Windows Vista for Business
The built-in desktop search and organization features in Windows Vista give you the power to instantly find documents, e-mail, contacts, and programs right from your desktop. Windows Vista searches are not limited to the local computer, and can include shared folders on other Windows Vista PCs in your network. For all those times you think, "I know I've seen that somewhere on my PC, but can't remember where," Windows Vista makes it easy to find the content you seek. Here's an overview of desktop search and organization capabilities in Windows Vista and how they can benefit you and your business:
Start something
From the more efficient and comprehensive Start menu in Windows Vista, you can find virtually anything on your PC with fast-as-you-can-type performance. To find a specific file, program, or Internet Favorite, you simply open the Start menu—or press the Windows key on the keyboard—and begin typing in the embedded Instant Search box. As you type, Windows Vista instantly searches file and program names, metadata, and the full text of all files, and it displays the search results organized by category—Programs, Favorites/Internet History, Files, including documents and media, and Communications, including e-mail, events, tasks, and contacts.
Instant Search
Instant Search in Windows Vista gives you an omnipresent search box that helps you locate files, e-mail messages, programs, and more on your PC. If you remember anything about a file or e-mail—the type of file, when it was created, or even what it contains—Windows Vista can find it for you quickly and easily.
Instant Search is also contextual, optimizing its results based on your current activity—whether it's searching Control Panel applets, looking for documents in the new Documents Explorer, or looking over all your files and programs on the Start menu.
Search from anywhere
The Explorers in Windows Vista showcase Instant Search in the top right corner. Just like using Instant Search from the Start menu, you only have to type a few letters to quickly display the most relevant results. If the results aren't what you're looking for, Instant Search provides easy access to tools that can help you design more specific searches or search across the Internet using the search engine of your choice as set in Internet Explorer.
Instant Search also appears in the top right corner of the redesigned Control Panel. Here, you need only type in a word or a phrase associated with the system configuration task you want to accomplish, and Control Panel filters down to the most appropriate choice.
Folders that do the searching for you
Windows Vista also introduces convenient, customizable Search Folders. Clicking a Search Folder instantly runs a search. Windows Vista comes with many preconfigured Search Folders, such as "Recent E-mail," which shows users all e-mail from the current week, and "Shared By Me," which shows all files that are currently configured for file sharing. Users can create and save their own custom Search Folders, too.
Tagging isn't just for photos anymore
Windows Vista takes working with information to the next level, combining Instant Search with the ability to auto-organize content across your PC based on file properties. Rather than having to remember specific locations or folder names to find your documents, media, and e-mail, you can rely on the ability of Windows Vista to search file properties, and give you even more dynamic ways to interact with your information. Microsoft Office applications automatically record certain document properties, such as author and date created. Windows Vista also gives you ways to apply custom properties to your files.
You can quickly and easily apply properties to any file or group of files in the following ways:
Details Pane The easiest way to add a property to a file is to select the file and change it in the Details Pane at the bottom of the Explorer. Many of the entry fields support AutoComplete, making it even easier to add properties, for one file or across many files. Selecting multiple files and adding a property via the Details Pane adds that property to all selected files.
Saving a File Windows Vista features a new common File dialog box for opening and saving files. Applications that use this control enable you to use all of the innovative new searching and tagging features when you open and save files. To add properties when saving a file, enter information directly into the appropriate field in the common File dialog box.
Windows Vista can also help you "see" your files in multiple ways. Want to see all of your documents arranged by date? How about by author? No problem. The system can auto-organize your content using basic properties that are often automatically saved with your files. Even more, you can also add custom tags directly to your files, using any of the system's Explorers, or when using applications, such as the 2007 Microsoft Office system. Once added, those tags enable the system to bring together your documents and media in virtually any way you think about them.
Ultimate control of your columns
Imagine being able to view as many as 200 files in a single folder. Previously there was no easy way to manage so much data, especially when you were trying to sort through or organize the information in question. The new column header controls can help turn a mountain of search results into a molehill.
The new column header controls feature innovative menus so users can filter all of the files currently in view. For example, choosing the Type column header control will display all of the different file types across the visible documents. Using simple check boxes, users can pick the types that they want to see. Selecting .pptx and .xlsx, for example, filters out all other document types on the screen, leaving only Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 and Microsoft Office Excel 2007 files visible.
Virtual Stacks free you from folder views
In addition to the traditional "Sort" view, the new column header controls feature the new "Stack" view, which lets you view your files in nearly any way you wish to see them. Stacks let you organize a set of search results by the values listed in a specific column. For instance, you can select the Tags column header and choose to stack by tag, and all the files currently in view, no matter where they are physically stored on your hard drive, will be rearranged into stacks of documents organized by tag. If a file has two tags—say, "Product Cost" and "Finance"—you can view it from both stacks, offering the ultimate flexibility in how you find and organize your files.
