Microsoft Word Version 2002 Inside Out (Inside Out (Microsoft))

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Before you learn how to search within documents, you should take a look at how to search among documents. As mentioned, in this version of Word, you can find documents using the Search task pane and the Search dialog box. Using these tools, you can conduct basic and advanced searches. You use the Basic Search view of the Search task pane when you want to find files, Microsoft Outlook items, or Web pages containing various forms of text, and you use the Advanced Search view of the Search task pane when you want to find files based on file properties, such as author name, file name, date last modified, and so forth.

newfeature!  To access the Search task pane, use any of the following methods:

• Choose File, Search.
• Click the Search button on the Standard toolbar.
• If the task pane is open, click the down arrow on the task pane's title bar and choose Search on the drop-down menu.

By default, the Search task pane opens in the last search view you used to conduct a search. If the Advanced Search view is displayed, you can access the Basic Search options by clicking the Basic Search link in the Search Also section of the task pane. Likewise, if the Basic Search view is displayed, you can access the Advanced Search view by clicking the Advanced Search link in the See Also section of the task pane. Figures 12-1 and 12-2 show the Basic Search and Advanced Search task pane views.

Figure 12-1. The Basic Search task pane view enables you to search documents using text strings.

Figure 12-2. The Advanced Search task pane view enables you to search for documents based on properties and conditions.

The Search dialog box offers search capabilities similar to those of the Search task pane. You open the Search dialog box from within the Open dialog box. This approach to searching for documents is handy if you're already in the Open dialog box and you're not sure where a particular document is stored. To view the Search dialog box, perform the following steps:

1. Choose File, Open, or click the Open button on the Standard toolbar to display the Open dialog box.
2. In the Open dialog box, choose Tools, Search.

The Search dialog box contains Basic and Advanced tabs, shown in Figures 12-3 and 12-4, which provide options similar to those available in the Search task pane's Basic Search and Advanced Search views (compare Figures 12-1 and 12-2).

Figure 12-3. The Basic Search options in the Search dialog box.

Figure 12-4. The Advanced Search options in the Search dialog box.

To use the Search dialog box and the Search task pane options, you perform similar procedures. In this chapter, we'll look primarily at how to use the Search task pane options, but you can use the same techniques in the Search dialog box.

Using Basic Search to Find Documents

One of the most common ways to search for documents is to look for a particular character, word, or phrase within your documents' file names and contents. In Word 2002, you can search among documents located on your computer and in your Network Places by entering text strings in the Basic Search task pane view.

Using Basic Search is similar to using online search engines such as Alta Vista or Lycos. Word (and other Microsoft Office applications, for that matter) lets you base your search on one or more words. Entering more than one word in the Search Text box makes your search more specific and generally reduces the number of documents returned. In addition, keep in mind the following search tips:

• By default, a basic search finds files containing various forms of a word. For example, searching for run would find any document containing the words run, running, or ran.
• You can use the asterisk (*) wildcard to represent any group of letters. For example, entering l*st would return any documents containing last, least, lowest, and so forth.
• You can use the question mark (?) wildcard to represent any single character. For example, entering l?st would return any documents containing last, lest, list, lost, or lust.
• If you're searching among Outlook items only (including e-mail messages, calendar items, contacts, tasks, journal entries, and notes) and you're using an English-language version of Word 2002, you can use natural language searching. With natural language searching, you can enter word phrases, such as Find all tasks completed yesterday, to find information. (Note that natural language searches have some limitations—for example, you can't use a natural language search to look through Outlook public folders.)

Tip

After you define your search text, you can choose to search any of the following document storage areas, found in the Search In drop-down list:

• Everywhere searches all folders and embedded folders included in My Computer, My Network Places, and Outlook.
• My Computer includes all the drives and folders on your computer. You can select My Computer to search through everything on your computer, or you can pick and choose which folders and files you want to include in your search.
• My Network Places includes all folders stored on network file servers, Web servers, or Microsoft Exchange servers that are configured as Network Places. Keep in mind that some networked locations don't support searching.
• Outlook searches all the messages, appointments, contacts, tasks, and other information stored in your Outlook folders.

