I'm not sure this will satisfy you, and I'm assuming you mean the Search
feature in the Tools menu of the Open dialog box...

If you open the list marked Search In: each folder, or 'expandable item',
has a checkbox that pertains to that level in the hierarchy. It gives you 3
options;

1) If you *clear* the checkbox, that entire branch of the directory will not
be included in the search,
2) If the box appears as a single box which is checked, that folder will be
searched but folders within it won't be unless they *do* have a check,
3) If the box appears as triple overlapping boxes with a check, that folder
& all folders within will be searched.

You can more rapidly reverse the status of an *entire* branch by
double-clicking its checkbox.

Still a bit cumbersome initially, but once set up it is much easier to make
adjustments for future searches.

--
HTH|:)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

"Chesapeake" wrote in message
...
I have numerous folders with many subfolders - I need to rapidly look
through
the main folder and find the subfolder which contains the information I
need.
We just recently upgraded from WORD 97 where searching was breeze - the
new
search is tedious, time consuming and a pain - can anyone help? I just
recently did a search and had to "unmark" 96 folder to get the search to
perform in the folder I waned.