Quick Search

To do a quick search, enter a search string to the search field in the top area and click the search button. The words and phrases that you use in searches are kept in the search drop-down menu. It is thus easy to do recent searches again.

The search tries to find objects that contain the search word in the metadata or file contents. You can also set M-Files to use only metadata or file contents. M-Files remembers your selection until you close the window or log out. For more information about search refinements, see Search Filters.

By default, quick search scans the entire vault. However, your M-Files administrator can change the default behavior and limit the quick search to the currently active view. In this case, you can widen the search to the entire vault. To do this in the classic M-Files Desktop, go to the Filters tab and unselect the view. In M-Files Web and the new M-Files Desktop, you can change the setting in the search bar.

If you cannot find the correct information, try these features or methods:

In the classic M-Files Desktop, you can also disable Look for different inflected forms of the words in Quick Search in the Additional Conditions dialog. This causes the search results to only contain objects that match this word accurately.

Search options for Quick Search

Click the search options button () in the classic M-Files Desktop to open three more options:

Some search conditions operate differently with different search engines.

Search type

To set how your search queries are matched, select:

All words

Matched objects contain all the search words.

Any word

The search shows all objects that contain at least one of the search words.

Boolean

The search lets you use more specific search phrases and different operators. For the list of operators, see Boolean operators.

Note: Boolean search is available in vaults that use dtSearch or Micro Focus IDOL as the search engine.

Property conditions

Each object has property values that you can use as search criteria. For example, the value of the property Project can be Hospital Expansion (Florida). If you do a search with these values, the search shows all object in which the Project property contains the value Hospital Expansion (Florida).

To set a property condition, select a property, a condition, and a property value with the drop-down menus in the search options section. You can set more property conditions with additional conditions.

Subordination of search criteria

You can use search subordination criteria to make sure that previous filter selections are used before the property values are shown in the drop-down menu. For example, if you select a workflow as the search criterion, you can then only use workflow states related to the selected workflow as search criteria. Corresponding filtering is done automatically for other interdependent value lists. For example, contact persons are filtered by the customer if these value lists have a hierarchical relationship.

You can use subordinate search criteria with the "is" operator. In the Additional Conditions dialog, it is also possible to use the operator "one of".

Indirect searches

You can also use property relationships in your search criteria. Thus, the property selected as the search criterion can be the property of a related object. For example, with indirect search you can find agreements related to a country without the Country criterion. It is sufficient if it is found through a customer related to the agreement. The search criterion is specified like this: Customer.Country.

To set indirect search properties, click the plus sign in the property list and select the property of a related object. With additional conditions, you can create three-level indirect search criteria.

Tip: You can create indirect views with the properties of related objects. You can also use indirectness when you create a filter. For more information about how to create views, see Creating a View.