WM5: Search not looking inside Word documents?

[stevenf]

I'm using a Treo 700w with WM5.

I was just trying out the built-in Search program to see if it could find text in Word Mobile documents that were created on the Treo. I can't get it to work.

When I search for a word that I know for sure is in one of the documents, it finds no matches.

I've tried putting the Word docs on the SD card, in internal memory, in and out of the "My Documents" folder. They never get found by Search.

Can anyone confirm that this does/doesn't work?

[Andy Whiteford]

This doesn't work. The search function will search the file system and also built in PIM data for the string you have entered. It won't check the content of data files for applications.

[echernosky]

That would be too useful! Too Googlish.

Hey Bill! Can you add this for me?

[Sven Johannsen]

This doesn't work. The search function will search the file system and also built in PIM data for the string you have entered. It won't check the content of data files for applications.

Well it should. It always has in the past, and if it wasn't supposed to, there would be no reason to allow you to specify Word Mobile or Excel Mobile in the Type dropdown. Only issue I'd had with the search in the past (pre WM5) was that you couldn't find a number in a cell in Excel. Makes sense since you would be looking for the string '123' and the number 123 isn't stored as a string. That should have been taken into consideration though.

[echernosky]

there would be no reason to allow you to specify Word Mobile or Excel Mobile in the Type dropdown.

Are you sure? It may just be looking in the names of the .pxl and .pwl files. (or whatever the new extensions are)

[Don't Panic!]

After I choose Find/Replace from the Edit menu while I'm in Pocket Word on my WM2003SE device I can search for individual letters without any problems.

Guess it's time to charge the JasJar again. ;)

[stevenf]

Don't Panic: Note that I was concerned about searching ALL Word docs for a particular string, not just finding a string inside one Word doc.

As far as I can tell, Search looks only at filenames. If you choose Word from the popup "types" menu, it looks only at the filenames of Word docs. :)

[Andy Whiteford]

This doesn't work. The search function will search the file system and also built in PIM data for the string you have entered. It won't check the content of data files for applications.

Well it should. It always has in the past, and if it wasn't supposed to, there would be no reason to allow you to specify Word Mobile or Excel Mobile in the Type dropdown. Only issue I'd had with the search in the past (pre WM5) was that you couldn't find a number in a cell in Excel. Makes sense since you would be looking for the string '123' and the number 123 isn't stored as a string. That should have been taken into consideration though.


I don't have a WM2003/se device to hand at the moment but I can confirm it won't check the contents of a Word document in WM5, only the name of the document. Searching the content of Notes for example does work fine though as does other PIM data.

[Don't Panic!]

I couldn't find my european/US adapter last night but here's what happened using the built in Find program on a WM2003SE OS Axim X50v.

Created a Pocket Word Document on the SD card called "Space" and included the terms Quetzal and gingerbread in it. Opened find and searched for quetzal in all data. At first Find reported no items found then about 5 seconds later the the Pcoket Word file "Space" appeared on the list. I could see where this delay could cause some confusion especially with the initial no items found appearing before the results were complete. The same thing happened when I searched for gingerbread "No items found" then several seconds later the file appeared.

So of course I left the JasJar home today :roll: , and won't be able to repeat the test on WM5 until I return home this evening.

[Andy Whiteford]

I couldn't find my european/US adapter last night but here's what happened using the built in Find program on a WM2003SE OS Axim X50v.

Created a Pocket Word Document on the SD card called "Space" and included the terms Quetzal and gingerbread in it. Opened find and searched for quetzal in all data. At first Find reported no items found then about 5 seconds later the the Pcoket Word file "Space" appeared on the list. I could see where this delay could cause some confusion especially with the initial no items found appearing before the results were complete. The same thing happened when I searched for gingerbread "No items found" then several seconds later the file appeared.

So of course I left the JasJar home today :roll: , and won't be able to repeat the test on WM5 until I return home this evening.

I have just duplicated this experiment on a WM5 device. It does not reutrn any values regardless of searchinf all data or Word Mobile. I have even left it for a minute an still no items found and so searched again and still nothing. Unless this has something to do with the renaming of Pocket Word to Word Mobile for example although I seriously doubt this would be an oversight.

[Sven Johannsen]

Well MS has confirmed that it only finds the string in the doc title for Word and Excel in WM5, while it did find the string within those file types previously. They did not go so far as to declare that this was on purpose, or that it was going to change. We're asking.

I expect it has to do with the drastic change in the file formats for Word Moble and Excel Mobile as opposed to Pocket Word and Excel. Likely the new format broke the search capability. Just my gut feeling.

Edit: Actually MS did acknowledge it is broken. That to me says only that it is not what they intend, but it at least says that. No ETRO though.

[Don't Panic!]

Heck, I created some Word Mobile documents on mein JasJar and repeated the experiment. It just don't work. :(

AW was right. :nw:

[CalgaryJeremy]

Well MS has confirmed that it only finds the string in the doc title for Word and Excel in WM5, while it did find the string within those file types previously. They did not go so far as to declare that this was on purpose, or that it was going to change. We're asking.

I expect it has to do with the drastic change in the file formats for Word Moble and Excel Mobile as opposed to Pocket Word and Excel. Likely the new format broke the search capability. Just my gut feeling.

Edit: Actually MS did acknowledge it is broken. That to me says only that it is not what they intend, but it at least says that. No ETRO though.

Can you please indicate how Microsoft confirmed this issue? I searched their website up and down and did a lot of googling and came up empty handed. Did you speak with someone at Microsoft?

Not being able to search documents is rather brutal as I keep all of my notes in my PocketPC and the stock "Notes" program which is searched by the Search applet is quite useless (no formatting options at all!). My 10 year old Newton had a great search function and a phenomenal notepad... It seems like Microsoft rushed to get WM5 out and missed these key features (along with synchronizing offline pages in the same manner as was permitted under versions of ActiveSync prior to 4.1).

My concern after doing some searches on the internet is that there is not a lot of complaining going on about not being able to search within Word & Excel documents which means Microsoft will probably drag their butts worse than usual.

[Sven Johannsen]

Can you please indicate how Microsoft confirmed this issue? I searched their website up and down and did a lot of googling and came up empty handed. Did you speak with someone at Microsoft?
This has been a while ago. My best guess is that it would have been in a private newsgroup. I wouldn't have made the statement if it hadn't come from a source in the mobile devices division.

Not even sure what to recommend here. The text search function in Resco Explorer doesn't find words in Word docs either, so it would seem the file format issue (I assume) isn't affecting MS Search alone.

[The PocketTV Team]

Can you please indicate how Microsoft confirmed this issue? I searched their website up and down and did a lot of googling and came up empty handed. Did you speak with someone at Microsoft?
This has been a while ago. My best guess is that it would have been in a private newsgroup.

Yeah, that's too often like that. MSFT privately acknowledges a problem, but they won't enter it in their Knowledge database, so if you complain why it is not fixed, they can later say that they were not aware of the problem!

Apparently it's a similar problem for this Email Client bug: http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11518

It would be nice if all the known bugs and issues with Windows Mobile (and bundled MSFT apps) were actually logged in the Knowledge database.