How to Find a Phrase in Files

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How to Find a Phrase in Files – This is a place for the community to provide tips and advice on How to Find a Phrase in Files. This topic was created by Gigamajig and the tips are provided by the community. The tips you add here can be your own or referred from another site. The best tips are then ranked at the top when up-voted by members of the community.

Tip 1 - In windows 7 - I want to search for all files containing "A word or phrase in the file". The standard XP search box.

Published: 9 years, 5 month(s) ago | Submitted by Lord Omega | permalink

In Windows 7 - I want to search/find all files containing "A word or phrase in the file". The old standard XP search box. I do NOT supply: file name; file type; drive letter; etc. - nothing. I tried
Tags: Windows,Windows 7,Files, Folders, and Online storage

For further reading: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-files/in-windows-7-i-want-to-search-for-all-files/aadfe1f1-4a33-406b-8e72-bb920efa4f30 ^[1]

Tip 2 - Finding all files containing a text string on Linux

Published: 9 years, 5 month(s) ago | Submitted by Mabel Morales | permalink

I'm trying to find a way to scan my entire Linux system for all files containing a specific string of text. Just to clarify, I'm looking for text within the file, not in the file name. When I was

For further reading: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16956810/finding-all-files-containing-a-text-string-on-linux ^[2]

Tip 3 - How to find a text file which contains a specific word inside (not in its name)

Published: 9 years, 5 month(s) ago | Submitted by whoopzass | permalink

I want to find a text file in my hard disk which contains a specific word. I want to use a graphic application. I'm on 12.4 "Precise Pangolin". Prior to Ubuntu 12.4 I used to start in the dash an

For further reading: http://askubuntu.com/questions/127892/how-to-find-a-text-file-which-contains-a-specific-word-inside-not-in-its-name ^[3]

Tip 4 - How to Search for Text Inside of Any File Using Windows Search

Published: 9 years, 5 month(s) ago | Submitted by Franck 62 | permalink

Many of us rely on Windows Search to find files and launch programs, but searching for text within files is limited to specific filetypes by default. Here’s how you can expand your search to include other text based files.

For further reading: http://www.howtogeek.com/99406/how-to-search-for-text-inside-of-any-file-using-windows-search/ ^[4]

Tip 5 - How do you search for files containing a word or phrase (XP's "dog" Search Companion) in Windows 7?

Published: 9 years, 5 month(s) ago | Submitted by Carolyn Wilkinson | permalink

Windows XP's Search Companion seems to be a lot more powerful than searching in Windows 7. Particularly, I want to be able to search for filenames matching some pattern, containing a particular wo...

For further reading: http://superuser.com/questions/676431/how-do-you-search-for-files-containing-a-word-or-phrase-xps-dog-search-compa ^[5]

Tip 6 - how do I find a phrase/word recursivly in a file tree in linux

Published: 9 years, 5 month(s) ago | Submitted by Demon Chung | permalink

how do I find a phrase/word recursively in a file tree in Linux? I tried find . -name ./* | grep my_phrase and I tried grep -r "register_long_arrays" *

For further reading: http://superuser.com/questions/182976/how-do-i-find-a-phrase-word-recursivly-in-a-file-tree-in-linux ^[6]

Tip 7 - How to Search for Text Inside Multiple PDF Files at Once

Published: 9 years, 5 month(s) ago | Submitted by Sir Icky Icky | permalink

PDF documents are probably the most commonly used set of documents in most offices today because of their ability to be locked from accidental changes or u

For further reading: http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-search-for-text-inside-multiple-pdf-files-at-once/ ^[7]

Tip 8 - Search text across multiple files with Windows Grep

Published: 9 years, 5 month(s) ago | Submitted by Parkin Lee | permalink

Windows only: Windows Grep searches user-defined files and folders for text or regular expressions, offering quick and powerful results of all of the matches within your defined search locations.
Tags: Featured Windows Download, Downloads, Windows, Lifehacker

For further reading: http://lifehacker.com/276830/search-text-across-multiple-files-with-windows-grep ^[8]