Don't know if it will help, but I've noticed that the Keyword field in Word
..docs is picked up by Acrobat when you PDF the .doc. Then, if you have
Acrobat Pro, you can build an index of all your PDF'd word .docs and at that
point, Acrobat Advanced Search allows you to make rather complex searches on
individual key words as well as any word, phrase, boolean, etc. This is a
really helpful feature.....all you'd have to do is PDF all your word
..docs....you could just throw all the PDFs in one giant folder (or create
subfolders based on some rationale) and then index them with Acrobat Pro. I
find an indexed set of PDFs to be spectacularly helfpul. Acrobat not only
finds all PDFs that contain [whatever], but also lists each context (10-20
surrounding words for each hit) and then when you click on any item, the PDF
opens to that exact page with the occurrence highlighted. It basically lets
you find all instances of anything, in a split second.
What would really help, back in Word, would be a Keyword Manager function
within the Properties dialog....allowing a work group to define any number of
'official' keywords so that users can tag any document using a dropdown
picklist of approved team keywords. This is important if you have a
workgroup trying to consistently tag documents with an agreed-upon set of key
words that will let the team find documents based on any combination of those
key words. Values like "2008, 2009, Won, Lost, Submitted, Approved" and
others more content specific like "[Product Title], [Product Category], part
number, etc. ad infinitum.... I have looked for such a utility or add-in,
but so far in vain....
Pip from England said:
Dear Jay
Thanks for your trouble and the reply.
The general search facility to which you refer seems to give a quick answer
(good) being a list of all documents with the 'searched phrase' e.g. "apples
and pears" in the contents (i.e. all the typed text) in that document.
I am disappointed that Word 2007 is a distinct backward step from Word 2000
where (as you rightly say) I could search JUST for key words - and so obtain
a much more focused search. When creating a new Word document, I could
choose a phrase of particular significance [e.g. "apples and pears"] and
input that phrase as a key word in that document [e.g. a Word doc called
"Fruits"].
Then at a future date if I searched for a specific phrase as a key word e.g.
"apples and pears" it would yield an answer showing only the doc "Fruits"
(plus any other document for which I chose to input that same key word
phrase).
Now in Word 2007 the search lists every document in which the searched
phrase e.g. "apples and pears" appears in the text - including those
documents where that phrase is unimportant.
To put it another way - what is the point of having 'key words' (or
‘Categories’) in Properties now? I can see none.
Thanks again, Pip
Jay Freedman said:
Office 2007 applications don't include a separate search mechanism
like earlier versions did. Instead, the Windows operating system is
responsible for supplying the search.
If you're using Windows Vista or later, you will see a search box in
the top right corner of nearly every file-manipulation dialog (Open,
Save As, etc.), or you can use the search box in the Start menu. If
you're still on Windows XP, press Windows key + F to open the search
dialog; this still works in later Windows versions, too.
--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
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On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:38:12 -0700, Pip from England <Pip from
.
