Search writer document for word within text box

[blashrkh]

Have been working on writer documents and need to search for a word (Ctrl+F) within a textbox or frame in that document. I performed a search for vivo which I knew was in the document but no results are returned. Tried selecting OLE object, Text box, page, modes but still no result. Created a new document and inserted a text box with some words in it on separate lines and to my disappointment this was unable to be found.

Think there may have been support in sold old versions of LO to support finding results across the whole document and this included within text boxes. Not sure on that though.

Exported the document direct to PDF and find in an external PDF viewer fine.

As you can see in the attached document there are text boxes and cannot find words such as vivo, weakest, titre. They are in there but cannot be found.

See attached ODT document. C:\fakepath\Lecture 2 - General Virology - Virus detection and cultivation (summary) #3.odt

Please help.

Version: 6.4.0.3 (x64)
Build ID: b0a288ab3d2d4774cb44b62f04d5d28733ac6df8
UI render: default; VCL: win;
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI-Language: en-GB
Calc: threaded

[ajlittoz]

No spare time to experiment.

In Tools>Options, Language Settings>Writing Aids, in Options there is a checkbox Check special regions which includes drawing objects (and others) in spellchecking. Has it any effect for search?

[blashrkh]

Thank you for the response ajlittoz. This does not seem to have an effect. I have a fresh install inside a VM and this exhibits the same behaviour.

[ajlittoz]

You are using the wrong tools.

Drawing objects, as their name implies, are outside the scope of text flow and its offsprings (frames). Even if drawing objects may contain text (text box), they semantically remain “graphic” objects which will be considered accessory decoration.

If you need these side text to be searchable, use frames instead. A frame is (usually) anchored to a paragraph and is considered an extension of it. Text frames are searchable, can be spell-checked, cross-referenced and be made part of index tables, etc.

LO Writer is a very powerful tool which is based on a small number of founding principles. One of these is the notion of styles which are omnipresent. You are encouraged to read the Writer Guide. You are presently in the wrong direction: you’re using it like a mechanical typewriter.

[janthird]

This is a clumsy work around but it will work if you really need to search a lot of Calc text boxes. Save the spreadsheet as a PDF and search the PDF file. It is the only way I have been able to do it.

[ajlittoz]

Valid work-around for Calc but the initial question was about Writer (though this trick also works for Writer).