MSN Desktop Search & OneNote

[Gordon Staley]

There was a posting back in June asking if MSN Desktop Search indexes
OneNote files. The answer was yes from a couple of folks. If it does so,
it is in a very limited fashion or I don't have things configured properly.
Here is what I have observed.

For reference I'm running XP SP2, Office 2003 SP1 (11.6359.6408), OneNote
SP1 (11.6360.6408), and MSN Search Deskbar Version 02.05.0000.1082. I have
fully indexed my MSN Desktop (a couple of times).

When I search for text that I know is in OneNote and a Word document, I see
the Word instance listed, but not the OneNote instance. The only time
OneNote shows up is if the search text happens to be in the section name.
Perhaps there is something I need to change in the Search Indexing options,
but from the sounds of things at:
http://search.msn.com/docs/toolbar.aspx?t=MSNTbar_CONC_SearchableFileTypes.htm, I
would expect that it would index the contents of my OneNote files
automatically. After all, the sections are just individual "one" files.

This is specifically what the page states: "Desktop Search will index the
entire contents of the following file types:
a.. doc
b.. dot
c.. htm
a.. html
b.. mht
c.. one
a.. rtf
b.. txt
c.. xml


I'm confused. I've contacted MSN customer support. After reinstalling and
reindex with no change in results they have forwarded my email to "the MSN
Search Toolbar Product Specialist Team for further evaluation."

Are there folks who are getting the contents of OneNote to show in the MSN
Desktop Search? If so did you have to do any post-install configuration to
get it to work? MSN Desktop Search is an excellent tool in all other ways.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Gordon Staley

 

[Erik Sojka (MVP)]

Are your "My Notebook" folder and all subfolders included in the MSN
Desktop search parameters?

Have you tried rebuilding your index?

Can you try deleting the index, resetting its settings to just include
the "My Notebook" folder and its subfolders, and then search again?

 

[Gordon Staley]

In the MSN Toolbar Options I have "E-mail and all hard disks" selected for
the "Choose what you want to index". I assumed that My Notebook would be
part of that. I am seeing results from other directories in My Documents.

I've tried rebuilding my index a couple of times at the request of a level
one support person from MSN email support. The results are still the same.

I'm not sure how to delete the index. Does rebuilding it delete it first
and then regenerate it?

The other suggestion the MSN email support person made was "If the content
of OneNote is still not being shown, you can use an IFilter, a component of
the Indexing Service that comes with Microsoft Windows 2000 and later." I
searched around and found a tool from Citeknet.com called IFilter Explorer.
I downloaded it and low and behold there was no IFilter for .one files.

Do you know how to get the IFilter? This site implies that it should have
been loaded when I installed OneNote:
http://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/default.aspx/Channel9.DesktopSearchIFilters

Thanks for your help. I think the solution is close.

Gordon Staley
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