Might this help?  It was posted onto the users list two days ago...

http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?msgId=685493&listName=users

I also searched the OOo help, and there is a URL provided in the
section regarding searches, that might provide more info than that
included in the help file.  

Attempting to reassign the component of this issue to the proper
project.  Not sure which project to pick, so have redirected to
Framework.  Please advise if this is incorrect?  Thanx...

(At this point, I am kinda viewing this more as an enhancement
request, but again, am not too sure.)

changed qa contact from support.OOo to framework.OOo.

reassigning issue to framework

Reassign issue to owner of selected subcomponent

Sorry, I have not the faintest idea what we are supposed to do here.
The link points an e-mail about a perl script. Well, that's nothing
that touches the framework project.

If this issue is about integrating new functionality to search into
the OOo user interface, it's definitely a feature request. So I take
it as this, but following our current priorities I can't justify
another target than "OOo later".

I added the email addr as a possible tool for a work-round.  I see it
as a feature request as well. (Am not sure if/how that differs with
enhancement.)  I am also the one that redirected the issue, and I
guessed it belonged to the framework project.  If I am wrong, I am
sorry, and please redirect it with your best guess, to help the issue
land where it might eventually get its proper attention.  (I am just
learning how to redirect issues from the support project, and wish to
learn how to do it best.  Please advise by making proper changes, and
I will observe.)  Thanx.

OK, understood. Thanks for your comment, Diane!

Usually I think that searching through documents is a typical
operating system task. On Windows, you can add system handlers for
special file types, I don't know what desktops in Linux offer here.

Of course the search functionality integrated into an application that
knows every bit of the file system can be much more useful, so I
understand the idea behind the equest.

IMHO this functionality can be implemented as a Basic Macro in the
simplest way. A macro can load all documents in the directory (as our
document converter does) and use API functionality for searching. 

But we could also extend our "Search And Replace" dialog to do that.

I've only just discovered tis. It is pretty much a duplicate of an RFE 
i filed earlier: #7432. I am minded to mark it a duplicate, but that 
would loee some interesting comments. 

I agree that this one should likely be closed as a duplicate, but this
one is started, whereas Issue 7432 is new.  Both issues have comments
which may help users.  Issue 7432 is the earliest.  Mathias, what is
your call on this? Should we close this issue, and reassign the other
to you?  Please guide us with this?

Also, please note the email message that came to dev@qa.ooo today,
which also may relate:
http://qa.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?msgId=761959&listName=dev 
 

For Windows platform, you can use OOO Finder. 

http://web.tiscali.it/fanelia/sw/ooo.html

HTH,
Van

Marking an issue as duplicate and closing it does not destroy
information because this is noted in the issue kept open and you can
always check the duplicate one(s). I usually check the duplicates when
I set the remaining issue to resolved just to make sure that they are
really duplicates.

So let's keep this one and mark 7432 as duplicate.

*** Issue 7432 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

I think this feature should be implemented in (File -> Open) dialog, 
like MsWord or MsExcel diologs...
There we could set some things (like file content), so Ooo filter the 
files and list them to users...

I released a new version of my search tool for OpenOffice documents.
You can download it from:

http://web.tiscali.it/fanelia/sw/o3find

I'm sorry if at the moment it works only under Windows, but I'm a 
Windows programmer :-(
(By the way, I believe that it can be easily ported to other systems, 
like Linux)
Hope this helps... Enjoy it...

Paolo 'Van'

Some information in the forum about this issue

http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=442

*** Issue 13433 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

see issue 21108 for a windows-specific enhancement...

*** Issue 27524 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

In MS Word 97, in the file->open dialog you can filter the documents list not
only by  file name (wild cards) but also by search-text and "last modified" date
range. I found this quite useful, it can also be an efficient way to limit the
search because for documents outside the range you only have to check the "last
modified" date and not search the whole document. It may be not too difficult to
implement.
Additional search criteria such as author, title, keywords etc. (see
File->Properties) might also be added.  

Can the search tool integrated into OO.o as a 'Search Pane' and follow the text
search method used by 'iTunes' for basic search and provide an advanced search
option.  Also if OO.o indexes the supported file formats and keeps track of them
when idle won't it be easier/quicker in giving the results?  If so, could the
user be allowed to turn off this option from the 'Options' Menu item of Tools Menu?

Pls. comment.

Look at http://mechtilde.de/Loook. There is a tool written in Python3.

If some do the package for MacOSX, I will publish it to.

Reset the assignee to the default "issues@openoffice.apache.org".