Find a File or Document in XP

Have you ever lost a document? You know what it was about, but you can't remember what it was called? Here's the trick to finding it!

The Search Assistant in Windows XP (and Me) is quite clever - it can search through each of your documents to find particular words and phrases, so you can specify a search on the content of your lost document.

Here's how:

1. If you're sure that you've saved your document to the 'My Documents' folder, double click the 'My Documents' icon on your desktop
2. Press F3
3. In the second box (Labelled 'A word or phrase in the file:' type a word or phrase that you know exists in the document you're looking for
4. Select the right folder in the 'Look in' box
5. Click the 'Search' button
6. Sit back and wait while Windows ploughs through every document looking for the word or phrase you've specified.
7. Now you'll have a list of the possible documents - just check them to find the right one

Obviously, the more accurate you can be with your search phrase, the more likely you are to find just the document you're looking for. If you haven't a clue where you saved the file at all, you can select 'My Computer' as the 'Look in:' value - but be prepared to wait a while. A full search like that can take ages, even on a fast machine.

There's a couple of screen dumps below to show you what the process looks like!

Happy searching!

David Dorn