My boss has saved a lot of workbooks on his desktop€”mostly budget scenarios
and financial statements. He prints out and saves hard copies, then he
forgets where the electronic file has been stored. I have tried to use the
Search feature in Windows Explorer to find a source worksheet from the hard
copy. I look for a unique number on the worksheet€”say the grand total, which
is unlikely to be duplicated on any other worksheet€”and then use the F3
Search feature in Windows Explorer to find this file. "Search for files or
folders named" = *.xls ; "Containing" = $222,321.19 (i.e. the grand total)
and I search through all of the files on his desktop.

Sometimes the search will return a list of files, sometimes not. It must
depend upon the format of the number. Has anyone ever used this technique,
or does anyone have a tip they could share? My boss is pretty set in his
ways, so I am looking for a way to solve the problem he has created, not to
change his ways. Thanks for your help!


Bill Wilson