Find files in directory with specified text content

[RudySchneider]

I tried to be as descriptive as possible with that title, and there may already exist a post that would help me, but...

1. I have a spreadsheet with many rows of wire harness numbers.
2. Going into Windows Explorer, I can navigate to a top-level directory and search for all the (Visio) files that contain that harness number.
3. I can then manually enter the file name(s) (or file number(s)) into a cell to the right of the harness of interest.
4. Repeat for next row (harness number).

Yeah, that works fine, but I've got a whole lotta harnesses for which I must search. Yes, I am capable of eventually writing my own VBA or macro to automate the above process, but with all the talent here, I'm hoping someone has had a similar challenge that he/she has already mastered, or a related post to which someone can direct me.

Thanks in advance --- Rudy

 

[starl]

not with just VBA.. maybe there's an API, but I don't know of it. You're asking Excel to look in file contents.. Excel can open many files, but unless the program has a VBA Object Model, Excel VBA cannot interface with it - there's nothing there for it to latch onto. For example, Excel can open a Word document and look for specific words in that document because Excel can interact with Words object model. I don't know if that option is available with Visio.
The windows explorer can search the contents of a file.. but that's a property of Windows. So, there's probably an API that can be called from VBA. But which one - i have no idea.

maybe this will help: Download Visio IFilter 2003 Add-in: Text Search in Visio Files from Official Microsoft Download Center

 

[RudySchneider]

Thanks very much for your insight, Tracy! I was hoping something within FileSystemObject would allow me to search a Visio file. I'll look over your link.

 

[starl]

These are the Methods available for FileSystemObject.. i don't see one that would do it. But hey - I could be wrong.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa262402(v=vs.60).aspx