Vista - View limited file content based on key word; wordperfect and now word 2007

I recently installed Office 2007 on a new Vista 64 bit system. I was unable to install my previous version of WordPerfect Office 12. When using WP on my previous Windows XP system, I was able to go into the word processor, click open, go to the wp folder (where I kept all my documents) and do a search based on a particular word I was looking for. For example, I could type in the word "hebrew" in the files box and each document file that contained that word (not only in the file name but in the contents of the file) was listed. I could then preview the contents of each document file and open the one I wanted.

Does this feature work in Word 2007 under Vista 64? I have only been able to find a file name with the word I type, even though I know many other document files contain the word I type in the files box. This has been very frustrating because it means I have to preview every file to find the one I want rather than just the files with the typed word in its contents.

Thank you for your time in this matter.

Hello Mert55,
Have you checked the Word Online "help & how to"? [ Word - blue question mark top right hand corner - click ]

Links below should provide help & address your problem.
Let us know the result.

Home

Microsoft Word 2007 Tutorial—Free & Online

Yes, all you have to do is go to Advanced Search (click the Windows Logo key and the F key, which opens the Search box. In the upper right hand corner, select Advanced Search.)

When the Advanced Search screen opens, select Documents (or whatever you're searching) and type your 'word' in the search box in the upper-right-hand corner of the screen. Voila!

You can customize Advanced Search to search out all kinds of specifics. It takes a little research getting to know the options included in Advanced Search, but it's a task worth doing, for those of us (like me) who use Search a lot, for all kinds of searches.

Thank you for your replies and insight to both of you. Imperfect1, Advanced Search provides a potentially adequate search function for me. I still wish I could get a preview of each file's contents, but it seems Vista is reluctant to provide that option in the Views menu, unlike Windows XP and Office 2003. I appreciate your time and expertise.

But you CAN get a PREVIEW of your search results. Just click Organize, Layout, Preview Pane, and highlight any file you want to preview.

PS Here's some help from our own Vista Forum and from Microsoft for customizing Advanced Search:
How to Use the Advanced Query Language to Improve Windows Search Results (from Vista Forum) and
Windows Desktop Search: Advanced Query Reference (from Microsoft)

Please forgive my ignorance Imperfect1. Thanks for the tip to view the contents from within Search. Is it possible to preview non-MS Word files? When I clicked on various WordPerfect files that were listed, I did not get a preview but simply a "Preview Not Available" message. I have read your suggested links but did not see an answer to my question. Thank you for your time.

No problem Mert , Advanced Search is complicated, (as are many/most of Vista's functions).

I don't think you can preview non-MS Word files. I haven't used Word Perfect for many years, so I can't speak to that, but I tried previewing PDF files, as well as TIF files, eFax files, and some music downloads, and there were no previews for any of them - only the MS Word docs. What you probably would have to do, is convert some of your Word Perfect docs to Word docs, in order to be able to preview them. (I know -- too many files and way too much trouble!)

One thing I might suggest, is that I've noticed that Vista (and XP) have numerous different settings that allow Word to be run similarly to WP. You could search them out and see if any of these settings help to improve your Vista experience. You might not get the Preview function, but you'll probably find some others that will be useful.