Wild Cards

When doing a search you can use an asterisk (*) in place of letters or numbers. This is called a "Wild Card" and it really comes in handy.

Let's say you're looking for a file that starts with "ran" but aren't sure what the rest of the name is. Just type in...

ran*

All files of any type that begin with "ran" will be found such as "randy.doc" or "rand-mcnally.exe".

Let's say you know that your file is a Word doc. Then type in "ran*.doc".

What if you're just not sure of the single character in a file name? Then use a Question Mark wild card...

ran?.doc



You could end up with "rant.doc", "rank.doc" or "ran1.doc" but not "randy.doc"

This not only works with Search/Find in Windows, but on many Internet search engines as well.