe);
Press function key F3, the Vista search engine opens;
Press WindowsKey to make an initial Test;
Try first to search on the Start menu by pasting in (T),
try also with quotation marks f.ex. "Try This":
NOTHING HAPPENS. No results.
Cut "Try This" to Clip and return to the opened Search
Engine from F3:
Paste "Try this" into the search textbox;
Voila. Perfect result. Vista finds it!
It also works without quotes by initializing
Clicking the Search-button first, then
Click »Search in file content» logo.

BUT STILL
NOT IN A *.DOC-file;
NOT IN A *.WPS-file;
NOT IN A …-file;

Leanna and similar (please, I bleed with you);
It works — and it doesn't work.

ALMOST the SAME was also the case in Windows XP!;
XP »Could» find text in *.txt-files, but only partially in
*.doc-files — namely IF the phrase was NOT preceded by
a WORD SYMBOL FORMATTED CHARACTER (which forces
special coding in WORD-documents, i.e., doc-files).
The type *.wps-file (from Microsoft WORKS) did not work at
all, and so it is still in Windows Vista.
MOST people do NOT write such type text. But mathematicians do.
Lots of it. So: I made my own Windows Hard Disk Explorer on
my XP-computer with the help of Delphi4 (and it works
Heaven, and I am about to export it on my new Vista
computer too unless someone can convince me such a
most fine Vista-tool already exists!). I bleed with all the
others (Leanna) who does not know how to do this
excellent work.

So, in Abstarct:
Vista cannot do IT.

My suggestion — Until som Expert reveals the hidden
treasure:
Microsoft has Obvious Programming Problem: it might
even be so that DIFFERENT PROGRAM COPIES HAVE
DIFFERENT RESULTS — on different continets: We have
different references.

Compare:
I just bought my Vista-computer days ago: TWO NEW
COMPUTERS at the shop OnOff DID NOT WORK:
"Input Not Supported" said Vista. Tough days.

I had to switch to another model to even get in. And
WHEN I did, PASSWORD ERROR occupied us for a while!

Bad news, Microsoft.
Simple as that.

What can we do? Any suggestions?
Windows Vista clearly has heart problem.

(Thank you all Type
Leanna [Text Search in Vista],
Sixhearts [How to search for content inside files],
Bev [Search for text in documents],
Just Askin [Search all files in a folder for a string]
and others too).

PS
The suggestion from Ilia Sacson [MS] to install a
"Windows Desktop Search" program has made no
change: it is still only txt-files that works.
DS

 

[Dave Wood [MS]]

Re: the Start Menu search. The Start Menu doesn't search as many locations
as the Search box in explorer by default. You can change this behavior by
right-clicking on the start button, going to "Properties" and then
"Customize". You can switch from "Search just this users files" and "Search
entire index" which makes the Start Menu work more like the Start -> Search
window.

Hello.
I'm 100 with Leanna.
Finding text within a document (file) in Vista seems to be
a frustrating experience — despite the certifications of
other contributors between Leanna 6/28 and Leanna 6/29
…
Honestly: I don't understand what they mean or aim at
(Sorry Pru Joy, Dave Wood, Neil Harley, but it might be
because I am still missing something …): It still does not
work — properly.

Watch this:
(After some tedious laboration with "IndexAlternative");

Make a *.txt-file (F) (f.ex. in NotePad);
Type in some text;
Save (F) on a known directory (D);
Copy some text (T) in (F) to ClipBoard;
Open FileExplorer to location (D) (to be safe);
Press function key F3, the Vista search engine opens;
Press WindowsKey to make an initial Test;
Try first to search on the Start menu by pasting in (T),
try also with quotation marks f.ex. "Try This":
NOTHING HAPPENS. No results.
Cut "Try This" to Clip and return to the opened Search
Engine from F3:
Paste "Try this" into the search textbox;
Voila. Perfect result. Vista finds it!
It also works without quotes by initializing
Clicking the Search-button first, then
Click »Search in file content» logo.

BUT STILL
NOT IN A *.DOC-file;
NOT IN A *.WPS-file;
NOT IN A …-file;

Leanna and similar (please, I bleed with you);
It works — and it doesn't work.

ALMOST the SAME was also the case in Windows XP!;
XP »Could» find text in *.txt-files, but only partially in
*.doc-files — namely IF the phrase was NOT preceded by
a WORD SYMBOL FORMATTED CHARACTER (which forces
special coding in WORD-documents, i.e., doc-files).
The type *.wps-file (from Microsoft WORKS) did not work at
all, and so it is still in Windows Vista.
MOST people do NOT write such type text. But mathematicians do.
Lots of it. So: I made my own Windows Hard Disk Explorer on
my XP-computer with the help of Delphi4 (and it works
Heaven, and I am about to export it on my new Vista
computer too unless someone can convince me such a
most fine Vista-tool already exists!). I bleed with all the
others (Leanna) who does not know how to do this
excellent work.

So, in Abstarct:
Vista cannot do IT.

My suggestion — Until som Expert reveals the hidden
treasure:
Microsoft has Obvious Programming Problem: it might
even be so that DIFFERENT PROGRAM COPIES HAVE
DIFFERENT RESULTS — on different continets: We have
different references.

Compare:
I just bought my Vista-computer days ago: TWO NEW
COMPUTERS at the shop OnOff DID NOT WORK:
"Input Not Supported" said Vista. Tough days.

I had to switch to another model to even get in. And
WHEN I did, PASSWORD ERROR occupied us for a while!

Bad news, Microsoft.
Simple as that.

What can we do? Any suggestions?
Windows Vista clearly has heart problem.

(Thank you all Type
Leanna [Text Search in Vista],
Sixhearts [How to search for content inside files],
Bev [Search for text in documents],
Just Askin [Search all files in a folder for a string]
and others too).

PS
The suggestion from Ilia Sacson [MS] to install a
"Windows Desktop Search" program has made no
change: it is still only txt-files that works.
DS
--
wkg/bj

Please try again to answer my question. Suppose I want to search for a
particular document occurring in a particular folder. In XP, we had the
option to browse for the folder we wanted to look in, and then we typed
the
key word to be searched for, and bingo, it brought up any occurrence of
that
key word in the title of any document within that particular folder. In
the
new Vista search screen, I find no such option. Please help, it's driving
me
crazy.