I would start trying if a scanned pdf file gives searchable text. It might well be more like a bitmap (a picture). That's easy to try. Scan one of your documents to pdf and use Adobe reader to search for a word.
If that works, Google desktop search (see http://desktop.google.com/features.html) will do the trick: it indexes pdf-files also.
If it doesn't work, you'll need to use an OCR-program to convert the scan to a machine-readable document first. Google desktop search will surely be usable then.
Kees
Kees
I am interested in archiving my files by scanning all documents into a PDF format and would like to know which is the best program that is capable of text recognition in a PDF format. All I want it to do is type in the word (for example, settlement) and the documents with this word are shown with a preview of where in the document the word is.
Can anyone suggest a couple of programs that may help with this issue? Thanks!

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic