Searching for words in documents

[AlainCH]

Hello everyone,

I need assistance with the Search Companion tool. I would like to look for keywords in documents I have in my database.

Search Companion proposes to look for "a word or a phrase in the document". Is it possible to look for the presence of multiple separate keywords in the document? For example, I would like to look for a document containing "Apple", "Banana" and "Grapefruit", and of course not "Apple Banana Grapefruit".

Thank you for letting me know!

Have a good day or night.

Alain

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Welcome to the Windows Forum.

With Search Companion, you mean the standard Windows search? That is not a very good tool, and I have given up using it a long time ago.

Desktop Search engines are the way to go for complex searches; there are several available, but all will some good time initially to index all your documents and databases. Three of these are

• Microsoft
  
• Google
  
• Copernic
  

[AlainCH]

Welcome to the Windows Forum.

With Search Companion, you mean the standard Windows search? That is not a very good tool, and I have given up using it a long time ago.

Desktop Search engines are the way to go for complex searches; there are several available, but all will some good time initially to index all your documents and databases. Three of these are

• Microsoft
  
• Google
  
• Copernic
  

Hello Pat,

Thank you for your rapid answer. I was indeed meaning the basic Windows search. I have already tried Google Desktop last week but I met problems concerning the fact that our data is on a shared server, plus the fact that I read so much about the security flaws in it that I gave up using it (my database is very confidential) . This is why I am looking for a simple way to look for different keywords with Search Companion, without having to pay for an advanced software. Anyway I had a look at the links you gave me and I admit its pretty tempting!

Still, if someone has a solution to my initial request, I'd be glad to hear it!

Thank you again for your time and assistance,

Alain.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

All three Desktop searches are free or offer a free version. You will have to test each one to find if one or the other suits your needs.

I have currently the free Copernic version installed, but I think I shall get rid of it. Since the latest update a few days ago it completely stopped indexing.

I don't think you can do anything advanced (like binary AND, OR operations) in the basic Windows search, that's why I started using Desktop search. I haven't tried the latest Windows Desktop Search 4, so I don't know anything about it.

[froggystyle]

All three Desktop searches are free or offer a free version. You will have to test each one to find if one or the other suits your needs.

I have currently the free Copernic version installed, but I think I shall get rid of it. Since the latest update a few days ago it completely stopped indexing.

I don't think you can do anything advanced (like binary AND, OR operations) in the basic Windows search, that's why I started using Desktop search. I haven't tried the latest Windows Desktop Search 4, so I don't know anything about it.

I have the free copnic version and mine has done the update, all seems fine apart from when you type in a word to search for it no longer starts searching, you have to type the full word then hit enter... Apart from that though its a very good tool for searching, although i have not tryed it on searching shared drives on an external pc.. Not sure if this is possible