Are there some places Spotlight can't search?

Kind of a random question. I had to reinstall Office 2008 recently, and because MS put stupid default format settings in Word, I usually change it to my preferences. The default template file is called normal.dotm and is buried somewhere on the computer. I couldn't remember where, so I tried using Spotlight to find it. Only, Spotlight couldn't find it. Eventually I did locate it, but I'm concerned that Spotlight could not find it for me. Why wouldn't it be able to locate any file on my HD?

This tripped me up for a while in spotlight for Leopard. By default it doesn't search in your library, which is rather inconvenient I think.

What you have to do is press cmd+f to bring up a find window. In the dropdown that says "Kind" select "other..." and find "system files". Then choose "include".

Thanks! I'll try to keep that in mind. It's odd it doesn't search the library. I guess that's Apple trying to protect people from themselves?