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File search problem

microsoft.public.windows.vista.file management



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  #1 (permalink)  
Old 12-03-2007
Peter
 

Posts: n/a
File search problem
I need to be able to search the contents of Word files in a set of folders
to find files containing a certain word.

However currently when I search a folder to find a file containing (say)
"golf" (I know a t least one file contains the word 'golf'), it does not
find any files. Even selecting contain contents.

However if I save the file in text format, thesearch finds the file.

Why - am I doing something wrong?

Thanks
Peter


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  #2 (permalink)  
Old 12-03-2007
Brian
 

Posts: n/a
Re: File search problem
Please tell us a little more.

Which Vista feature are you using to search? (Starting from where?)
Does your search method work search for other words besides golf?
Where is this folder containing document(s) that contained the word golf?
What file format are the documents that contain golf that aren't being
found? (Word 97-2003, 2007?)
Were those documents ever converted from other file formats?
Have they been in their folder long enough to have been indexed?

That's all I can think of now, but it might help us.
In the meantime, try creating a brand new document in Word and typing golf
in the body. Save it to more than one location, such as in Documents, AND in
that folder where the search is not finding it. Does Vista search find the
brand new document?

Brian

"Peter" <peter@here.com> wrote in message
news:MeWdnSpamqzeTc7anZ2dnUVZ8rCdnZ2d@bt.com...
>I need to be able to search the contents of Word files in a set of folders
>to find files containing a certain word.
>
> However currently when I search a folder to find a file containing (say)
> "golf" (I know a t least one file contains the word 'golf'), it does not
> find any files. Even selecting contain contents.
>
> However if I save the file in text format, thesearch finds the file.
>
> Why - am I doing something wrong?
>
> Thanks
> Peter
>
>
>
> ---
> avast! Antivirus: Inbound message clean.
> Virus Database (VPS): 071203-0, 12/03/2007
> Tested on: 12/3/2007 8:25:58 AM
> avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2007 ALWIL Software.
> http://www.avast.com
>
>
>




---
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Virus Database (VPS): 071203-0, 12/03/2007
Tested on: 12/3/2007 8:35:58 AM
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2007 ALWIL Software.
http://www.avast.com



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  #3 (permalink)  
Old 12-06-2007
Peter
 

Posts: n/a
Re: File search problem
Brian,
Sorry for the delay answering your questions - I've been away.
a) Using search from Start or from within Explorer
b) Does not find any word in the document (golf was just an example)
c) file is in a folder imediately of a drive partition.
d) Word 2003
e) the documents are scanned and through OCR (ABBYY) to Word 2003 then
saved.
f) Not sure what you mean by in long enough?

Thanks
Peter
"Brian" <brianHYPHENbradley@cox.net> wrote in message
news:uFx1NqcNIHA.2000@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Please tell us a little more.
>
> Which Vista feature are you using to search? (Starting from where?)
> Does your search method work search for other words besides golf?
> Where is this folder containing document(s) that contained the word golf?
> What file format are the documents that contain golf that aren't being
> found? (Word 97-2003, 2007?)
> Were those documents ever converted from other file formats?
> Have they been in their folder long enough to have been indexed?
>
> That's all I can think of now, but it might help us.
> In the meantime, try creating a brand new document in Word and typing golf
> in the body. Save it to more than one location, such as in Documents, AND
> in that folder where the search is not finding it. Does Vista search find
> the brand new document?
>
> Brian
>
> "Peter" <peter@here.com> wrote in message
> news:MeWdnSpamqzeTc7anZ2dnUVZ8rCdnZ2d@bt.com...
>>I need to be able to search the contents of Word files in a set of folders
>>to find files containing a certain word.
>>
>> However currently when I search a folder to find a file containing (say)
>> "golf" (I know a t least one file contains the word 'golf'), it does not
>> find any files. Even selecting contain contents.
>>
>> However if I save the file in text format, thesearch finds the file.
>>
>> Why - am I doing something wrong?
>>
>> Thanks
>> Peter
>>
>>
>>
>> ---
>> avast! Antivirus: Inbound message clean.
>> Virus Database (VPS): 071203-0, 12/03/2007
>> Tested on: 12/3/2007 8:25:58 AM
>> avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2007 ALWIL Software.
>> http://www.avast.com
>>
>>
>>

>
>
>
> ---
> avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean.
> Virus Database (VPS): 071203-0, 12/03/2007
> Tested on: 12/3/2007 8:35:58 AM
> avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2007 ALWIL Software.
> http://www.avast.com
>
>
>
>



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  #4 (permalink)  
Old 12-11-2007
Brian Bradley
 

Posts: n/a
Re: File search problem
Sorry for MY delay. I replied a couple days ago, but it didn't seem to make
it to the server.

