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How do I search for a word within a group of word documents without opening the documents?

November 19, 2009 - 3:49 pm 3 Comments

I often need to search a group of files, say 20 files in a 5 different folders, for a word or words. I don’t want to open each file and search it.

You can search for words within files from the Windows Explorer, Start Menu, Search, Files or Folders, "A word or phrase within a file".

Windows can read the contents of Word files.

Posted word search |

3 Responses to “How do I search for a word within a group of word documents without opening the documents?”

  1. joe.attaboy Says:
    November 19th, 2009 at 9:36 pm

    windows has a built in indexing service. Turn it on and it will index the files on your system, so when you do a search, it will find the term you want. I forget how to get it running, but I know it’s there, as I used to use it at my old job.
    References :

  2. The Phlebob Says:
    November 19th, 2009 at 10:23 pm

    Here’s how in versions of Word prior to Word 2007.

    1. Press CTRL/O to open the File Open dialog box.
    2. Click the Tools button, then the Search menu item.
    3. Set your search parameters on either the Basic or Advanced tab.
    4. Make sure to set the Search In list box to only the directories you want, or any search will take a long time.
    5. You might also want to restrict the file types in Results Should Be to Word files.
    6. Click search.

    Hope that helps.
    References :

  3. Laura (L3) Says:
    November 19th, 2009 at 10:38 pm

    You can search for words within files from the Windows Explorer, Start Menu, Search, Files or Folders, "A word or phrase within a file".

    Windows can read the contents of Word files.
    References :

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