Search tool for word files all finds simultaneously

Keep in mind that searching the contents of your Word documents with File Explorer is at a very basic level and has some drawbacks: You do not see the text found. You cannot search for combinations of words. You cannot sort the results by relevance. The search is very slow when you have a large number of files. PowerGrep does not have a free version. The most significant advantages of the program are: You can use regular expressions.

You see the sentences containing the searched words. Wide range of search options. Disadvantages of the program include: No free version. Complex interface.

Slow search in folders with large number of files. You cannot open the files directly from the results screen. You cannot see the context of the sentences found. Agent Ransack One of the oldest tools for searching text in documents is Agent Ransack , created in by the British company Mythicsoft. Advantages of Agent Ransack: Simple and easy to use interface.

There is a free version. Supports regular and Boolean expressions. Displays sentences containing the searched words. The main disadvantages are: Does not support word combinations — you can only search for single words.

Searching is slow and time consuming for folders with many files. Usage is simply a case of selecting a text based extension to search for such as. If matches are found, TurboSR will popup a window where you can skip the replace, replace the chosen text or replace all matches from now on.

Download TurboSR. Replace Text used to be called BK ReplaceEm and was quite a popular tool for searching and replacing operations. Being a portable tool is also a useful advantage. The program works by using Groups which you add the individual files or complete folders to, and then setup all the search and replace text for that group. This is quite useful because you can have several sets of files and locations each with their own set of replacement strings. Backups can be configured and are enabled by default with the.

Right click on the text to go to Advanced Edit where you can change the search between case, exact, range and regular expression, and can choose to replace the text or insert it before or after the search string. Download Replace Text. TextCrawler is without doubt a very feature rich utility and has a number advanced functions built in. Let's look at how to use the Search tool in File Explorer. First, to take advantage of the integration of Windows Search into File Explorer, make sure you've upgraded to the Windows 10 November Update version Be aware, though, that there is a bug in this update that sometimes renders the search field in File Explorer unresponsive when you click in it.

The Microsoft support document Fix problems in Windows Search offers some workarounds for the issue. You'll also want to check for the latest updates following Windows 10 version to see if Microsoft has fixed the glitch. Open File Explorer to a specific folder that you want to search. Click in the Search field. If the functionality is working, you should see a list of items from previous searches.

Type a character or two, and the items from previous searches match your criteria Figure A. Press Enter to see all the search results in the window. Click on the right search result to open the corresponding document or other file Figure B. With the Search Ribbon in File Explorer, you can take advantage of different commands, options, and criteria to refine your searches.

To expand the location of the search to your entire computer, click on the icon for This PC. To limit the location to just the current folder and no subfolders, click on the icon for Current Folder. Now hit the "Choose file" link on the subsequent window to open the inventory for you to choose the multiple target files. To select multiple files, hold on to the "Ctrl" button while you select the files of interest. When you are fully satisfied with your selection, click "Output folder" to choose the save location.

Now click "Apply" to commence the process of combining your multiple files. If you now open the file, everything is combined on a single PDF and you are good to go. The combined PDF file will automatically open on the main interface. To search multiple PDFs for words or phrases, simply hit the "Search" icon. You should see a search bar on the left pane. Check the "Case sensitive" or "Whole words only" boxes depending on your need. To start the search, enter the word or phrase you want to find in the PDF within the "Search box".

Press "Enter" on your keyboard or click the search icon beside the phrase or word. The program will search and display the matched words or phrases on the left pane.