I downloaded regain. It indexes your system and allows searching
in a fashion much like google. Jakarta Lucene engine??

My first search term was "mike"...zero hits.
Second search was "mike*"...470 hits
My third search was "*mike*...error message: search string can't start
with *

Some googling turned up that this is a common database problem
across various databases. Solutions started with doubling the size
of your database and doing convoluted searches and went downhill from
there.

Ok, I'm a dummy. My third attempt to search hits a brick wall.
I can't be the only person on the planet who thinks you oughta be able
to search
for a record ending in "string" e.g. "*string"

Is there a rational workaround for this?
And just for curiosity, why ain't this been fixed decades ago?
Seems like an obvious need????

Thanks, mike

--
Return address is VALID!
Bunch-O-Stuff Forsale Here:
http://nm7u.tripod.com/homepage/sale.html

The % sign is the "wild card" symbol in SQL, not the *, but that means
it should have been read as a character .. weid.