Search: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 15:03, 3 December 2024

The search is located centrally within the Desktop App and provides quick access to contacts, matters, documents and transactions. It is also the entry point for contact creation.

The search plays an important role in locating records for the purpose of linkage. For example; when a contact must be added to a document, matter or other resource, the user clicks the empty "Add contact" hyperlink and is immediately taken to the search window. Upon locating (or creating) the desired contact, the search populates the empty hyperlink with a reference to the chosen contact.

The search window displays different options depending on which mode is selected. The following modes are available:

Contacts
Matters
Documents
Transactions

Common Functionality

Search term - One or more keywords that in some way describe the contact(s) you are searching for. These will be matched against a selection of fields (name, address, etc).
Match type - You can determine whether to match all words in the search term, or any word.
Search results - After the search is complete, contains the results that matched the search criteria. Simple summary details are displayed. The results are listed in order of rank/relevance, best match first. You can navigate between multiple pages of results.

Similar-sounding results

Search results may contain similar-sounding results, shown in grey text. For example, if you search for "Smith" you may also get results containing "Schmidt".

Contacts

The contact search appears whenever details about a person or business are required in any capacity. As with other types of searches, the Desktop App opens the contact search when a contact is required for a particular hyperlink, or it can be accessed at any point in time by clicking the prominent Search button at the top of the main window.

The contact search.

The contact search is the entry point into contact creation. Once the search has completed (to verify that the contact does not already exist), the option to create or import becomes available.

Advanced options

These are shown by clicking the cog icon in the top right of the search window. 

Contact type - You can restrict your search to either individuals or entities.
Fields - Determines which fields the keywords in the search term will be matched against. For example, search for all contacts on a particular street.

Matters

ContactsLaw includes a sophisticated matter search, for locating any active or archived matters in the system.

The matter search.

Advanced options

You can toggle this by clicking the cog icon in the top right of the search window, which the displays the following settings:

Matter type - Restrict your search to Prospect, Client and Administration matters.
Status - Restrict your search to Active and Archived matters
Fields - Restrict your word search to match only against the fields you select.

Documents

The document search allows you to quickly and easily locate any document within ContactsLaw.

Advanced options

Search in - Toggle between all documents and those belonging to the tab which is currently selected (in the main window).
Fields - Select the fields you want to search in. The document description is the most common field to match. You can also type all or part of a contact's name and match documents who are associated with a particular matter.

Date - You can restrict the search to a specific date range.
File type - Restrict results according to the format of the document (e.g. PDF).

Transactions

The transaction search allows you to quickly locate general/trust transactions.

The transaction search.

Advanced options

Chart of accounts - Whether to match transactions in general or trust (including controlled money).
Fields - Select the fields you want to match against. Code and description are most common.
Date - Restrict to a specific date range.
Amount - Filter by the amount debited/credited by the transaction.

