Search not finding file using 1 word, but will find using another

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tammy
  • Start date Start date
T

Tammy

Hi,

I'm finding this a little strange...

We use Vista, love it, but found something strange when trying to search for
a file. When we type a specific word ("Jedi") - the file is not found. When I
use another word from the document ("quiz") the file is found. It's not a
spelling issue.

Does anyone have any idea why the system would return a found file based on
one word, but not another? The words are in the same file. I don't think case
is an issue because the file was found regardless of whether we spelled
"quiz" or "Quiz."

Thanks for any help with this mystery!
 
Tammy said:
Hi,

I'm finding this a little strange...

We use Vista, love it, but found something strange when trying to search
for
a file. When we type a specific word ("Jedi") - the file is not found.
When I
use another word from the document ("quiz") the file is found. It's not a
spelling issue.

Does anyone have any idea why the system would return a found file based
on
one word, but not another? The words are in the same file. I don't think
case
is an issue because the file was found regardless of whether we spelled
"quiz" or "Quiz."

Thanks for any help with this mystery!
Click to expand...

here's your answer
 
john said:
here's your answer
Click to expand...


He forgot the quotes ....

Start >
"windows calendar"
"windows photo"
"windows mail"

Otherwise certain keywords trigger other responses eg calendar for calendar
(.ics) files etc
 
Tammy said:
Hi,

I'm finding this a little strange...

We use Vista, love it, but found something strange when trying to search
for
a file. When we type a specific word ("Jedi") - the file is not found.
When I
use another word from the document ("quiz") the file is found. It's not a
spelling issue.

Does anyone have any idea why the system would return a found file based
on
one word, but not another? The words are in the same file. I don't think
case
is an issue because the file was found regardless of whether we spelled
"quiz" or "Quiz."

Thanks for any help with this mystery!
Click to expand...




Yeah, that is a strange one. Can't reproduce it here.


What's the extension for the file eg .doc. .txt. pdf rtf etc ? Or if you
don't know that one, which application is used to open it? This will affect
the the particular 'IFilter' used by Search to process the file.

Also are there any characters adjacent to the text that is not found, or any
other anomalies like missing spaces (post a portion of text that isn't found
if you like)? For example Jedi wouldn't be found in the first of these
sentences, but should be in the second

I can't find theJedi
The Jedi was very happy when found.
 
Jon said:
He forgot the quotes ....

Start >
"windows calendar"
"windows photo"
"windows mail"

Otherwise certain keywords trigger other responses eg calendar for
calendar (.ics) files etc
Click to expand...


Search works just fine even without quotes. This video is a prime example
of what happens when people start messing with their computer settings then
blame the OS for not working right.

It's like changing two sparkplug wires around on your Ford, then saying
"Ford is a piece of crap because the engine doesn't run smooth".
 
John: On *my* Vista installation, not a single example from the YouTube
video worked the "wrong" way, as shown in the video. (Gee, that sentence was
difficult to construct clearly. Kind of like trying to prove a negative,
with words.) I couldn't believe what I was seeing in the video, and my heart
was pounding as I immediately raced to try to reproduce the issue. My Search
Companion/Vista Search* worked flawlessly on Vista Ultimate x64 with SP1
(RC). (Maybe the SP solved that anomaly, but I sure don't recall seeing
anything quite like that behavior pre-SP1.) Enough about the sidetrack.

Tammy: I could not reproduce the OP's problem finding a document with quiz,
Jedi, and variations of those words contained in the document. The only
thing I can offer is another question to the OP: Did you by chance include
the word q-u-i-z in the filename but not the word j-e-d-i? If so, and if
your index is not set to search by content but only by filename, then
perhaps that's why you're finding the file using q-u-i-z but not j-e-d-i.

*What's its official and/or proper name? Is it "Search Companion?" If not,
what is it? (Same for the "orb" or "Start button." What's its *real* name?)

Brian
 
Dave said:
Search works just fine even without quotes. This video is a prime example
of what happens when people start messing with their computer settings
then blame the OS for not working right.

It's like changing two sparkplug wires around on your Ford, then saying
"Ford is a piece of crap because the engine doesn't run smooth".
Click to expand...


You hit the nail on the head with that one.

This particular "bug" I believe is caused by checking the 'Use Natural
Language Search' option at

(explorer window) > Organize > Folder and Search Options > Search

which allows you enter phrases like

photo taken last week
mail from Bill

etc

but which will also affect the nature of other searches.

