Microsoft Office & Microsoft 365: Search all applications without opening them

Word, Excel, PowerPoint and more: The essential Microsoft Office programs shape the world of work. Use Enterprise Search to search all apps and documents in Outlook, Teams, SharePoint and much more in one fell swoop.

Almost every office employee comes into contact with Microsoft Office programs every day. In the following FAQs you will find answers to frequently asked questions about efficient searches in Word, Excel & Co. Also find out how the company's internal search engine searchit the Microsoft Office suite or Microsoft 365 and what advantages it offers compared to searching in SharePoint.

Search Word, Excel, Teams and other MS Office programs

Find key terms in Microsoft Office files - not just in SharePoint, but across all your company's data sources

Microsoft Office or Microsoft 365: Which is better for collaboration?

Can I browse Office applications without opening them?

How can I search MS Teams and Teams Chat?

How can I search multiple Excel files efficiently?

How does full-text search work in searchit?

How can I view the version history of Word, Excel, etc. in searchit search?

Is searchit more effective for Microsoft Office applications or Microsoft 365?

How is searching with Enterprise Search Software and SharePoint different?

Microsoft Office or Microsoft 365: Which is better for collaboration?

Microsoft Office refers to the traditional office suite that is installed locally on a computer. It includes programs such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, Publisher and others. All files are saved on local servers or directly on the PC. In order to edit documents together, they must be shared via email or on a shared network drive.

 

Microsoft 365, on the other hand, is a cloud-based service that offers subscription access to the Office suite of products as well as a variety of cloud services such as OneDrive, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Teams and more. Files are stored in the cloud, enabling seamless document collaboration through real-time synchronization. There are also versioning features that make it possible to revert to previous versions. Microsoft 365 also offers Microsoft Search, which offers a search function in a unified design for each service. Microsoft 365 users often use SharePoint to manage files stored in the cloud. In a later question we will examine the differences between searching in SharePoint and searchit even more precise.

Can I browse Office applications without opening them?

 

When using the Microsoft Office suite, files cannot be searched for content without opening them.

Microsoft 365 has implemented the “Microsoft Search” search function in every app. By default, recently used commands and files that can be executed in the current app are displayed here. To access older content, there is usually the “Show more results” option. The Microsoft Search function of a service is usually unable to perform a content search in unopened files or to display files of a different file type than the current app. Exceptions are SharePoint and Microsoft365, which allow searches for the file names of all files stored in the cloud.

How can I search MS Teams and Teams Chat?

To search Microsoft Teams and Teams Chat, you can access the search bar at the top of the application or web view. When entering the search term, shows Teams relevant conversations, channels, files, contacts and more. Additionally, you can use search in the Teams application to find specific chat histories. Search is cloud-based and enables quick access to relevant information in Teams.

How can I search multiple Excel files efficiently?

It is not possible to search the contents of multiple .xlsx files at the same time using the search function in Excel. To search multiple Excel files, you must open each file and access the search function separately. An alternative is to create and install macros yourself, for example in the VBA editor, with which Excel files in a specific directory can be searched for specifically defined search criteria.

In order to be able to search in several Excel files without lengthy preparations, we recommend using enterprise search software. This allows you to search multiple files of a specific format at the same time with just a few clicks - even across different locations. 

Enterprise Search takes you further

More comprehensive than searching in SharePoint: Search any MS Office program and Microsoft 365 app with searchit

 

How does full-text search work in searchit?

 

By entering a search term into the search interfaceit simultaneously search all indexed files in the connected data sources. Thanks to the extensive connectors, you can access local network drives and servers as well as SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, Outlook as well as other mail servers and cloud platforms simultaneously. As an enterprise search software, searchit all Microsoft Office files and their contents. Users benefit from full-text search that takes file contents of any file type and even previous versions into account. Accessing files in a virtually unlimited storage size is intuitive and can be done in a matter of seconds.

 

How can I view the version history of Word, Excel, etc. in searchit search?

As part of the regular indexing of all files in the connected sources, Enterprise Search recognizes searchitwhich files have been changed or newly created. Files created in the Microsoft Office suite can therefore be accessed via searchit be tracked for changes. Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other apps in Microsoft 365 contain integrated version tracking, which is also clearly visible in searchit is accessible.

 

Is searchit more effective for Microsoft Office applications or Microsoft 365?

An in-house search engine offers advantages for both use cases: Companies like to use the cloud-based Microsoft 365 because MS Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint provide many platforms for sharing files and easy online collaboration. Unfortunately, the reality is often that relevant files and team documents are distributed across all of these platforms plus the company's internal servers. With the use of searchit Users can search in all of these interfaces using a central input mask - efficient collaboration is no longer dependent on meticulous data management.

In the case of the locally installed Microsoft Office suite, searchit represents a web-based link: Employees, with the appropriate access rights, can easily see on which server a file they are looking for can be found. Even if collaborative document editing is not permitted, enterprise search can significantly improve collaboration in hybrid teams.