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-The '''ContactsLaw Search''' is located centrally within the application and provides quick and easy access to all information stored within the system, including contacts, files, documents and transactions. It is also the entry point for contact creation.
+The '''search''' is located centrally within the [[Desktop App]] and provides quick access to [[Contact|contacts]], [[Matter|matters]], [[Document|documents]] and [[Transaction|transactions]]. It is also the entry point for contact creation.
+The search plays an important role in locating records for the purpose of linkage. For example; when a contact must be added to a document, matter or other resource, the user clicks the empty "''Add contact''" hyperlink and is immediately taken to the search window. Upon locating (or creating) the desired contact, the search populates the empty hyperlink with a reference to the chosen contact.
-The search also plays an important role in locating records for the purpose of linkage. For example; when a contact must be added to a form, the user clicks the empty 'Add contact' hyperlink and is immediately taken to the search window. Upon locating (or creating) the desired contact, the search populates the empty hyperlink with a reference to the chosen contact.
+The search window displays different options depending on which mode is selected. The following modes are available:
+* Contacts
+*Matters
+*Documents
+*Transactions
+== Common Functionality ==
+* '''Search term''' - One or more keywords that in some way describe the contact(s) you are searching for. These will be matched against a selection of fields (name, address, etc).
+* '''Match type''' - You can determine whether to match all words in the search term, or any word.
+* '''Search results''' - After the search is complete, contains the results that matched the search criteria. Simple summary details are displayed. The results are listed in order of rank/relevance, best match first. You can navigate between multiple pages of results.
+===Similar-sounding results===
+Search results may contain similar-sounding results, shown in grey text. For example, if you search for "Smith" you may also get results containing "Schmidt".
-The search window displays different options depending on which mode is selected.
+==Contacts==
+The contact search appears whenever details about a person or business are required in any capacity. As with other types of searches, the [[Desktop App]] opens the contact search when a contact is required for a particular hyperlink, or it can be accessed at any point in time by clicking the prominent ''Search'' button at the top of the main window.
+[[File:Contact Search.png|none|thumb|500x500px|The contact search.]]The contact search is the entry point into [[How-To:Contact|contact creation]]. Once the search has completed (to verify that the contact does not already exist), the option to create or import becomes available.
-=== The following modes are available: ===
+=== Advanced options ===
+These are shown by clicking the cog icon in the top right of the search window.
+*'''Contact type''' - You can restrict your search to either individuals or entities.
+* '''Fields''' - Determines which fields the keywords in the search term will be matched against. For example, search for all contacts on a particular street.
+==Matters==
+ContactsLaw includes a sophisticated [[matter]] search, for locating any active or archived matters in the system.
+[[File:Search Matters.png|none|thumb|500x500px|The matter search.]]
-* Contacts
+===Advanced options===
-* Files
+You can toggle this by clicking the cog icon in the top right of the search window, which the displays the following settings:
-* Documents
+*'''Matter type''' - Restrict your search to Prospect, Client and Administration matters.
-* Transactions
+*'''Status''' - Restrict your search to Active and Archived matters
-* Packets
+* '''Fields''' - Restrict your word search to match only against the fields you select.
-* Business names and & ABNs
-* Postcodes & suburbs
-== Contact Search ==
+==Documents==
+The document search allows you to quickly and easily locate any document within ContactsLaw.
+[[File:Document Search.png|none|thumb|500x500px]]
-The contact search is at the center of ContactsLaw, appearing whenever details about a person or business are required in any capacity. As with other types of searches, it can be opened by the system when a contact is required for a particular field, or it can be accessed at any point in time by clicking the prominent Search button at the top of the screen.
+===Advanced options===
+*'''Search in''' '''-''' Toggle between all documents and those belonging to the [[Desktop:Tab|tab]] which is currently selected (in the main window).
+*'''Fields''' - Select the fields you want to search in. The document description is the most common field to match. You can also type all or part of a contact's name and match documents who are associated with a particular matter.
-==== The search window is divided into 5 major parts: ====
+*'''Date''' - You can restrict the search to a specific date range.
-* '''Search term''' - One or more keywords that in some way describe the contact(s) you are searching for. These will be matched against a selection of fields (name, address, etc). You can determine whether to match all words in the search term, or any word.
+*'''File type''' - Restrict results according to the format of the document (e.g. PDF).
-* '''Search criteria''' - Determines which contact types to include in the search. The 3 supersets in bold will select multiple contact types.
+==Transactions ==
-* '''Advanced search''' - Allows you to further refine your search based on the follow advanced criteria:
+The [[transaction]] search allows you to quickly locate general/trust transactions.[[File:Transaction Search.png|none|thumb|500x500px|The transaction search.]]
-** '''Fields''' - Determines which fields the keywords in the search term will be matched against. This enables you to, for example, search for all contacts on a particular street.
-** '''Associated contacts''' - In the event that you know some piece of information about a contact, but are searching for another contact who may be related in some way to the first, you can select the types of relationships to traverse during the search.
-** '''Role''' - You can limit the search to a particular role if you know the contact you are searching for (or one of its related contacts) appears in a particular role.
-* '''Search results''' - After the search is complete, contains the contact(s) that matched the search criteria. Simple summary details are displayed, with entities being marked in bold. The results are listed in order of rank/relevance, best match first. Only the first 100 results are displayed.
-* '''Contact creation''' - Following the ContactsLaw philosophy of 'search-before-you-(re)create', the contact search is the entry point into contact creation. Once the search has completed, the option to create or import a contact becomes available. Branch contacts can be created by right-clicking on an entity contact and selecting the 'create branch' option.
-== Search term ==
+=== Advanced options ===
-By default, the search will return partial and exact matches if they contain all of the words in the search term. You can change the match type to "any words" if the contact(s) you are looking for might not contain all of the words in the search term. Some words may be excluded from the search if they appear too frequently or are too short. You can enclose the term in double quotes to return only exact matches.
-== Similar-sounding results ==
+* '''Chart of accounts''' - Whether to match transactions in general or trust (including controlled money).
-Search results may contain similar-sounding results, shown in grey text. For example, if you search for "Smith" you may also get results containing "Schmidt". These results always appear at the bottom of the list.
+* '''Fields''' - Select the fields you want to match against. Code and description are most common.
+* '''Date''' - Restrict to a specific date range.
+* '''Amount''' - Filter by the amount debited/credited by the transaction.
-== Ranking ==
+[[Category:Desktop]]
-Results are listed in ranked in order of relevance to the search term. Factors which affect the ranking of results include:
-* Whether the term partially or exactly matches the field (exact matches are ranked higher)
-* The number of times the term appears in the field (repeated terms are ranked higher)
-* For similar-sounding results, whether the pronounciation is the same or similar (same pronounciation is ranked higher)
-* Whether the term matches the contact's middle name only (these results are ranked lower)
-* Whether the result is an associated contact (associated contacts are ranked lower)
-* Whether the search term was a contact/client number (the matching contact is ranked much higher)
-* The number of fields containing the search term (more fields matched results in a higher rank)