The search feature built into the latest versions of Microsoft Word is too cumbersome. In order to search a single folder for all files containing a particular word requires a minimum of ten mouse clicks. Well, there is a better way. This should help with any word processor or text editor, not just in Word.

1. Close all open programs and click once on your desktop. Press F3 and, in the Look In box, type in the full path to the directory in which you save all your text and Word files (the default is usually C:\My Documents).
2. Now, in the Containing Text box, type in a short series of characters that would not be found in any of your existing text files. Something like QWT or the like. Start the search for which you should find no matches in the subject directory (C:\My Documents or whatever).
3. Once the search is complete, save it by going to File/Save Search. Once you finished the save you'll notice a new icon on your desktop.
4. Now the trick is to make this saved search easy to access while working with any text editor or word processor (or combination thereof). Right click the new icon, drag it across the Desktop a short way and select Create Shortcut Here from the menu that appears when you release the button.
5. Right click the new shortcut and assign a hot key so that you can launch it quickly without accessing your desktop. One good suggestion would be Ctrl+Shift+F. You could also drag it to your Quick Launch bar.
6. Now, any time you are working in any text editor, or combination of text based programs of any type, and you need to find a specific file in your central text document directory, you can just press the hot key you assigned and substitute QWT (or whatever you typed in) with the word you're looking for.