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Searching for documents in Xtendis 7

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The first step of working with a document in Xtendis is searching for it in the system. This can be done by using the following options:

  • The Quick Find option on the Dashboard
  • The Find option for more detailed searches
  • The Advanced search for very detailed searches
  • Using folders or dossiers
  • Document properties as tags
  • Marking documents as Favorite
  • Using the Recently viewed option on the Dashboard

Each option is described below.

Info: Use the filter to only show information for one option:

Quick find

The Quick Find option is available on the Dashboard and is used to quickly find a document by entering just one or a few search criteria without having to be familiar with the archive structure.

The Search field and filter on the Dashboard.

By default, only a list of archives to search in and a search box is shown. To include options to search on, the Filter icon can be clicked.

Perform the search by entering a search term and pressing Enter while the cursor is in the search box, or by clicking the Find icon.

The following figure shows all components of the Quick Find option:

The components of the Quick Find option

# Component Description
1 Search box

Enter a search term to search for.

Note: The Quick Find only includes a limited number of fields in its search. Which fields these are also depends on how the system is configured. When the results do not include the document that you are looking for while you know that it exists, use a different term or use the Find option (described below) for a more advanced search.
2 Archive list

Shows all the archives that you have access to. Choose a different archive from the list if you want to search in that archive.

Note: The archive that is set by default can be configured in your personal settings.
3 Filter

Click to show or hide the additional fields to search on (see 5, 6, 7 and 8).

When a selection is made in one of the fields, the icon is filled to make this clear.
4 Find icon

Click to perform a search. (Only appears when a search term is entered in the Search box).

Tip: Performing a search can also be done by pressing Enter while the text cursor is in the search box.
5 Properties list

Choose one of the following to narrow or widen the search:

  • Document type
  • Subject
  • Relation name
  • Internal reference
  • External reference
  • Version
6 Time period

Use to search for the time period when the document was created.

Choose one of the following:

  • Last week
  • Last month
  • Last year
  • All time
7 Owner

Use to find documents that are only owned by you, or to find documents owned by everyone.

Choose one of the following:

  • All items
  • Own items
8 Active status

Only shown when the selected archive supports document versions.

Use to find documents with a specific version status.

Choose one of the following:

  • Active. Finds documents that are set as the active version.
  • Active or empty. Finds documents for which the status is empty or set to Active.
  • Not active. Finds documents that are not the active version.

Search results

When performing the search, a new page appears with the search criteria at the top and the search result below it.

The search results page when performing a Quick search

Note: If the document that you are looking for does not appear, it either does not match the search criteria or you do not have sufficient rights to view it. Change the search criteria or check with your system administrator about your access rights.

Use the tools at the top to perform a new search. Click Refine results to open the Find option which gives you more fields to search on.

Note that different tabs are used for showing the results for documents (in blue), dossiers (in green), and notes (in yellow).

The total number of found documents is shown next to the title of each tab. When nothing was found, a notification is shown for that tab.

The results for documents are shown first.

For more information about working with the search results page, see Working with search results in Xtendis 7.

Find option

The Find option is a more general option and gives you many more fields to search on compared to the Quick find option. It also makes it possible to search for deleted documents that are in the trash can.

Step 1. Do one of the following:

  • Click the Find option on the Dashboard or Dashboard toolbar.
  • On the Dashboard, click on the three dots of the Find button and choose Documents from the menu that appears.
  • On the Dashboard toolbar, hover the mouse pointer over the Find button and choose Documents from the menu that appears.

The options on the Dashboard for finding documents

The Find options appear.

The options for finding a document

Note: It is important here that at the top of the panel, 'Documents' is shown. This can be quickly recognized by the blue background color of the panel. If another option such as Dossiers or Notes is shown, click on it and from the list that appears choose 'Documents'.

Tip: To find any documents that have been moved to the trash can, choose Deleted document from the list at the top. When found, these documents can be restored or permanently deleted.

Step 2. From the Archive list, choose the archive to search in.

Note: The archive that is set by default can be configured in your personal settings.

Step 3. Determine what to search for by doing one of the following:

Note: A search term should be entered in at least one field, else the Find button will not be active.

  • Enter a search term in the field Search across all properties. This will find all documents that have the search term in one or more of their properties. This is the same option as the Quick find option on the Dashboard.
  • Enter a search term in one of the individual property fields below Document properties. This will find all documents that have the search term only in that property.

Tips:

  • To find all documents in an archive, make sure that no values are entered in any of the fields (click Clear at the bottom of the panel), place the text cursor in the field 'Search across all properties' and press Enter.
  • Click Edit layout... at the bottom of the panel to manage the properties by doing one of the following. When done, click Save.
  • Select a check box to show the property and clear it to hide it.
  • Drag a property higher or lower in the list to change the order.
  • Click Restore default to restore the property settings to their default settings.
  • Click Save for... to save the settings for all users (only available for functional managers)

Via the Edit Layout panel you can control which properties are shown in the panel

  • For fields that hold a list of values, type any part of that value to quickly find it.
  • If version control is enabled for the archive that you are searching in, versions can be found by using the Is active field. Choose from the following options:
  • Active. The active version of the document.
  • Not active. A previous version of the document.
  • Active or empty. The active version, or a document with no version number.

Step 4. Click Find to perform the find action.

The search results are shown (see below).

Note: If the document that you are looking for does not appear, it either does not match the search criteria or you do not have sufficient rights to view it. Change the search criteria or check with your system administrator about your access rights.

Search results

After performing the search action, the results are shown on the same page.

