After upgrading to Sequoia 15.2, I've rebuilt Spotlight twice to try and fix this problem (which works for others apparently), but I still can't use search in Finder or in Spotlight to find word documents either by searching for a word in the filename or a word in the document. It's very frustrating. I can't get work done when I can't find files I need.
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.2
First check the settings at "System Settings" > "Spotlight" and make sure that "Documents" is enabled.
Then, Narrow your search results on Mac - Apple Support
By using search criteria, you can specifically search for Word documents by searching for the file extension ".docx"
You should actually be able to easily find all Microsoft Word files by just searching for ".docx" in Finder.
Rebuilding the Spotlight search index may resolve that issue as anonymous-imac-user suggested: Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support
You may want to try a search such as ".docx" and then add a term that you absolutely know is contained in the name or in the document. It's better to do a broad search and browse through many potential files than to be overly specific and miss the document.
I have everything enabled in Spotlight. I CAN find word documents by searching for .docx in Finder and some other search terms are now working and bringing up word documents, but I still can't find this one word document which isn't coming up with the usual search terms that I use to find it. Maybe the second Spotlight rebuild/reindexing is still working......I'll try later
It's something to do with the index, IIRC.
This might help:
Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support
Finder and Spotlight search not finding word documents