Tip

The steps for conducting a basic search are as follows:

1. Click the Search button on the Standard toolbar to open the Search task pane, and click Basic Search in the See Also section, if necessary.
2. In the Search For section of the Basic Search task pane view, type your search text in the Search Text box.
3. In the Other Search Options section, click the Search In down arrow. Select check boxes for the drives, folders, files, or whatever you want to search for in the intended document, as shown in Figure 12-5, and then click outside the drop-down list to close it. If you select folder check boxes other than Everywhere, My Computer, My Network Places, or Outlook, you can use multiple clicks to achieve the following results:
   • One click selects the folder.
   • Two clicks selects the folder and folders within it.
   • Three clicks selects only the folders within the top-level folder.
   • Four clicks deselects all folders within the folder.

   Figure 12-5. Click plus sign icons to expand your view, and select check boxes to indicate that you want Word to search within a selected drive, folder, or file. Notice the "stacked" check boxes, which indicate that subfolders will be included in the current search.

4. Click the Results Should Be down arrow, select which types of files you want to include in your search, and click outside the drop-down list to close it. For example, if you want to search only Word files, make sure that only the Word check box is selected under Office Files, as shown in Figure 12-6.

   Figure 12-6. You can pick and choose which types of files you want to include in your document search.

   The Results Should Be options include the following:

   • Anything specifies the broadest set of file types, including file types not typically associated with Microsoft Office.
   • Office Files specifies Microsoft Office documents. You can limit which Office documents to search among by selecting the check boxes next to specific Office applications.
   • Outlook Items specifies e-mail messages, calendar items, contacts, tasks, notes, and journal entries.
   • Web Pages specifies Web pages (.htm or .html), Web archives (.mht or.mhtml), and other Web-related formats (such as .asp).

5. After you've configured your basic search parameters, click Search.

When you click Search, the Basic Search task pane view changes to the Search Results task pane view. The search results are divided into My Computer, My Network Places, and Outlook categories. While the search is being processed, you'll see (Searching) next to category headings. If no results are found in a particular category, you'll see (No Results Found) next to the category heading. If the search seems to be taking too long, you can click the Stop button to end the procedure. (After the search is completed, the Stop button changes to the Modify button.) Figure 12-7, shows the results of a completed search.

Figure 12-7. You can perform a variety of actions on your search results using the drop-down menu commands associated with each item.

After the search is completed, you can perform any of the following actions on the returned items in the Search Results task pane view:

• View document properties. Hover the mouse pointer over an item in the search results list, or hover over the item and then click the item's down arrow and choose Properties on the drop-down menu to view a more comprehensive summary of the document's properties.
• Open an item in its default application. Click a search result item.
• Edit an item using an Office application. Click the item's down arrow (as shown in Figure 12-7), and choose to edit the document.
• Open an item in a browser. Click the item's down arrow, and choose Open In Browser.
• Create a new document based on the existing document. Click the item's down arrow, and choose New From This File.
• Store a hyperlink to an item on the Office Clipboard. Click the item's down arrow, and choose Copy Link To Clipboard.
• View additional search result items. Click the Next x Results link at the bottom of the list of search results.
• Conduct a new search or modify the search text. Click the Modify button, and change your search parameters.

Inside Out

Conducting Advanced Searches Based on Document Properties

As mentioned, in addition to searching for text strings in documents, you can conduct advanced searches based on document properties. Advanced searches enable you to enter more detailed search criteria by specifying document properties, conditions, and values. To conduct an advanced search, follow these steps:

1. Click the Search button on the Standard toolbar, and if necessary, click the Advanced Search link in the See Also section of the Search task pane to display the Advanced Search task pane view.
2. In the Advanced Search task pane view, click the Property down arrow, and select the document property you want to use to conduct your search.
3. Click the Condition down arrow, and select a condition. Only certain conditions are available for each property.
4. In the Value box, type a value associated with the specified property and condition.
5. Click Add. The search parameter (consisting of the property, condition, and value you specified) will appear in the list, which is located below the Add button.