 

How is searching with Enterprise Search Software and SharePoint different?

Platform-independent searches in all Microsoft 365 services and beyond are only possible with Enterprise Search. While SharePoint provides a platform for collaborative collaboration and communication, search is limited to SharePoint content and offers limited filtering options. Users are unable to access files stored locally or on other systems - such as email in Outlook - through SharePoint. Enterprise Search, on the other hand, enables extensive searches across all internal company data, including SharePoint, all Outlook data such as emails and contacts, as well as locally stored MS Office documents. The comprehensive full-text search includes searching in content, in ordinary and automatically-extracted metadata and further filters based on file type, category or duplicates - to name just a few examples. With an enterprise search, employees receive a valuable tool to search for information across platforms and in a matter of seconds, without having to think long about the possible storage location of a file.

 

file management, collaboration and communication. It allows users to save, collaborate and share documents. However, search is limited to SharePoint content and offers limited filtering options. Microsoft Search is implemented in the taskbar and in individual web apps, but in many cases only includes recently edited files. Although there is an advanced search function with filter options, Microsoft Search is not designed to have the functionality of an internal company search engine. Rather, it is used for easy access to frequently used documents. Enterprise Search enables more comprehensive searches to access files without having to remember the exact location or title. Access to searchit This usually takes place via the web.

How does the full-text search work? searchit?

 

By entering a search term into the search interfaceit simultaneously search all indexed files in the connected data sources. Thanks to the extensive connectors, you can access local network drives and servers, as well as SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, Outlook as well as other mail servers and cloud platforms simultaneously. As an enterprise search software, searchit all Microsoft Office files and their contents. Users benefit from full-text search that takes file contents of any file type and even previous versions into account. Accessing files in a virtually unlimited storage size is intuitive and can be done in a matter of seconds.

How can I view the version history of Word, Excel, etc. in searchit search?

As part of the regular indexing of all files in the connected sources, Enterprise Search recognizes searchitwhich files have been changed or newly created. Files created in the Microsoft Office suite can therefore be accessed via searchit be tracked for changes. Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other apps in Microsoft 365 contain integrated version tracking, which is also clearly visible in searchit is accessible.

Is searchit more effective for Microsoft Office applications or Microsoft 365?

An in-house search engine offers advantages for both use cases: Companies like to use the cloud-based Microsoft 365 because MS Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint provide many platforms for sharing files and easy online collaboration. Unfortunately, the reality is often that relevant files and team documents are distributed across all of these platforms plus the company's internal servers. With the use of searchit Users can search in all of these interfaces using a central input mask - efficient collaboration is no longer dependent on meticulous data management.

In the case of the locally installed Microsoft Office suite, searchit represents a web-based link: Employees, with the appropriate access rights, can easily see on which server a file they are looking for can be found. Even if collaborative document editing is not permitted, enterprise search can significantly improve collaboration in hybrid teams.

 

How is searching with Enterprise Search Software and SharePoint different?

Platform-independent searches in all Microsoft 365 services and beyond are only possible with Enterprise Search. While SharePoint provides a platform for collaborative collaboration and communication, search is limited to SharePoint content and offers limited filtering options. Users are unable to access files stored locally or on other systems - such as email in Outlook - through SharePoint. Enterprise Search, on the other hand, enables extensive searches across all internal company data, including SharePoint, all Outlook data such as emails and contacts, as well as locally stored MS Office documents. The comprehensive full-text search includes searching in content, in ordinary and automatically-extracted metadata and further filters based on file type, category or duplicates - to name just a few examples. With an enterprise search, employees receive a valuable tool to search for information across platforms and in a matter of seconds, without having to think long about the possible storage location of a file.

 

file management, collaboration and communication. It allows users to save, collaborate and share documents. However, search is limited to SharePoint content and offers limited filtering options. Microsoft Search is implemented in the taskbar and in individual web apps, but in many cases only includes recently edited files. Although there is an advanced search function with filter options, Microsoft Search is not designed to have the functionality of an internal company search engine. Rather, it is used for easy access to frequently used documents. Enterprise Search enables more comprehensive searches to access files without having to remember the exact location or title. Access to searchit This usually takes place via the web.

With Enterprise Search
search almost everything

Our enterprise search software allows you to search almost all sources thanks to many connectors. searchit crawls your scans and images of texts fully automatically and carries out automatic text recognition. The integration of these additional search sources makes the search even more efficient.

Search image texts with text recognition plugin

By using what is available OCR plugins Texts in images and pictorial PDF files also become searchable. The plugin recognizes all text in the files and saves the recognized text so that it can be marked and copied. For example, scans can also be searched.

Numerous content-based filter options

Numerous content-based filter options mean search hits can be limited with just one click. Among other things, highly intuitive graphical search filters - for example for author and storage location - as well as time dimension filters are available. Depending on the type of search, the existing filters are adjusted.

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