Finding files

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Hello, everyone! My name is Paula and I’m new to the forum, so if I sound like an idiot, I apologize in advance. My problem is this – whenever I try to find a file in Word (2000 on 98 SP-1) by going to Open>Tools>Find the program just grinds away and eventually stops responding. I usually don’t wait all that long since this is occurs so often. I usually Ctrl-Alt-Del and End Task to get out of it. I tried Detect and Repair, but that didn’t help. I’m sure there’s something that I’m missing, but I have no idea what it is. I hope you can help me on this one. My frustation level is slowly rising. Thanks! (Your postings make me realize just how little I know about Word – the macros [EEK!] make my head hurt. But it’s still interesting to see what difficulties others have. Makes you feel not so alone!)

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Are you limiting your search to the absolute minimum to start with?
The default option is to check all ‘Word’ files which (apparently) now include *.doc, *.dot, *.htm,*.html, *.url,*.rtf – limit that to only *.doc if that’s what you want.
Then limit the date span, etc. etc.
I find the less searching through obviously wrong files is extremely time wasting.

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The only thing I haven’t tried is limiting the extensions. I’ve set multiple search criteria and still can’t get it to function right. I don’t think about extensions because I don’t have the wide a variety in my folders. But I’ll try that next time. Thanks for leading the blind to the light.

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Couple more questions:
Are you working completely locally, or are you on a network?
Are you mapped to any drives that are not on your machine?

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Hi Paula:

For what it’s worth, I can’t stand the search for files feature in Word. The best thing to do IMHO is:
1. Make sure you organize your files in subfolders within the My Documents folder (or whatever your default folder is).

2. Use the Windows search for files – much faster. Just click the taskbar & press F3. You can create saved search criteria & keep them in a folder on the desktop. e.g. all doc files, all xls charts, etc.

3. Or get a utility like Wilbur at

http://wilbur.redtree.com/%5B/url%5D

Hope this helps.

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