I was hoping and thinking that others would jump in, but since they haven't,
either they think I've got this one under control or they're stumped, too.

But what I would do if this were happening to me is:

Create a new document in Word 2003 and include the word golf in the text of
the new document.
Save the document with a memorable filename that does NOT have the
characters g-o-l-f in the filename.
Save the document, as a Word 2003 document, in your Documents folder AND on
that drive "off a drive partition."
Heck, save it and/or copy it to a few places on your system, just for good
measure.

Optional but recommended step: Rebuild your system index. If you are not
comfortable doing that, that's okay. (I'm just not sure how long it might be
before the document you created will get indexed. Immediately upon saving?
Within a few minutes after user inactivity begins? (My Word documents seem
to be available for indexed searching immediately.)

Click Start and type golf in the simple search box. Results?

Here's where the discovery/elimination tree will begin branching. I won't
provide a flow chart because I'm not that kind of logical, chess-playing
style of troubleshooter. I perform what-ifs in what order seems logical and
watch the results until I get a feel for, say, what order to do them in and
such.

But you'll want to invoke the various ways to use Vista's search features,
including simple search from the Start button and from within the Search
dialog that you call up by clicking on Search in the menu. Once you're using
the Search dialog opened from the Search link on the menu, you'll want to
choose various cobinations of ways to search. Frankly, I'm only beginning to
get a feel for the difference between entering a term in the
upper-right-hand search box (does it have a real name?) and in the "Name"
text box right below it. What's the difference between those two, anyway?
And is part of a filename considered a "tag?"

But of course you'll want to search without ticking the "Inclue Non-Indexed,
Hidden and System Files," and then search with it ticked.

The point is, before we can know why you can't find that original (sample)
document, we have to know if you can indeed find a document that we know you
should be able to find, meaning the new document that you created and typed
golf into.

Because I have been suspecting all along that the problem might be in the
fact that the documents that you noticed you cound't find by content/text
had undergone one or more filetype conversions. Sure that SHOULDN"T make a
difference, but . . .

Well, that's all I've got. I'm just putting in my two cents' worth because I
spent weeks trying to untangle the "can't find WordPerfect files by
text/context" predicament, without success, I'm afraid. But people here
tried to be helpful, but I don't think it can be done, and I eventually
switched to Word. WordPerfect X3 didn't behave well for me on Vista, anyway,
blah, blah, blah.

Hope this helps a little. And I sure hope I'm not wasting your time. I also
hope someone else will jump in. I don't care if they tell us that I'm full
of it, either, because I come here to learn, too.

All right, then. Let us know what you are finding.

Brian



----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter" <peter@here.com>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.vista.file_management
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2007 1:30 PM
Subject: Re: File search problem


