Advanced search in Collaborate

In addition to Quick search, where you are limited to entering a simple search term in a search field, the
Advanced Search
screen enables you to apply filters to locate the right content.

Accessing advanced search

The
Advanced Search
screen can be accessed in one of three ways.
  1. Click the
    Search
    icon in the top bar:
Then click the down arrow and select
Advanced search
:
  1. After performing a search, select
    Advanced search
    in the left-hand panel:
  1. In the Files module search box, click
    Filter
    >
    Advanced search
    :

Advanced search window

In most cases, you can access the
Advanced Search
window from the top bar.
note
The search page will be slightly different if filtered by a specific module, or accessed from the Files module.
The search form includes several fields. If criteria are entered in more than one field, they must all be satisfied. For example, if the Author field is set to
John Smith
and the tag is
Video
, then only items that are both authored by 'John Smith' and have the tag 'Video' are returned.
  • Search Terms
    - Search terms can be entered in one or more of three fields. Individual terms or phrases can be entered in any of these fields
    • All of these words
      - A result will be returned only if it contains all of the words (or phrases) listed. The words do not need to be a phrase
    • Any of these words
      - A result will be returned if it contains any of the words (or phrases) listed
    • Exclude these words
      - A result will be excluded from the results if it contains any of the words (or phrases) listed
note
As of April 2023, when a search is performed from the advanced search window, keywords entered in the
Any
,
All
and
Exclude
fields are automatically entered in the main global search box, separated by appropriate Boolean operators. This allows you to easily repeat searches from the main search view.
  • With these tags
    - Return items that contain any of the tags entered (but not necessarily all of the tags entered)
note
The Files, Wiki, Blog and Events modules use tags.
Start typing and any matching tags will be shown and can be selected:
Tags
are very powerful as they permit you to search for content across multiple modules that relate to the same subject, or even across all sites.
For example, you can use the tag
argentina
in any files, wiki page, blog posts and events that involve Argentina. Then run an advanced search across all modules, filtering where the tag is
argentina
. Results in all of these content areas will be returned.
  • In site
    - Select the site to search, defaulting to the current site
  • Content type
    - The list of site modules that have been enabled and are available to the user who is searching, including comments
note
If the Files content type is selected, additional search fields may appear. This field defaults to
All
content types:
  • Date
    - The period when the content was last updated. Available date ranges include 'Any', 'Last Week', 'Last Month', 'Last 3 Months', 'Last 6 Months' and 'Last 12 Months'
  • Author
    - Search for another user to add an author
  • Search results
    - How many search results to return. The default is 100 and the maximum is 1,000.
note
There is also a maximum of five
pages
of results.
note
If the Files module has been enhanced with fields from the iSheets module, then additional search fields, corresponding to those iSheet fields, are included in the search page.