Locator - Search Bar

The search bar is located on the top left of the page. Enter terms to tell Locator what you want to find. The more terms you provide, the more likely the document you are looking for is ranked at the top.

The search bar will show you the ten most recent queries when you click on it, and provide suggestions when you start typing.

Open

To encourage providing many terms, Locator does not exclude documents from the results if you provide terms that are not part of the document. Locator only requires at least 75% of the provided terms in the document to return it as a result.

Open

The search bar will show you the ten most recent queries when you click on it, and provide suggestions when you start typing.

Search Tips

Using the different methods for performing searches, here are a few rules to help guide your search efforts:

1. Start by using natural language to describe in detail the content you are looking for.

   • Focus on content. Describe in as much detail, the contents of the file you are searching for.

   • Use full sentences. Be sure to include specific words and expressions like name, place, date, subject, title, body, caption, address or project number.

   • The more you ask, the better the answer. If you enter only one search word, the chance of finding the right document decreases. The sum of your search words helps to locate the right document.  

2. You can quickly refine the search results using either the refiners or the favorite filters.

3. Further refine your search by forcing or excluding words from the hit list by using plus (+) and minus (-) prefixes.

What if You Get Zero Hits? 

If your query returns no results, broaden your search scope or use the following tips:

1. Add or remove words that may be more or less likely contained in the document. If too many search terms are not present in the document, it may not be shown in the search results.

2. Change words to other synonyms that could be in the document. For example, “meeting” versus “appointment”

3. Did you search using a specific Search Scope? If so, try using the "ALL" filter to search all sources.

4. Did you search using a date range limitation? If so, try using the "ALL" filter to search all sources.

5. Try the ~ character, which performs a fuzzy search

  
What if You Get Too Many Hits? 

If your query returns too many results, you can narrow down your search scope using the following tips:

1. Try using one of the favorite filters to pinpoint your search in the direction of one data source.

2. Use the Source refiner to limit the results from specific data sources. By clicking the folders/elements, you can pinpoint the search to one specific location within the source.

3. Try adding more words to your query to help narrow down documents containing those words.

4. Do you know when the document was modified? If so, try limiting the Date Range to narrow down to a smaller time frame.

5. If you know specific details, like the file name, try using the special character "+" along with field-value pairs, as in the following examples:

   • Example: +document_filename:name_of_file

Advanced Search

The search bar also supports boolean parameters, see Locator - Advanced Search for details.