> Brian,
> Sorry for the delay answering your questions - I've been away.
> a) Using search from Start or from within Explorer
> b) Does not find any word in the document (golf was just an example)
> c) file is in a folder imediately of a drive partition.
> d) Word 2003
> e) the documents are scanned and through OCR (ABBYY) to Word 2003 then
> saved.
> f) Not sure what you mean by in long enough?
>
> Thanks
> Peter
> "Brian" <brianHYPHENbradley@cox.net> wrote in message
> news:uFx1NqcNIHA.2000@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> Please tell us a little more.
>>
>> Which Vista feature are you using to search? (Starting from where?)
>> Does your search method work search for other words besides golf?
>> Where is this folder containing document(s) that contained the word golf?
>> What file format are the documents that contain golf that aren't being
>> found? (Word 97-2003, 2007?)
>> Were those documents ever converted from other file formats?
>> Have they been in their folder long enough to have been indexed?
>>
>> That's all I can think of now, but it might help us.
>> In the meantime, try creating a brand new document in Word and typing
>> golf in the body. Save it to more than one location, such as in
>> Documents, AND in that folder where the search is not finding it. Does
>> Vista search find the brand new document?
>>
>> Brian
>>
>> "Peter" <peter@here.com> wrote in message
>> news:MeWdnSpamqzeTc7anZ2dnUVZ8rCdnZ2d@bt.com...
>>>I need to be able to search the contents of Word files in a set of
>>>folders to find files containing a certain word.
>>>
>>> However currently when I search a folder to find a file containing (say)
>>> "golf" (I know a t least one file contains the word 'golf'), it does not
>>> find any files. Even selecting contain contents.
>>>
>>> However if I save the file in text format, thesearch finds the file.
>>>
>>> Why - am I doing something wrong?
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>> Peter
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ---
>>> avast! Antivirus: Inbound message clean.
>>> Virus Database (VPS): 071203-0, 12/03/2007
>>> Tested on: 12/3/2007 8:25:58 AM
>>> avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2007 ALWIL Software.
>>> http://www.avast.com
>>>
>>>
>>>

>>
>>
>>
>> ---
>> avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean.
>> Virus Database (VPS): 071203-0, 12/03/2007
>> Tested on: 12/3/2007 8:35:58 AM
>> avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2007 ALWIL Software.
>> http://www.avast.com
>>
>>
>>
>>

>
>


"Peter" <peter@here.com> wrote in message
newsaydnT3KlZlA9MXanZ2dnUVZ8surnZ2d@bt.com...
> Brian,
> Sorry for the delay answering your questions - I've been away.
> a) Using search from Start or from within Explorer
> b) Does not find any word in the document (golf was just an example)
> c) file is in a folder imediately of a drive partition.
> d) Word 2003
> e) the documents are scanned and through OCR (ABBYY) to Word 2003 then
> saved.
> f) Not sure what you mean by in long enough?
>
> Thanks
> Peter
> "Brian" <brianHYPHENbradley@cox.net> wrote in message
> news:uFx1NqcNIHA.2000@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> Please tell us a little more.
>>
>> Which Vista feature are you using to search? (Starting from where?)
>> Does your search method work search for other words besides golf?
>> Where is this folder containing document(s) that contained the word golf?
>> What file format are the documents that contain golf that aren't being
>> found? (Word 97-2003, 2007?)
>> Were those documents ever converted from other file formats?
>> Have they been in their folder long enough to have been indexed?
>>
>> That's all I can think of now, but it might help us.
>> In the meantime, try creating a brand new document in Word and typing
>> golf in the body. Save it to more than one location, such as in
>> Documents, AND in that folder where the search is not finding it. Does
>> Vista search find the brand new document?
>>
>> Brian
>>
>> "Peter" <peter@here.com> wrote in message
>> news:MeWdnSpamqzeTc7anZ2dnUVZ8rCdnZ2d@bt.com...
>>>I need to be able to search the contents of Word files in a set of
>>>folders to find files containing a certain word.
>>>
>>> However currently when I search a folder to find a file containing (say)
>>> "golf" (I know a t least one file contains the word 'golf'), it does not
>>> find any files. Even selecting contain contents.
>>>
>>> However if I save the file in text format, thesearch finds the file.
>>>
>>> Why - am I doing something wrong?
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>> Peter
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ---
>>> avast! Antivirus: Inbound message clean.
>>> Virus Database (VPS): 071203-0, 12/03/2007
>>> Tested on: 12/3/2007 8:25:58 AM
>>> avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2007 ALWIL Software.
>>> http://www.avast.com
>>>
>>>
>>>

>>
>>
>>
>> ---
>> avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean.
>> Virus Database (VPS): 071203-0, 12/03/2007
>> Tested on: 12/3/2007 8:35:58 AM
>> avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2007 ALWIL Software.
>> http://www.avast.com
>>
>>
>>
>>

>
>


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  #5 (permalink)  
Old 12-28-2007
corradolab@ngi.it
 

Posts: n/a
Re: File search problem
On 6 Dic, 22:30, "Peter" <pe...@here.com> wrote:
> Sorry for the delay answering your questions - I've been away.
> a) Usingsearchfrom Start or from within Explorer
> b) Does not find any word in the document (golf was just an example)
> c) file is in a folder imediately of a drive partition.
> d) Word 2003
> e) the documents are scanned and through OCR (ABBYY) to Word 2003 then
> saved.
> f) Not sure what you mean by in long enough?