   Note

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   If you type a value that's invalid for a property or condition, the Add button will remain unavailable.

6. You can narrow your search by adding more search parameters if desired. To do so, select another property and condition, type a value, and then click And or Or. If you click And, the documents must match both search parameters before they can be included in your search results. If you click Or, any document containing either search parameter is included in your search result.
7. Click Add.

   Tip

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   If you add a search parameter to an advanced search that you later decide you don't want to include, select the search parameter, and click Remove. Or if you want to clear your search parameters entirely, click Remove All.

8. After you've specified your search parameters, select an item in the Search In and Results Should Be drop-down lists. (The settings in these lists are described in the section "Using Basic Search to Find Documents.") Then click Search.

Figure 12-8 shows an example of an advanced search, with two search parameters set and a third search parameter about to be added to the list.

Figure 12-8. Using the And option narrows an advanced search, whereas using the Or option expands your search.

You can perform the same actions on advanced search results as on basic search results, as described in the preceding section. For example, you can hover the mouse pointer over a search result item to view document properties, or you can click a search result item to open the item in its default application.

Speeding Search Tasks Using the Indexing Service

You can speed up your searches by enabling Fast Searching and keeping your index up to date. Fast Searching speeds up your searches by taking advantage of the Indexing Service. The Indexing Service extracts information from a set of documents and organizes the information in a way that makes searching quick and easy. This information includes text (content) as well as characteristics (properties) of documents.

Fast Searching is enabled by default in Microsoft Windows 98, Windows Me, and Windows NT 4 systems. To enable Fast Searching in Windows 2000 or to verify your Fast Searching status if you're using another version of Windows, perform these steps:

1. Click the Search button on the Standard toolbar to display the Basic Search task pane view, and then click the Search Options link. If Fast Searching isn't enabled, you'll see the Indexing Service Settings dialog box.
2. In the Indexing Service Settings dialog box, choose Yes, Enable Indexing Service, as shown in Figure 12-9, and then click OK. The Indexing Service will begin to scan documents to create your search index.

Figure 12-9. You can enable the Indexing Service from within Word.

Troubleshooting

No Search Results Appear for a Search Term After the Indexing Service Is Enabled

When the Indexing Service indexes documents, it ignores the words, letters, and numbers found in the Noise-Word List. If you try to search for a term that appears on the Noise-Word List, you won't get any search results.

Noise-Word List files are named Noise.xxx, where the three-letter extension indicates the language of the list. For example, Noise.enu refers to an English Noise-Word List. You can view the words your index's disregards by choosing Start, Search, For Files Or Folders and searching for a file named Noise.*. You can edit the Noise.* document in any text editing program (such as WordPad). If you see a word on the list that you want indexed, simply delete the word from the Noise-Word List and save the file.

Adhering to Search Query Rules After the Indexing Service Is Enabled

After you start the Indexing Service, keep the following search query rules in mind when you search for documents:

• Queries are not case-sensitive.
• You can't search for words appearing in the Noise-Word List.
• If you use a special character in your query (such as &, |, ^, #, @, or $), you must enclose the query in quotation marks to identify the enclosed information as a single search string unit.
• Date and times values should be in the form yyyy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss or yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss. The first two characters of the year and the entire time can be omitted.
• Numeric values can be decimal or hexadecimal. Hexadecimal values should be preceded by 0x.
• You can use the following Boolean operators or symbols: AND (&), OR (|), and NOT (&!). You can also use NEAR (~) in content queries (but not in property queries).