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How to Create and Manage an Advanced Search

Onna Support
  • Updated

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In this article you will learn about: 

 

Creating an Advanced Search

While the basic search bar searches across all indexed text fields, advanced search allows you to specify metadata fields and use boolean logic to search through the files you have synced to the system.

To create an advanced search follow the steps below: 

Step 1:

Click on ‘Advanced search’ in the main navigation menu. 

 

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Step 2:

Once you’re on the ‘Advanced search’ page name your search in the ‘Search name’ field. 

 

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Step 3:

Next, you will select the metadata field you want to search from the ‘Select property’ dropdown menu.

Learn more about Metadata in Advanced Search.  

 

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Step 4:

Once you’ve selected the metadata field you want to search you will select the condition you want to apply to your search from the ‘Select condition’ dropdown menu. 

 

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Step 5:

After selecting your condition you will: 

a. Enter the specific criteria you want to filter for in the field next to the ‘Select condition’ dropdown menu. 

b. Click the blue ‘Save as new & apply’ button. 

 

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Step 6:

(Optional) Before you click ‘Save as new & apply’ you have the option of testing your search to see how many results will appear by clicking the blue ‘Test search’ link. 

 

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Metadata in Advanced Search

From the ‘Select property’ dropdown in advanced search you will be able to select the metadata field you want to search. Below you will find a list of the standard metadata field options that appear automatically in this dropdown. However, you are able to customize the searchable metadata fields by changing them in the ‘Admin preferences’ section.  

Standard Advanced Search Metadata Field Options

  • Application Name: Available primarily for Microsoft products, you can use Application Name to specify the application that was used to create a document. E.g Microsoft Office Word
  • Author: Creator of document or sender of email
  • Company: Extracted from the "company" field within Office documents
  • Date Created: Date that the document was created or received 
  • Date Last Modified: Date that the document was last modified or sent
  • Extension: The file extension of the document, eg. pdf or docx
  • Extracted Text: The text of the document. For image files, documents are OCR'd to obtain text. Proximity search can be conducted through extracted text by searching: term1 ~[distance] term2; eg. "test ~3 search"
  • MD5 Hash: Unique value calculated from signature of the document to identify duplicates
  • File Name: The name with which that file was saved

 

Conditions in Advanced Search

From the ‘Select condition’ dropdown menu in advanced search you will find a list of conditions you can apply to the metadata you’re searching to further specify your search. The conditions you can select from include: 

Advanced Search Condition Options

  • Contains: Field value contains the specified search term
  • Does Not Contain: Field value does not contain the specified search term
  • Regular Expression (only available for the extracted text metadata field): Allows for wildcard searching
  • Is Set: The metadata field is populated by a value
  • Is Not Set: The metadata field is not populated by a value

 

Wildcard Search Syntax

A wildcard search can be used when searching the ‘Extracted text’ metadata field, by selecting ‘Regular expression’ as the condition for your search.

To perform a wildcard search you can place the period and the asterisk (.*) at the beginning, middle and/or end of a word and the search will provide results that include the specified term plus any letters for any number of times in place of the wildcard. For an optimal search, include at least three characters along with the period and the asterisk (.*).

Example Wildcard Searches:

  • A wildcard search including cont.*t in extracted text, will match with files that contain ‘content’, ‘contract’, ‘contact’ etc.

A wildcard search for .*ree will match with files that contain ‘agree’, ‘disagree’, ‘pedigree’ etc.

Onna’s wildcard search looks for results on the active index and does not use a preset dictionary - the search may take longer but there will be more accurate results.

 

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Adding Conditions to an Advanced Search

It is possible to add multiple conditions to an advanced search using both AND and OR Boolean search operators to further define your results. Below you will find steps to add conditions using both AND and OR operators. 

 

Adding Conditions With an ‘AND’ Boolean Search Operator

Step 1:

After you’ve entered in the first condition of your advanced search you can click on the ‘Add Condition’ link. 

 

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Step 2: 

You’ll now see: 

a. A new ‘and’ operator will appear. 

b. Fields to define your new condition. 

c. An ‘x’ next to the condition where you can remove the condition if you decide you don’t want to include it. 

d. When finished you will click on the blue ‘Save as new & apply’ button. 

 2_Add_AND_Condition_Advanced_Search_.png

 

Adding Conditions With an ‘OR’ Boolean Search Operator

Step 1: 

After you’ve entered in the first condition of your advanced search you can click on the ‘Add Group’ link. 

 

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Step 2:

Next you’ll: 

a. See a new ‘and’ operator will appear along with fields to define your new condition. 

b. Click on ‘Add condition’ 

 

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Step 3:

After clicking ‘Add Condition’ you will see another set of fields appear to define another condition. However, you will need to change the operator between the two new sets of condition fields to ‘Or’ instead of ‘And’. To do this you will click on the dropdown menu next to ‘Add Condition’ and select OR as the operator. 

 

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Step 4:

After you’ve changed the operator for your group to ‘OR’ you will: 

a. See the new ‘OR’ operator appear. 

b. Complete all fields for the new conditions in your group. 

c. Click ‘Save as new & apply’ (or ‘Save & apply if appropriate) when finished. 

d. (optional) If you need to delete the group you will click on the red trash can icon to the right of the group. 

 4_Add_OR_Condition_to_Advanced_Search.png

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Sharing an Advanced Search

Follow the steps below to share your advanced search with another Onna user: 

Step 1:

To begin, navigate to the ‘Advanced search’ page and click on the blue folder icon next to the ‘Search name’ field. 

 

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Step 2:

Next you will select the name of the advanced search you want to share from the ‘Select advanced searches’ dropdown menu. 

 

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Step 3:

After selecting the advanced search you want to share, click on the share icon to the right of the advanced search name. 

 

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Step 4:

You will now see a ‘Share query’ window appear. On this window you will: 

a. Add the name of the user or group you want to share your search with. 

b. (optional) Include a message to the users you’re sharing the search with. 

c. Click on the blue ‘Share’ button. 

 4_Sharing_Advanced_Search.png

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Editing an Advanced Search

There may be times where you save a new advanced search and then need to make changes to further define the results of your search. It is possible to edit your advanced search to make those changes. To edit your advanced search follow the steps below: 

 

Step 1:

To begin, navigate to the ‘Advanced search’ page and click on the blue folder icon next to the ‘Search name’ field. 

 

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Step 2:

Next you will select the name of the advanced search you want to edit from the ‘Select advanced searches’ dropdown menu. 

 

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Step 3: 

From here you can edit the following areas of your advanced search by: 

a. Changing the name of your advanced search. 

b. Updating any fields included in the conditions of your search. 

c. Adding new conditions or groups. 

d. When finished click the blue ‘Save & Apply’ button. 

 3_Editing_Advanced_Search.png

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Deleting an Advanced Search

As you continue adding new advanced searches, deleting older ones that are no longer being used can help clean up the dropdown menu of saved searches. To delete a search follow the steps below: 

Step 1:

To begin, navigate to the ‘Advanced search’ page and click on the blue folder icon next to the ‘Search name’ field. 

 

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Step 2:

Next you will select the name of the advanced search you want to delete from the ‘Select advanced searches’ dropdown menu. 

 

2_Deleting_Advanced_Search.png

 

Step 3:

When you’ve navigated to the search you want to delete you will click on the red trash can icon to the right of the advanced search name. 

 

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Step 4:

Finally, you will see a pop-up appear asking you to confirm that you want to delete the advanced search. To confirm and delete click on the red trash can icon to the right of the pop-up. 

 

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Additional Resources: 

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