Get the most from search
Quick and Advanced search provides powerful tools that can find all types of documents, pages and contacts from sets of hundreds or even thousands of files or entries.
The flexibility of search means that it is important to consider some techniques to allow you to find items more efficiently.
When to use the different search functions
This article focuses on search options in the
Files module
. As each HighQ module provides different content, the search tool in each module may provide different options. Please check the help provided for that module. Some guidance for many types of search is provided below:You want to search iSheet data
iSheet search
- You can only do this at a site level and you need to search in the site containing the iSheet.You know the name of the content, but are not sure where to find it
Quick search - By default Quick search uses a wildcard search, meaning it will find your search terms as complete words or as a part of longer words.
You want to search all the text in a series of documents
Advanced search - Advanced search in Files searches in the filename, tags and metadata and also the content of compatible files (doc, txt, pdf, etc.).
You want to search for text in a document
Search in Document viewer
- If you open a document with the document viewer, use the search option to find specific text.You want to search in a specific type of content, i.e. Wiki pages
Advanced search - Advanced search allows you to apply filters for each field to narrow the search results.
note
The search page will be slightly different if it is filtered by a specific module.
You want to search for a single word, or a string of words together
Quick search - If you use multiple search terms and the global search option in the top navigation bar, terms entered before you press
Enter
will search for content with ALL the terms ('AND' search).You want to search for multiple search terms
Advanced search - The default search returns results that include ANY of the terms ('OR' search).
Performing a search
To ensure that you do not exclude the items you are looking for in your first search, do not start with overly precise terms or limitations. If your first search returns too many, or too few results, then you may change the terms and restrictions to narrow or broaden the results given:
note
For example, if an attorney is looking for a tax return that was filed while she was on maternity leave. They are sure that it was saved in their HighQ site earlier in the year.
They open the Advanced search window and enter
"tax return"
in the 'All of these words' section, putting the two words in quotes, because she believes that it definitely contains the phrase tax return.Advanced search
Click the
Filter
button to see additional filter options and access Advanced search
:
note
Click here for more detailed information on Advanced search.
The
Advanced search
window allows precise search rules to be defined and provides additional filters:
The search form includes several fields. If criteria are entered in more than one field, then all of the criteria must 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' will be returned.The first three fields provide the basic 'AND', 'OR' and 'NOT operators ('All of these words', 'Any of these words' and 'Exclude these words').
note
If the status metadata field is enabled in Site Admin, you can also search for a specific status.
Adjusting your search
You may use additional search terms or filters to change your search results:
Broadening a search
If your search returns few or no records, remove or adjust any filters, or try alternative search terms. This can include:
- other terms related to your search
- synonyms
- different word endings (e.g. singular and plural forms)
- alternative spellings (e.g. UK or US spelling)
Narrowing a search
If your search returns too many records, you can narrow your search by adding search terms.
note
Our attorney puts
Tax
in the Title box as they believes the file would have the word 'Tax' in the name.They also adds the words
"Crown Hotel" Cosmopolitan
in the 'Any of these words' box as they are sure the tax return was submitted for one of these properties, but they are not sure which. As above, Crown Hotel
is in quotes so that matches with that exact name is returned, not just matches for 'Crown' or 'Hotel'.The search returns any documents with either "Crown Hotel" or "Cosmopolitan" in the content.
As a further filter, they choose
pdf
from the 'Content Type', as she knows the tax return was a PDF.note
When they run this search, they retrieve the following document, because it contains the phrases "Crown Hotel", "Tax return" and is a pdf with the word Tax in the file title. They do not get other documents for the Crown Hotel because although files might contain the word "tax" and "return", they do not contain the exact phrase "Tax return", and the file name was missing the word "Tax".
Advanced search with file metadata
If you have added metadata to your files, you may add metadata terms to further filter the results.
For example, files that were flagged with
Client
= ABN Amro
in the iSheet metadata can be found if metadata has been applied.Click the
Filter
button to see additional filter options and access Advanced search
:Scroll down the
Advanced search
window to view the metadata sections. Click a section title to see the available metadata tags.
note
This section varies depending on the metadata used in your files and iSheets.
To filter your results, enter text in the metadata fields, then select
Search
.note
Use quotation marks to search for an exact phrase. For example:
"ABN Amro"
; if you do not add quotation marks, the search will return results for either ABN
or Amro
.