The find... command from finder does not find my documents

Question

Hi. I have searched this topic and found lots of posts, particularly from spotlight not finding anything.
In my case, neither the find.. command nor spotlight can find my word documents while I can find them manually in their respective folders. I tried the re-indexing solution with no success. I did not have the problem of computer indexing continuosly as describbed in some posts, and in fact, did not notice any change even after restart.
I saw another popular link about resizing (?) the finder window, or something like that, which involve typing some text and saving it in the desktop... but wasn't sure if that would apply to my problem and since I am not an expert was worry it could make things worst as it has happened to some...
by the way if it matters, the documents came from an ibook running Tiger...
Thanks in advance for the answers.

Answer 1

Since I have the time now, assuming that yes, this will improve find... capabilities, here are the questions in between text.Thanks for your patience. Half of the article is chinese for me:
ARTICLE
Want to tailor the Finder's Find (Command-F) window? Copy the following into TextEdit, make it plain text, and save it to the Desktop as default_smart.plist:....
Q1: ONCE DONE, WILL I KEEP THIS ON DESKTOP FOREVER?
This version of Finder's search box shows the user's home folder as a place to search, includes all system files, is taller than the original window, and the cursor displays in the search box. Note that the ViewHeight field is the difference between bottom and top. So you can adjust it, and the window's width, to suit your needs.
To change the default Find window, run these commands in Terminal (don't type the $), pressing Return after each:
$ cd /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources
$ sudo cp default_smart.plist default_smart.plist.bak
The first command changes to the proper directory, and the second one saves the original default search file, so you can restore the current behavior. Enter your admin password at the Password prompt when asked.
Q2: RUN IN TERMINAL, MEANS SIMPLY OPEN TERMINAL FROM UTILITIES, TYPE THIS AND CLOSE IT. RESTART?
To activate your modified search box, use this command:
$ sudo cp /Users/username/Desktop/default_smart.plist default_smart.plist
Replace username with your user's short username. To return to the original file, cd to that same directory in Terminal, then use this command:
$ sudo cp default_smart.plist.bak default_smart.plist
Q3: BOTH OF THE ABOVE COMMANDS ARE ALSO IN TERMINAL? NEW WINDOW? OR ALL 4 COMMANDS AT THE SAME TIME PRESSING ENTER TO SEPARATE THEM?
[robg adds: You'll need to kill the Finder for this change to take effect. We've covered this sort of edit before (1, 2), but this one adds the 10.5-specific ability to search system files.]
WHAT IS KILL THE FINDER?
Thanks