Searching

The best way to find objects is to use the search. This is especially helpful if you only know one detail about the object. For example, the creation date or creator of a document.

Video: How to Use M-Files Search Options

Search options and filters

The search options and filters let you specify more search criteria.

Search result sorting

M-Files shows the search results in a sequence of most frequently or recently used objects. This way, objects that are most related to the user are shown first. M-Files uses the criteria in this list to create the sequence:

  • When the object was created
  • When and how many times the object was edited
  • When and how many times the object was processed
  • How many times the search string is found in metadata or file contents, which includes:
    • The name or title of the object
    • Metadata other than the title
    • File contents

M-Files ignores some metadata that decreases the precision of the search results. For the sequence of the search results, metadata is always more important than the file content.

Tip: If your M-Files system administrator has enabled translated object titles, you can use the translated object titles in searches. The translated object titles are also shown in the title area of the metadata card, in the listing area, in notifications, and in value lists.

Disabling relevance sorting

The M-Files system administrator can disable the default relevance settings so that each user can sort the results independently. For more information, see Disabling the Sorting of Search Results by Their Relevance.

Search result grouping

M-Files automatically groups search results by object type.

If there is a large number of search results in a grouping, M-Files only shows a part of the search results. To see more search results, click Show more results. To change the number of results shown on a page, right-click an empty space in the listing area and select Display Mode > Objects per Group.

Search word emphasis in the results

Your search terms are highlighted in yellow on the listing area and the metadata card. When preview is used, search terms are highlighted in the file contents.

Contents of these file types are highlighted in the Preview tab:

  • Email files (eml, emlx, msg)
  • HTML and web archive files (htm, html, mht, mhtml)
  • Microsoft Excel files (xlsx, xlsm, xltx, xltm, xlsb, xls, xlt)
  • Microsoft PowerPoint files (pptx, pptm, ppsx, ppsm, potx, potm, ppt, pps, pot)
  • Microsoft Word files (docx, docm, dotx, dotm, doc, dot)
  • OpenDocument files (odt, ott, ods, odp)
  • PDF files
  • RTF files
  • Text files (txt)
Note: If you use the exact match search with quotation marks, for example "dat sports", partial matches can also be highlighted. See Exact match.

Admin aid

Refer to these documents for more technical information: