Is it possible to put a search box into a Word document?

[DS]

I would like to know how to put a search box/engine, like many websites have,
into a Word document, where it would search within the document. My
supervisor doesn't like the Find functionality, apparently -- I think this
document will be used as a training document for people with extremely
limited computer knowledge?
Is it possible to do this?
Thanks for your help!

(P.S. I am not a super-advanced Word user; I would probably not know how to
program or anything very high-end if that's the only way this can be
accomplished.)

 

[Charles Kenyon]

The only way to do this is to program. What, specifically, does your
supervisor not like about pressing Ctrl-F and typing in what is to be found?
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide


--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[DS]

If I had a very good tutorial I'd be able to swing it, but if it's really
really advanced and I'd need to be a CS major to pull it off, then it's
probably not worth it.

I'm not really sure what he doesn't like about it. He just assigned me to
research the feasibility of doing this.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

My opinion:

Tell him it's not feasible, then. Try to slide in a little comment that
trying to make Word behave like a website is a bad idea, because a Word
document is not written in web code.

PDF might be a better format for a training document for people with very
limited computer knowledge. Adobe Reader has a Search button on the toolbar
(which literally says Search, not just a picture) and will return a list of
all pages where that word shows. That sounds pretty easy for novices.

Suggest that as being a) much more feasible and b) a better use of your time
then learning how to mis-use Word for something it wasn't intended to do.
My quick test suggests that even PDFs created with a free/shareware PDF
creator will still allow text searches.

 

[DS]

Yeah, I'm pretty much gathering that it's not doable.

Thank you very much Daiya and Charles!

 

[Jay Freedman]

If you want an Adobe-Reader-style Find dialog in Word, go to
http://jay-freedman.info/ and download finder.zip. Unzip the template
into Word's Startup folder (look in Tools > Options > File Locations
to find out where that is) and restart Word. I assigned the shortcut
Ctrl+Alt+F to the Finder macro, but you can reassign it or assign a
toolbar button to it (see
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/AsgnCmdOrMacroToHotkey.htm
and
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/AsgnCmdOrMacroToToolbar.htm).

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.