Beth notes that in Word 2003, if she did not recall the name of a document or where it was filed, she could search for it by specific text that she knew was in the document. She could do this either from the Tools menu or from the Open dialog box. Beth wonders if there is a way to do this in later versions of Word.
The short answer is yes, there is a way. If you display the Open dialog box, you'll see a search box at the upper-right corner. Type in what you want to find, and Word goes to work trying to find documents that match your search criteria. Depending on which version of Word you are using, you may need to click the small icon that looks like a magnifying glass to start the search process.
The longer answer is no, there is not as "full featured" of a search available in Word as there used to be in older versions of the program. Instead, more in-depth searching has been abandoned in Word itself in favor of the search capabilities of Windows. If you haven't used Windows' search capabilities, you may want to check it out. They will out-perform anything you used to be able to do in previous versions of Word.
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2016-09-14 15:53:31
Don Mattocks
I use Word for the Mac. Is there any thing close to the Windows search you describe here (Searching for a Document) available for Mac? Thank you
2014-07-10 19:26:28
Jace
Oh no! You CANNOT be recommending using Windows' search feature, it's completely undependable and very often useless. I thought everybody knew this. The best free search tool I have found is Searchopia.
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