[rogbar]

Sorry for not being explicit enough ... let me try this: If I have an outline for a history book, I can list the items in chronological order. But in each item's column I enter a category the item would belong to: politics, culture, science, sports, etc. Another column would list the country in which the event took place.

A filter would allow me to look at only the items that have culture in the column field. (Merely using Search and looking for the word "Culture" might also bring up those items relating to French scientist growing bacteria in a culture medium...and who wants that?) If there were a 2nd column that listed country, I could drill down and look at only those items that involved Russia and culture. It gives us a very convenient way to look at the same information in different ways. Ecco Pro was brilliant at this, and I feel certain OO could be, too.

Again, Search does look across all the columns, but Search would point me to every item that contained the word "Russia", regardless of whether it was in the Category column of the main text entry column.