• Finding specific words in documents identified from Google search

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    #496291

    I vaguely remember that there were characters etc to add to the words input in a Google search which would take you straight to those words within the document identified. Can anyone remind me of them, please. After finding the relevant document, I sometimes lose the will to live searching for the relevant wordstring. Thanks

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    • #1466697

      I too was hoping someone had an answer for this.
      The best I can suggest is to use your web browser’s search within the relevant document.

    • #1466704

      N.

      Maybe this will help: Google Guide

      HTH :cheers:

      May the Forces of good computing be with you!

      RG

      PowerShell & VBA Rule!
      Computer Specs

      • #1466748

        N.

        Maybe this will help: Google Guide

        HTH :cheers:

        Thanks. I will browse with interest.

      • #1467026

        I tried entering “Google Desktop” in the search box and all I got was returned to the same window. No help, no search, nothing. I suppose there’s no help for this topic.

    • #1467060

      I often use riffraff’s suggestion for searching within the browser result for the particular word. What’s surprising is that sometimes the Google search word doesn’t even show up on the resulting page.:o:

    • #1467192

      I press the F3 Key to open a Search Box and use that to put a word or a phrase in the box to find something on a page.
      F3 works on web pages, in Notepad, etc. …

    • #1467268
    • #1467610

      Thanks
      I will be trying this soon I am sure

      🍻

      Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.
    • #1467903

      DocFetcher does exactly what I want: Finds all files with the filename and the text I’m looking for, in the folders I select, uses AND/OR and wildcards, and highlights all the hits, and allows you to either open the file or copy the desired text. Beats Google Desktop Search!

    • #1469340

      Google ‘Boolean’ and that might give you what you ‘vaguely remember’. ‘Boolean search’ is probably the term you have in mind, and that dates from pre-Google days. Boolean algebra dates from pre-computer days – 1847.

      There are plenty of alternatives to Google available, for which look up metasearch (engine), for example, and there are reviews of them available. Public or university library sites are a good source of recommendations.

      You might like to try Copernic for their free Personal Search Agent, which is not to be confused with their Desktop Search Agent.

    • #1469411

      This thread got me thinking (and enjoying the links), and my own post was clearly off the mark. (Boolean searches were chiefly associated with Alta Vista, which is ancient history as browsers go.)

      Your “searching for the relevant wordstring” finally rang a bell, and I think some posts are correct or very close.

      If you are searching for a specific wordstring in Word, you click the ‘binoculars’ and if the wordstring is present it will be highlighted, typically in yellow, and you can jump from next to next to next. The colour may vary according to the scheme you are using or other factors, and there will be shortcuts in all applications.

      If you are in Acrobat reader, you use Edit / Find, and if you are in a browser you use the search command for that browser. In my case all of these use different colours, but are otherwise similar.

      I suspect that what we would all really like is that highlighting, and it is present in all cases (but a dismal colour in some), but not, to my knowledge, in Google itself. You have to determine whether you are looking at a web page or a PDF or a document and use the correct shortcut or icon or command to get it. Google is a browsing tool so it will almost always be a web page and you should use the search function of your browser, but if you call up a PDF, for example, then it will load into Acrobat or its reader, and you will have to perform the search according to the rules of the reader.

      The final search, by eye, is greatly aided by highlighting.

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