subject: Using Windows 7 Search Filters [print this page] If youve upgraded to Windows 7, chances are youve discovered a few neat enhancements along the way. Have you discovered its search filters yet? If not, head on over to Windows Explorer by right-clicking on the Start button and choosing open Windows Explorer. Once launched, look in the upper right corner where youll find the Search bar. At first glance, the Search bar looks similar to the old one. However, once you enter your search term, a small menu unrolls with a prompt to add a search filter and a series of words highlighted in blue such as: Kind, Date Modified, Type, and Size. Clicking on any of these words adds the command followed by a colon (for example Kind:) to the search bar and opens a fresh display with additional choices. Note that the words vary depending on the location that you are searching and the available properties. You may also see choices such as: Author, Name, Length, Date Created, Date Taken, and Tags. If you choose the search filter Kind, your choices will be: Calendar Restricts results to Calendar entries Communication Restricts results to communication-related entries Contact Restricts results to Contacts Document Restricts results to documents and spreadsheets E-mail Restricts results to e-mail messages Feed Restricts results to RSS feeds Folder Restricts results to folders Game Restricts results to games Instant Message Restricts results to Instant Messages Each search filter type has its own menu of choices For example, if you choose Date Modified, you have several choices such as picking a date or date range from a calendar or selecting from these choices: A long time ago, Earlier this year, Earlier this month, Earlier this week, Last week, and Yesterday. Specific search filters appear when youre searching specific folders. For example, if you click on Videos and enter a term into the Search box, youll be presented with search filters such as Length, Date Created, and Type. If you know that the video you are looking for is short, you can restrict the results to Short (1 to 5 minutes). On the other hand, if you know that the video is long, try a longer filter such as Long (30 to 60 minutes) or Very Long (over 60 minutes). Restricting results based on known criteria such as video length makes it easier to find relevant results. While search filters are new to Windows7, the concept isnt new. Microsoft Word has allowed users to search based on Properties for a while now. Search filters allow you to search for files based on a files properties from within Windows Explorer. For example, if you have saved comments inside a Word documents Properties, you can use the following syntax to search for that document based on its comments: Kind:=document comment: Windows will then narrow your search results to Word documents containing comments in the stored in the files Properties. The new search filters are useful in helping you find files based on different criteria. Take some time now to get familiar with these different options so that the next time you need to find a file, you know how to find it quickly with search filters.
