MSP430G2553: Can CCS text searches exclude files?

On the File Search dialog you can enter the File name patterns of which files to search. E.g.:

I think the default filename pattern on creating a workspace is * which searches all files.

The problem occurs when I do a project search by highlighting a word, right-clicking and selecting project search in the context menu.

This always produces the following error message:

"Problems encountered during text search." I have an Excel .xlsx file in with the project files, and if I move it out, the problems go away. Is there a way to exclude these files from the search?

Search text in the project is not the same as the general search, so the advice above does not apply. The error message for CCS's irrelevant attempt to search the spreadsheet is a minor annoyance. Minimizing the error message at least gets it out of the way so I can work  It seems CCS should know better than to search text in spreadsheets. 

Why? you might be using a spreadsheet as a mini database and want it to be searched.