Using the standard Search option.

On the page, you will see the search panel on the left, the found documents and a preview of the selected document in the middle, and the toolbar and any opened panels on the right.

The components on the page are explained in the following table:

# Component Description
1 Search results list

Shows the documents that have been found. The total number of found documents is shown at the top.

The way the results are displayed can be changed by:

  • Adding and removing columns
  • Sorting and rearranging columns
  • Grouping column headers
  • Filtering columns

For full details, see Working with search results in Xtendis 7.
2 Search results menu

Contains the following options:

  • Edit layout. For adding and removing columns.
  • Export. For exporting the results as an Excel file for further analysis.

For details, see Working with search results in Xtendis 7.
3 Preview window

Shows a preview of the selected document.

Also known as the 'document viewer'.

For more information about using this viewer, see Viewing documents in Xtendis 7.
4 Panel

Panels that are opened from the toolbar to the right (see #5) are opened here.

In the image above, the Properties panel has been opened.
5 Toolbar Contains various tools for working with the highlighted document (the one that has a blue outline in the list of search results).
6 Action button menu

The Actions button appears when one or more documents are selected (see #7). Its menu contains the following options:

  • Export. For downloading, e-mailing, printing, or sharing the selected documents.
  • Move to dossier. For moving the selected documents to an existing dossier.
  • Move to folder. For moving the selected documents to an existing folder.
7 Selected item

Making the Actions button appear is done by selecting the check box for one or more found items.

The actions from the menu can then be performed on those items.
8 Expand search

Shows links to documents or dossiers in the archive that are related to the selected (outlined) document.

This makes it easy to identify which related documents or dossiers exist in the archive and to open them quickly.

For more details about using the search results, see Working with search results in Xtendis 7 and Viewing documents in Xtendis 7.

Advanced search

The Advanced search option is a powerful tool for finding documents by using operators such as 'equals', 'less than', 'greater than' and criteria such as AND, OR, and so on.

Once the query is constructed, it can also be copied and shared with other users.

Note: Using the Advanced search option is aimed at power users of the system and requires special permission.

Step 1. Do one of the following:

  • On the Dashboard, click on the three dots of the Find icon and choose Advanced Search from the menu that appears.
  • On the Dashboard toolbar, hover the mouse pointer over the Find icon and choose Advanced Search from the menu that appears.

The Advanced Search option in the menu of the Find option on the Dashboard

The Advanced search options appear.

The Advanced search options

Note: It is important here that at the top of the panel, 'Documents' is shown. This can be quickly recognized by the blue color of the Find button (when 'Dossiers' is shown for instance, the Find button will be green). If 'Documents' is not shown, choose 'Documents' from the list.

Step 2. At the top of the panel, choose the archive to search in.

Note: The archive that is set by default can be configured in your personal settings.

Step 3. Determine what to search for by setting the criteria. For details, see Using criteria when searching in Xtendis 7.

Tip: Click Save as Search folder when regularly performing the search. This stores the query as part of a Search folder (see below). This way, you do not have to manually create the (often complex) advanced search criteria each time you want to use them.

Step 4. Do one of the following:

  • Click Copy link to copy the search query as a URL and share it with a colleague.

Info: This feature requires Xtendis 7.3.13 or higher (see how to check which version of Xtendis you are using).

  • Click Find to perform the search.

Search results

After performing the search action, the results are shown on the same page.

Note: If the document that you are looking for does not appear, it either does not match the search criteria or you do not have sufficient rights to view it. Change the search criteria or check with your system administrator about your access rights.

The Advanced search results page

On the page, you will see the Advanced search panel on the left with the found documents below it, a preview of the selected document in the middle, and the toolbar and any opened panels on the right.

For more details about using the search results, see Working with search results in Xtendis 7 and Viewing documents in Xtendis 7.

Using folders or dossiers

A quick way of accessing specific documents is by opening a folder or dossier in which these documents are automatically gathered.

  • A typical folder in Xtendis is based on a search query that is part of that folder. When opening the folder, the content that is found is shown.

This makes the search results more efficient, meaning that you do not have to manually create the search each time you need it.

Example: You could create a search folder in which all documents are shown that are about to expire within the next month so that you can undertake action in time.

For information about creating folders, see Working with folders in Xtendis 7.

Power users can use advanced features as described in Advanced ways of working with folders in Xtendis 7.

  • Dossiers group together documents that are related to each other, such as an employee, or a project.

Dossiers also hold specific properties such as the date of birth of an employee or the type of employment. Documents that are added to the dossier automatically inherit these properties.

For more information, see Working with dossiers in Xtendis 7.

Properties as tags

When viewing the properties of a document, you can see that most of these properties are displayed as a tag with a colored background (green for dossier properties, blue for document properties).

Properties act as tags to perform search actions with

Each of these tags can be clicked. A search is then performed with the property value as the search term. This way, you can quickly perform searches without having to enter any search terms.

Example: Imagine that you have performed a search and that a number of documents have been found. In the Properties panel for one of the documents, you see that the 'Status' field is set to 'Active'. By clicking on 'Active', a new search is performed which finds all documents that have status 'Active'.

Favorites

Documents or dossiers that you use frequently can be marked as favorite. They then appear in the list of favorites on the Dashboard so that you can quickly and easily access them without having to use the search function.

The overview of folders on the Dashboard

Recently viewed

Documents which you know you have viewed recently can be easily accessed from the Dashboard by clicking Recent at the bottom of the page.

The list of recently viewed documents on the Dashboard

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