Peter,

by default Vista index only the Users folder, which means it will find
only the documents you save, in example, in your Desktop or your
Documents folder.
You need to add by yourself the "folder immediatly of a drive
partition".
One quick way to do it: open Explorer, go to your folder, start a
search. A bar should appear reading "Search could be slow on non
indexed paths. Click here to add path to the index" (or something like
that, I'm translating from my Italian Vista).

Happy new year,
Corrado

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  #6 (permalink)  
Old 05-15-2008
Colin2703
 

Posts: n/a
Re: File search problem

Hi, was there ever a solution to this problem? I get the same
difficulty using Vista search. If I search for files with, say, "golf"
in the contents, I get all sorts of results - but no word documents!!
pdf files are all successfully searched, but word files only appear if
the word "golf" is in the file name. I have made sure that the folder
options / search tab has beenset so that it (supposedly) searches the
contents and the file name. Any ideas? Most the files it is missing
are Word 2003 files. It doesnt matter how I start the search - it
always gives the same results.



--
Colin2703
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  #7 (permalink)  
Old 05-15-2008
On Request
 

Posts: n/a
Re: File search problem
I don't expect this will be helpful, but I just did a Vista search for the
word 'golf' and I get 74 documents, most of which are Word documents, and
where the word 'golf' is in the file text and not in the title, and about a
third of which are 'Microsoft Office Word 97-2003 Documents'.

One thing I do every few months is to rebuild the search index 'whether it
needs it or not'; often clears up problems.

"Colin2703" <guest@unknown-email.com> wrote in message
news:d880ca56ab1bc766d8d2e69fc6842765@nntp-gateway.com...
>
> Hi, was there ever a solution to this problem? I get the same
> difficulty using Vista search. If I search for files with, say, "golf"
> in the contents, I get all sorts of results - but no word documents!!
> pdf files are all successfully searched, but word files only appear if
> the word "golf" is in the file name. I have made sure that the folder
> options / search tab has beenset so that it (supposedly) searches the
> contents and the file name. Any ideas? Most the files it is missing
> are Word 2003 files. It doesnt matter how I start the search - it
> always gives the same results.
>
>
>
> --
> Colin2703


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  #8 (permalink)  
Old 05-16-2008
Colin2703
 

Posts: n/a
Re: File search problem

Thanks. I think this is a problem unique to my setup, or something I
have done wrong in a previous life. I thought I was on to something when
I saw the other posting, but maybe not. I may look for a "repair"
option on the Vista disk. I have rebuilt the index but it hasnt changed
things.


--
Colin2703
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  #9 (permalink)  
Old 05-19-2008
R. C. White
 

Posts: n/a
Re: File search problem
Hi, Colin.

Have you set Indexing Options to include the folders where those documents
are? And have you given yourself permission to see files in those folders?

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

"Colin2703" <guest@unknown-email.com> wrote in message
news:d880ca56ab1bc766d8d2e69fc6842765@nntp-gateway.com...
>
> Hi, was there ever a solution to this problem? I get the same
> difficulty using Vista search. If I search for files with, say, "golf"
> in the contents, I get all sorts of results - but no word documents!!
> pdf files are all successfully searched, but word files only appear if
> the word "golf" is in the file name. I have made sure that the folder
> options / search tab has beenset so that it (supposedly) searches the
> contents and the file name. Any ideas? Most the files it is missing
> are Word 2003 files. It doesnt matter how I start the search - it
> always gives the same results.
>
>
>
> --
> Colin2703


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  #10 (permalink)  
Old 05-20-2008
Colin2703
 

Posts: n/a
Re: File search problem

Genius. I went into indexing options / advanced and selected file
types. On that page there is an option to index only file names or to
index file names and content. I selected the latter - indexing took
over an hour. But now it find docs with search criteria in the contents
as well as the title. Thanks lot - I dont know if I am meant to locate
that option in order to search content, but it works now.


--
Colin2703
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