How to Use Natural Language Search in Windows Vista
Windows Vista includes an integrated search engine that can index all or selected parts of a computer's file system and return search results within seconds. While the default of entering simple search terms can be effective in finding specific documents, Vista also offers a natural language search option that greatly enhances search capabilities.
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Instructions
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Login to Windows Vista.
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Turn on Natural Language Search. Click "Start," then "Control Panel," then "Folder Options," and then select "Use natural language search" in the "How to Search" section of the dialog.
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Enter search commands. You can enter "natural language" search entries into any of the various Windows Vista search tools, including the Search field directly above the "Start" button, search fields in various file system windows, and within applications that support the Vista search engine such as Microsoft Office 2007.
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Use Natural Language search. "Natural language" means simply that instead of using cryptic commands, you can write natural sentences and Vista will attempt to interpret them to locate files. These sentences do not need to be grammatically correct, but must include relevant information for searching. An example of a valid natural language search is "all files before 12/1/2006," which will search for and display all file types created or modified before 12/1/2006. Another example is "email from Bob Smith," which will return all emails sent to or from Bob Smith.
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Tips & Warnings
Natural language searches can be tricky. For example, if you enter the search term "email yesterday," the system will return not only email sent and received yesterday but also email that contains "yesterday" anywhere in the message.
Searches can be quite complex. For example, you can combine a variety of search types, such as names, dates, and file types in a single search. An example is "email from Bob Smith before 12/1/2006," which will return all email from Bob Smith before 12/1/2006.
