Quick Search is a useful way to search for documents and other objects in the vault. Quick Search looks for objects that contain the search word in the file contents or metadata. You can determine whether to search metadata, file contents, or both. By default, both metadata and file contents are searched. If you change the setting, M-Files will use your setting for all subsequent searches.
In the search field, enter a search string that has to do with the object, such as the title, the login account of a person who has edited it, or a customer related to it, and click the arrow button. The search string does not need to be a whole word – you can truncate the word by using an asterisk. For example, when you search for data in the Demo Vault with the search string specific*, you will find a document named Technical Specifications, because the name contains the string searched for.
To search for a particular word form, remove the selection from Look in different inflected forms of the words in Quick Search in the advanced search options. This option is selected by default. When you do this to search for, say, the word "corporation," the search results include only those objects that match this exact word, not corporate, incorporated, etc.
Words and phrases searched for are saved in a pull-down menu, making it easy to repeat the searches.
In the quick search, you only need to enter the search word.
Advanced options for quick search
By clicking Advanced Search to the right of the search field and selecting one of the three search types, you can specify the way your search queries are matched. You can select one of the following options:
All words |
Matched objects contain all the specified search words. |
Any word |
The search will return all objects that contain at least one of the specified search words. |
Boolean |
The search allows you to use more specific search phrases and different operators. |
You can also use different operators and special characters in your search query to find documents and objects that strictly meet your search criteria. The table below lists the operators and special characters that can be used to broaden or narrow a search.
| Search type |
Operator or special character |
Description |
|
Exact match |
Quotation marks: "phrase" |
Enclose the search words in double quotation marks to find objects where the words appear adjacent to each other. Example search: "functional specification" |
|
Any single character |
Question mark: appl? |
The ? character matches any single character in its position. Example search: appl? matches both "apply" and "apple". Note: This character cannot be used as the first character in a
search term.
|
|
Any number of characters |
Asterisk: market* |
The * character matches any number of characters in its position. Example search: market* matches "markets", "marketing", and so on. Note: This character cannot be used as the first character in a
search term.
|
|
All of the search terms must be found |
AND (Boolean search only) |
The AND operator combines two search terms. Documents found contain both terms. Example search: functional AND specification |
|
One of the search terms must be found |
OR (Boolean search only) |
The OR operator retrieves all documents which contain at least one of the terms entered. Example search: agenda OR minutes |
|
Exclude a search term |
NOT (Boolean search only) |
The NOT operator exludes a search term from the search results. It can be used as a standalone operator or in conjunction with AND, OR or W/N. Example search: agenda AND NOT minutes |
|
Required search term and an optional search term |
AndAny (Boolean search only) |
The AndAny operator combines required search terms with optional ones. Search terms before the AndAny operator are required and terms appearing after the operator are optional. In other words, search terms after the AndAny operator are considered as matches only if the search terms before the operator are also found in the document. Example search: agenda AndAny minutes |
|
Faceted query |
( ) (Boolean search only) |
Brackets are used to group search terms together. Example search: (agenda OR minutes) AND market* This search returns all objects which contain the word "agenda" or "minutes" and which also contain a word or words beginning with "market". |
|
Proximity search |
W/N (Boolean search only) |
The W/N operator retrieves objects that contain two words or phrases within a certain distance of one another. The N value indicates the number of intervening words between the search words or phrases. Example search: agenda W/4 2015 |
|
Fuzzy search |
Vertical bar: que|ry |
Vertical bars can be used for searching for spelling variations of the search term. The number of | characters used indicates how many characters in the search term will be ignored. Characters to the left of the first vertical bar must have an exact match in the search results. Example search: release s||chedule |
|
Phonic search |
The grave accent mark ( ` ): `query |
You can use the grave accent mark ( ` ) for searching for words that sound like the word in your search query and begins with the same letter. Add the ` character in front of the search word to search for its phonic matches. Example search: `John Doe Note: Phonic searches are
inclusive by nature, and therefore they may occasionally produce
too many search results or their search precision may be
low.
|
Phonic and fuzzy searches are disabled by default and are enabled by setting a registry key. The tables below list the registry key and values that must be set if phonic or fuzzy searches are to be used.
To enable fuzzy or phonic searches at the server level, add the following registry key:
| Key |
|---|
|
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Motive\M-Files\<version>\Server\MFServer\FullTextSearch\ |
To enable fuzzy or phonic searches at the vault level, add the following registry key:
| Key |
|---|
|
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Motive\M-Files\<version>\Server\MFServer\Vaults\<vault GUID>\FullTextSearch\ |
Add one or both of the following values under the key defined above:
| Value name | Valid values | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Phonic |
1 0 (default) |
REG_DWORD |
1 enables phonic searching. 0 disables phonic searching. |
|
Fuzzy |
1 0 (default) |
REG_DWORD |
1 enables fuzzy searching. 0 disables fuzzy searching. |