Search Word Docs.... without opening them

Aiadi

Happy New Year everyone
Does anyone know if there is a way to search multiple word documents not by the file name but rather by word(s) inside the files without actually opening them? I have failed to find any such think doing an online searh but was wondering if anyone has found a way or used something to achieve a similar aim.

closed

start, search, *.doc, a word or a phrase in a file.

buglawton

or install Google desktop which will search your computer like Google searches the Web, including your Doc files.

Scrilla

buglawton wrote: »

or install Google desktop which will search your computer like Google searches the Web, including your Doc files.

+1 for Google Desktop if you're on Windows. If Mac, Spotlight. (For completeness) If Linux, I have no clue .

Scrilla

computershack wrote: »

Or install Windows Search 4.0 through Windows Update if you're using XP. If you're using Vista/Win7, forget Google Desktop altogether as Windows Search is far better.

Will try that for me too, didn't know Windows Search did a content search as well. Thanks.

Aiadi

Thanks everybody for the replies and apologies if I haven't made it clear enough. I was looking at a search to identify word(s) WITHIN a group of documents without having to open them and not for a simple search for file name (the title of .doc file). Windows search indexes files by their names and would not identify their contents unless there is something I am missing.

Oops, looked at the posts again and it seems that people suggest the Google Desktop would do this (content search) as well. Will try it and let you know...

closed

You can search within a file by entering the words you are looking for in the "a word or a phrase in a file" box, the *.doc was there just to limit the search to relevant word documents.

This doesn't require installing any indexing software, which will slow the pc down.

isofa

Textpad is very good at this, I use it a lot for HTML and text files, so it should work with Word and others providing the text is readable in some way in the file.

John_Gray

I use Closed's idea in Windows Explorer quite frequently - it takes a fair time to hunt through lots of *.doc or *.rtf files, but if the words(s) is/are pretty unique, then it gives you want you asked for.