Searching for documents in Xtendis 8

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.

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.

Options to fine-tune the search become available when clicking inside the search box.

Perform the search by entering a search term and pressing Enter while the cursor is in the search box, or by clicking the Find button which appears after having entered a search term.

The following table gives an overview of the components of the Quick Find option:

Search results

The search results for a regular search are shown below the Search box.

For a regular search they are grouped in tabs for documents (in blue), dossiers (in green), and notes (in yellow).

For a contextual search, the results are shown in a question and answer format similar to a chat box. Clicking 'Archive searched' shows details about the search that was performed.

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.

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. In the Dashboard toolbar under Find, click what you want to find: documents, dossiers, or notes.

The Find options appear.

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.

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.

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:

For more details about using the search results, see Working with search results in Xtendis 8 and Viewing documents in Xtendis 8.

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. In the Dashboard toolbar under Find, click Advanced search.

The Advanced search options appear.

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 8.

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.
• Click Find to perform the search.

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.

For more details about using the search results, see Working with search results in Xtendis 8 and Viewing documents in Xtendis 8.

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 8.

Power users can use advanced features as described in Advanced ways of working with folders in Xtendis 8.

• 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 8.

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).

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.

Marking a document or dossier as favorite is done by clicking its star icon.

Recently viewed

Documents which you know you have viewed recently can be easily accessed from the Dashboard by clicking Recent below the Search box.