Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of Michael Murphy
Michael MurphyFlag for Ireland

asked on

Using Search in Word 2016 to locate 'exact' text.

Word 2016. Windows 10.

I have a Documents folder with a large number of  sub-folders – all containing Word 2016 documents.
To search for a specific text (word, or phrase)  within these folders  I open the Folder with its sub-folders and then enter search text in the oblong box (on right of screen).
My Problem: When I search for a specific piece of text I find that it not only locates the exact text, but it brings up other document files  which do not contain the exact text, but which may be related.  How do I limit my search so that I only locate the exact search text?
Avatar of Computer Guy
Computer Guy

Please see the attached steps.

User generated image
User generated image
Avatar of Michael Murphy

ASKER

I have been trying to follow your instructions. But I am 75 years old and am lost.
Hello,

Let me try to clear this up for you. Navigate to the "Documents" folder.

Do you see a tabbed menu at the top that looks similar to the first screen shot?
If this is still a little cloudy, please let me know what I can do to make it clearer to help you achieve your goal.
Done that,  and have the same tabbed  screen as you above. What next?
Great! I actually made a mistake and found a shortcut.

Enter this in the search box without the quptes:  "phrase here kind:=document"
Example:  mars is red kind:=document
Tried that, but did not work. For example, I wanted to find the words "Captain Prince Johnson".
 I inserted "Captain Prince Johnson kind:=document"  (no inverted commas).
  I got four hits, only one of them correct.
When I inserted "Captain Prince Johnson" without adding "kind:=document"
I still got the same four hits.
SOLUTION
Avatar of Computer Guy
Computer Guy

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Paul Sauvé
Paul Sauvé
Flag of Canada image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Thanks. Will do this a little later and get back to you tomorrow
It worked. Putting the inverted commas at start and end of search query did the trick. Am grateful to you for sticking with this one for me.
thanks for getting me there
glad to be of help

FYI, inverted commas are also known as quotation marks