Posts Tagged ‘search’

Searching by Headings in MS Word 2010

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

When you have a very long or complex document you are working on in MS Word, you may not want to search for a word or phrase but rather, you may find it more advantageous to search by headings. Once you have quickly found your heading, you can then may then add or delete text or edit however you choose.

Follow the steps below to learn how to search by Headings :

  1. Click your Home tab.
  2. In the Editing group, click the Find icon, to open the Navigation Pane on the left side of your screen.
  3. In the Navigation Pane, click the Headings tab.
  4. A list of headings will appear in the Navigation Pane.
  5. Click on the heading of your choice in the Navigation Pane.

Word will display the heading in your document for you.

Super Fast Find Next in MS Word

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

MS Word has a very nice search feature that allows us to make replacements on the fly.

We all know the key combination shortcut to use Search and Replace — Ctrl F. It allows us to search for just about anything in our documents. There is the issue of screen real estate when using this great function however.

The Navigation Pane opens on your screen and takes up valuable real estate and not only that, it can be distracting to some folks (me).  When you click on Next that pane is still there.

Now the good news is that you CAN have your search and not have the pane (no pun intended).

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Use your Navigation Pane as you normally would, specifying what you would like to search for and look for the first occurrence.
  2. When Word displays the first occurence, click your Esc key or click on cancel. Word will obey and close the Navigation Pane.
  3. To find the next occurrence, simply click Shift + F4.

It works exactly the same as clicking Next Search Result and it is just as fast without that distracting Navigation Pane!

Always looking for ways to help you work smarter, faster and more comfortably!

Become a Google Master

Sunday, August 3rd, 2008

You can learn to be a master at Google. I rely on Google for all of my searches and there are many Google tools to use to ensure a good and complete search. With just a few steps you can become a Google Master and amaze others at your prowess. There are lots of resources out there to  help you.

The LifeHacker blog has a collection of all of its posts regarding Google tips and tricks saved in one place called Google School. You will find all manner of information here. Google School is a wonderful resource for anyone who relies on Google as heavily as I do.

The easiest method to increase accurracy and reduce extraneous results is to employ quotation marks around the terms you use in your search.

If you are search for information about lemons, you will get hundreds, nay, thousands of results for fruit and crappy cars, etc. In Google, the plus sign (+) is a short way of saying that a word must be in the result of your search. A minus sign (-) means that a word must not be in the result.

If you are looking for an overview or introduction to any topic, you can find a .pdf or .ppt file. If you want an in-depth analysis then you can search for an academic essay or white paper. You can make your search so much easier if you simply add the term PPT or PDF.

Blogs, as a rule, will give you the most up to date information on a topic. There are two great ways to find this sort of information. One is just like the tip above.  Simply add the word blog to the end of your search request.

Last, but not least, Google has, just to the right of the search box, a link to the Advanced Search. If you click on it you can transform yourself into a power Google user. Advance Search allows you to quickly and easily fine-tune your searches in myriad ways. Check it out – play with it and see how well you do.

If you employ the tips and tricks I have listed, you will be a Google Master in no time at all!