To be fair there's not alot of documentation on it (I wish there was more).
My suspicion there is that it's going to feature more heavily in Windows 7
(from the brief snippets I've seen thus far), but it would be good if there
was more information available so that Vista users could also take advantage
of it.
 
Hi Brian,

Thanks so much for your reply. No, the word q-u-i-z is not in the filename.
I tried this search from a home computer and had no problem at all finding
the file using
j-e-d-i or q-u-i-z. The system found the file every time. I realized I was
using the C: drive at home, so thought that maybe this was a network issue,
since the file at the office is stored on a network drive. However, when I
tried to search today using a folder stored on the C: drive, I had the same
problem. Would find the file using
q-u-i-z, but not j-e-d-i.

I think the "official" name for the actual search window is "Search Results
folder." The "orb" is called "The Microsoft Office Button," and the "start
button" is called the "Start button."

Thanks, again for taking the time to respond!
 
Hi John,

Thanks for posting the link. When I saw the subject, though, I did think it
was just going to be another "Bash Vista and I hate Microsoft" type thing and
actually closed it without playing the video. After reading a couple more
posts, I went back to it and watched. It was pretty interesting, and made me
immediately try some more experimenting. However, i did not run into the same
issues that you did using the search field in the Start menu. I tried
removing a character from the search field in the Search Results window, but
had the same problem. Can't find the file based on that word, but will find
it using other words!

Thanks for answering my post!
 
Hi Jon,

Thanks for the suggestion on checking the "Use Natural Language Search"
option. I double checked it, and the option is not checked....onto your next
post....
 
Hi again, Jon,

The extension is .doc, using MS Word 2007 to open.

I really appreciate your suggestions - no, j-e-d-i appears repeatedly in the
document, and there are no other characters adjacent to the word. I tried
using a wildcard in front and back of the word, but, no results.

You may have read my reply to Brian's post, but i copied and pasted it here
to give a little more detail into my experimenting.

I tried this search from a home computer and had no problem at all finding
the file using j-e-d-i or q-u-i-z. The system found the file every time. I
realized I was using the C: drive at home, so thought that maybe this was a
network issue,
since the file at the office is stored on a network drive. However, when I
tried to search today using a folder stored on the C: drive, I had the same
problem. Would find the file using q-u-i-z, but not j-e-d-i.

I hate to tell the Professor who brought this to my attention that "this is
just the way it is." But, if there are bugs when trying to search, I guess
that is just the way it is.

If you, or anyone else, have other suggestions to try, I'm open to them!

Thanks for taking the time, Jon, to provide some suggestions to my question.
 
Hi Tammy


The only other thing I can think of is to make sure that you have all the
latest updates / service packs both for Office 2007 and also for Vista.

eg

The 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1 (SP1)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...94-992C-4165-A997-25DA01F388F5&displaylang=en


plus all the latest updates for Windows Vista via Windows update.


It doesn't sound like it's a problem with the way you're searching, since
you've got it working on one machine but not the other.
 
Thanks, Jon. I will check for all the latest updates and for the Service Pack.

Thanks, again, for all your help.
 
Hi Jon,

I just wanted to get back to you, since you've been so helpful with my
question. After contacting our Operations dept. to make sure we have the most
up-to-date Service Pack and Windows Updates installed, I found out that they
have disabled some of the indexing features of Vista.

This was done for security reasons - I work for a university, and searches
could include confidential documents. Sometimes permissions are given to a
student, for example, to access a Professor's folder because he stored
specific files there. The Professor may not realize that the student can
access anything in the folder, which could include more confidential docs
(other student's papers, grades, etc.). It now makes sense why searching for
content in a file is unreliable at the office.

I really appreciate all your comments and suggestions. Thank you very much
for taking the time to answer my post. (At least I know I'm not nuts, and was
searching correctly!) Thanks, again.
 
Thanks for the update Tammy. Glad that you found the cause.

Yeah that does make sense. A professor might know his particular field, but
be unawares of what a student might be searching, or even changing.

A pity though, since I could imagine the search tool proving invaluable in
an academic environment, if securely configured - probably slightly easier
than hunting manually through countless microfiche pages, as I vaguely
recall from my university days.

But until such times I suppose the Jedi will just have to go undiscovered
;-)

All the best.
 
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