Bill,

>"file near extension and function and returns near arguments"
>

>Where do I learn to construct search strings like that? How does the search engine know that 'near' and 'and' are not strings to be searched? Are they defined keywords? If so, where do I find that list?

The MSDN CD has always supported this kind of search expression, I found out about it years ago during it's first beta release. If you click the little > button to the right of the entry field you see the list of operators. The Help menu on the full MSDN does give a detailed description of search expressions. NEAR is one of the handiest items I've ever used.