Why can't I search for a file in the open file dialog box? I used to be able to until I upgraded to

  • Thread starter Thread starter Buzzbar
  • Start date Start date
B

Buzzbar

Help!
Ever since I upgraded to Office XP (from Office 97), I can't search
for a file in the 'open file' dialog box.
In other words, in the good old days, if I wanted to open a certain
file, all I had to do was go to the folder where I new the file was.
And instead of manually searching for the file, I just had to type in
a keyword that I knew was in the file name. When I put in that
keyword, it would only show the files with this particular keyword in
the filename. This made it much easier and faster to find a file.

Now, however, this feature appears to be gone and I'm forced to use
the tedious and time-consuming 'search' command.

Does anybody know anything about this? Does the XP version have this
capability?

Thanks in advance!

Andrew
 
xl2002's behavior changed--but ever so slightly.

If you're looking for a workbook that contains the word "buzz", you can type:

*buzz*

and hit enter.

It's a little more time consuming, but not much. (I don't even realize that I'm
doing it anymore!)

(I use xl2002 at home and xl2k at work. I don't recall xl2k's behavior. I just
use this same stuff in xl2k.)
 
Andrew

File>Open>Tools>Search.

Lots of options. See also "Advanced" tab.

Gord Dibben Excel MVP
 
That's what I always used to do, but now when I do that, no files come
up.
For example, if I'm looking for a file that has the word 'project' in
it, I would type in the word 'project' into the field that says, "file
name". When I press enter, NO files appear. Even when I KNOW that the
file exists.
With Office 97, it worked fine.
I'm puzzled and frustrated. I never realized how much I depended on
searching for files this way.

thanks.

Anyone else out there have any suggestions?

buzzbar
 
Yeah, I know how to do it that way, but it's so damn tedious. I'd
prefer to just enter a keyword in the 'file nam' field when asked.
 
If you want to search for file names with the word "copy" in it for example you
type *copy* and press enter to filter
 
Yeah, I'm aware of this. This is how it worked when I was using Office
97. But after I upgraded to Office XP, no files would come up. For
example, if I type the word "copy" and press enter all of the files in
that folder disappear. Whereas before, all of the files with the word
"copy" in the filename would appear.

Do you have Office XP? And if so, try this to see if it works. Let me
know what happens. Something tells me that this feature was deleted
because the upcoming Longhorn software is supposed to have new
wonderful, fast and amazing file search capabilities. Who knows.

I'm just frustrated because I can't quickly find a file like I used
to.

Buzzbar
 
This behavior changed and there ain't no going back!

But if you type *copy*
including the asterisks!
and hit enter, you'll get the same list.

I use it in xl2002 because I need it there. I use it in xl2k because I don't
remember how xl2k works.

(I tested it at work today and xl2k behaves just like xl97--but the asterisk
trick works there, too.)
 
My apologies Ron, my brain didn't see your asterisks around the search
word. After surrounding the word with asterisks, it worked like a
charm. It's just that in the Office 97 version, you didn't need to put
in the asterisks.

Thanks!

buzzbar
 
Thank you for explaining the asterisks! That did the trick. The
previous version didn't require the asterisks, so I was very
frustrated when it didn't work. I suppose I'll get used to typing in
the asterisks.

Thanks again!

buzzbar
 
Back
Top