Search Excel Spredsheet Data in Vista Search

[mn072065]

ok don't know if this is possible but I wanted to ask. Is it possible to search in vista ( start, start search here) for data in an excel spreadsheet. I have my movie collection in an excel spreadsheet and i would love if i enter in the search option the movie name and it will go directly to my movie list spreadsheet and choose that particular movie. Don't know if this is possible so i just wanted to ask. Any suggestions. Thanks all.

[TJohns]

Hmmm, have you just tried and see what happens

[Cornucopia]

How hard is it to just open up the spreadsheet in Excel and press [Ctrl+A], [Ctrl+F], type in the name, and [ENTER]. That's what, like 6 clicks at most?

Of course, you could always load your spreadsheet data as a table into Acces and create your own custom forms & reports, keeping track of all sorts of ways & combinations. Takes a little longer to setup, but then you can compile a standalone "app" and just run it and type in your criteri-on/a.

Scott

[redwudz]

I've never got Vista's search engine to find anything inside a document or spread sheet. I don't even see a option for that unless I missed it. In 'Advanced' search, you can select, 'Name, Tags, Authors' and dates and sizes and that's about it, AFAIK. There may be a aftermarket add-on for Excel that can make searches a bit easier. I would look around some of the many Excel help sites.

[mn072065]

Thanks all i was just trying to see if it works. I understand Cornucopia what you say i was just trying to see if it was possible to search within a document in vista's search engine. Thanks all.

[Dv8ted2]

The search function of the operating system does not work that way. It is looking for filenames. It is not looking for content within files.

[mn072065]

Thank You Dv8ted2

[Dv8ted2]

Thank You Dv8ted2

No problem

[stiltman]

are you talking about desktop search? The one that indexes everything all the time (little magnifying glass next to your tool tray)?

If that's what you're talking about, yes it can search for words and phrases inside of documents, and it also has a PDF plug-in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Search#Windows_Search_4.0

If you're having problems in XP might want to look here
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;309173

[mn072065]

Yes but will it work on vista, i see it for xp?

[stiltman]

I think the latest version 4.0 is part of MS updates, so yes it should work. That is if the indexing is running and you are indexing the folder(s) containing the files you want to search

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/9f592ee9-b397-46d6-a607-47bdab5529ec1033.mspx


http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/technicalresources/advquery.mspx

[Cornucopia]

Vista (not sure which flavors?) has DesktopSearch built-in. XP needs to DL and install v4 seperately. The Vista version seems to run MUCH more spryly (sp?) than the XP version. I tried the XP version on 2 machines, but it bogged down the box too much to be usable (and that's even after it had finished indexing).

For either Vista or Xp, you have filetypes that are recognized built-in, and then plugins for additional filetypes (Zip, PDF, OST/PST, etc)

Anyway, you could look for a GREP app. They're optimized for that kind of within-the-file searching.

Scott