Use search

When you make a search, you enter search criteria in a text field or in a free text fields. Searching in text fields is different from searching in free text fields.

  • Text fields are case sensitive. For example, if you search for petersen, you will not find Petersen.
  • Free text fields are not case sensitive. For example, if you search for petersen, you will also find Petersen.

In both cases, search operators can be typed with small letters, capital letters, or a mix. The search is the same.

Search operators

Operator Name Used where? Description
* Wild card

Free text fields and text fields

Replaces one or more characters.

Example: If you type:

  • day* – the search finds cases where a word in a text field or in a free text field starts with day. For example, daylight.

  • *day* – the search finds cases where a word in a text field or in a free text field contains day. For example, nowadays.

  • *day – the search finds cases where a word in a text field or in a free text field ends with day. For example, birthday.

Note: Using prefixed wild cards is not recommended in free text searches, for example *day and *day*. This type of search can generate numerous search results and take very long time to perform.
? Question mark

Free text fields

Replaces exactly one character.

Example: If you type Pe?ersen in the  Free text field of the Add/Remove Parties dialog, the search finds all parties with the name Petersen or Pedersen but not Pettersen.
^ Hat (circumflex)

Text fields

Disregards casing.

Example: Text field Title

If you type ^*sun*, the search finds cases where a word in the Title field contains sun, for example, Sunday and sunlight.
="" Empty field

Text fields

Searches for items where the field is empty.

Example: Text field Address 1 in the Add/Remove Parties dialog.

If you type ="", the search finds cases where an address has not been specified.

|

OR

 OR

Free text fields:

|and OR

 

Text fields:

|

Searches for items where one or more of the entered words occur.

A free text search for documents will search in fields and in the document itself.

Example: Find all documents where at least one of the words currency or exchange occur by typing currency OR exchange.

&

AND

 AND

Free text fields:

& and AND

 

Text fields:

AND

Searches for items where all entered words occur.

Example: Find all documents where the words currency and exchange occur by typing currency AND exchange (the words may exist as document properties or as indexed free text).

  • If you want to search for the character &, not as an operator but, for example, as part of a contact, insert a backslash in front of the character, \&.
  • If you want to find Liebestraum, Immergut  & Co, type Liebestraum, Immergut \& Co.

~

NOT

 

NOT

Free text fields

Searches for items where words you type after the operator do not occur.

Example: Find all documents where interest but not bank occur by typing interest NOT bank.

You should always search for an item containing this but not that. That is, searching for only NOT bank will not return any results.

Multiple words or sentences

You can type one or more words in the search field:

  • If you type one word, search results will contain this word.
  • If you type multiple words, search results will contain exactly these words. For example, a sentence without operators: Does surface activity of the sun influence our climate.
  • If you do not know the exact wording, it is recommended that you search for single words combined with search operators.

If you type in a combination of words that does not exist in the database, for example, Does surface activit* of the sun influence our climate, there will be no search results. The chance of finding what you are looking is greater if you type surface activity* AND sun*.

Stop words

Stop words are common words that are used so often that they have no value as search criteria in a free text search. Stop words are, for example, "and", "are", "is", and "often". When you do a free text search, stop words are ignored.

If you want to use words that are normally defined as stop words in a free text search, they must be removed from the list of stop words. Stop words are registered in the Stop word module of the WorkZone Configuration Management program. Here, stop words can be added, removed, and edited.