Global Search

The search box at the top of the dashboard finds people, events, content, files and more across your whole organisation in one go. This article explains what it searches, how matching works, and how to get better results.

Searching

1. Click the search box in the top bar (it reads Search Anything by default) and start typing. Results update as you type.
2. To narrow the search, open the menu to the left of the box and choose Everything, People, Events, Images & Video, Files or Articles and Content.
3. On the results page:
   • Top Results shows the strongest matches across every type.
   • Below that, results are grouped by category and type, each with a count. Use the chips at the top (All plus one per category) or the sidebar to jump to a type.
   • Each group shows the first 10 matches; use the button under a group to load more.
   • Click a result to open it, or use its ⋯ button for quick actions.

If your organisation has the AI assistant switched on, an Ask Qikbot about "…" link also appears — handy when what you typed is really a question rather than something to look up.

What gets searched

When you search Everything, Qik looks across the main types of record, including:

• People (profiles) and users
• Events, venues and facilities
• Articles, custom objects and other content (including your custom content types)
• Images, videos, audio and files
• Workflow cards
• Scopes and groups, roles, access passes
• Smart lists, email campaigns, messaging topics, tags and conversations
• Content types, forms and workflows themselves (by name)
• Applications, interfaces, actions and products

Two things are deliberately left out of a general search:

• Events that finished more than six weeks ago. Old events are usually noise; find them from the Events list instead.
• Form submissions. Search a form's submissions from that form's submission list.

You only ever see results you have permission to view. Two people searching for the same thing can get different results.

How matching works

Search doesn't scan the full text of every record. Instead, each record keeps a search index of words taken from particular places, and your search is matched against that index.

What is indexed

Not searched: the custom fields of most content types and custom fieldsets, rich-text bodies (such as an article's main text), and descriptions. If you need to find records by a custom field, use a filter on that field in the list view instead — see Using the Filter Builder.

Matching rules

• Words match from the start. Each word you type matches the beginning of an indexed word. jen finds Jenny and Jennifer; nifer does not.
• Every word must match. jane smith only finds records where both "jane" and "smith" match. Adding more words narrows the results.
• Email addresses and phone numbers must be complete. Type the whole email address, or the whole phone number. Spaces, brackets and dashes in phone numbers don't matter, so (02) 4320 7305 and 0243207305 are the same search.
• Case, accents and apostrophes are ignored. dsouza finds D'Souza, and jose finds José.
• There's no spelling correction. A single wrong letter in a surname means no match. If you're unsure of a spelling, search for the first few letters, or for the first name only.
• Paste an ID to jump straight to a record. If you paste a record's 24-character ID, search finds that exact record.

Chinese, Japanese and Korean text

Titles in Chinese, Japanese and Korean are split into words, so you can find a record by a word in the middle of its title, not only at the start. Traditional and Simplified Chinese are treated as the same, so a search in either script finds titles written in the other.

How results are ranked

Within each type, records whose title exactly matches your search come first, then titles that start with it, then titles that contain it. Recently updated records get a small boost, and inactive records are shown but ranked lower than active ones with a similar match.

Searching inside a list

The search box on a list page (for example People → Profiles) uses the same matching rules, but only for that one type. It's the best place to search form submissions or a single custom content type, and you can combine it with filters. See The List Page.

Tips for better results

• Search for one distinctive word rather than a whole phrase — "invoice" rather than "the March invoice for Acme".
• To find a person, start with their surname or first name alone, then add the other name to narrow it down.
• Give records meaningful titles and add tags: titles and tag names are what search relies on most.
• A record's search index is refreshed when the record is saved. If something you just changed doesn't show up as expected, give it a moment and search again.
• If a record you know exists doesn't appear, check whether you have permission to view it, whether it's an old event, or whether the word you're searching for is only in a field that isn't indexed.

FAQs