Full-text searching for text within a PowerPoint document does not find text in charts

Question

I have a full-text index on a set of PowerPoint 2007 presentations, each of which contains charts. (I have both charts created within PowerPoint, and charts created in Excel and pasted into PowerPoint).

I would expect a search using CONTAINS or FREETEXT to match text in the charts, but it does not. For example, I have a slide with a pie chart with labels "lions", "tigers", "bears", yet when I search for "bears" I get no matches. Searching for text in the slide itself (not in the chart) does work.

Everything is running on one 32-bit PC, which has:

• Windows 7 Enterprise (SP1)
• Microsoft Office 2007 Professional (SP3)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Express with Advanced Services
• Microsoft Filter Pack 2.0

I have verified that the 2.0 filters are being used for .pptx files (fulltext_document_types reports version 2010.1400.4746.1000 for pptx).

What do I need to do to get this to work? 

Answer 1

Hi Gary,

I would like to suggest you to download the latest filter provided by Microsoft, and see if the charts can be searched.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17062

If it still cannot be searched, since you can search for text in the slide, I would like to suggest you to send a feedback to Microsoft.

For submitting a feedback to Microsoft such issues, I would recommend to submit it to the Microsoft Connect at this link https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/Feedback. This connect site will serve as a connecting point between you and Microsoft, and ultimately the large community for you and Microsoft to interact with. Your feedback enables Microsoft to offer the best software and deliver superior services, meanwhile you can learn more about and contribute to the exciting projects on Microsoft Connect.

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Best Regards,
Iric
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Answer 2

Iric,

Thanks, but that's the filter pack I'm using, as evidenced by the version number I quoted. 

I'll submit "a feedback" as you suggest.

Thanks,

Gary