1. Starting Your Search
2. Full Text Search
3. Your Results List
4. Viewing Your Documents
5. Saving/Printing Your Documents

For tips on searching specific document types, see Tips for Searching Specific Cabinets.

If you wish, you can go directly to the Online Document System.

Starting Your Search

To begin your search, select the type of document you wish to find from the available file cabinets at the top/left of the window.  Once you select a file cabinet, a search dialog will appear with the available search parameters for that document type (e.g., Date, Project Number, etc.)  You can then either perform a Basic Search, or a Full Text search.

Select the type of document you want to find

Basic Search

Enter the parameters you would like your document to meet in the boxes in the search dialog. You can leave any (or all) of the fields blank if you do not wish to filter your results by that field. 

For specifics about searching particular cabinets, see Tips for Searching Specific Cabinets.

Enter your search parameters, then click Search

Once you have entered your desired parameters, click the Search button to display a result list of matching documents.

If the file cabinet allows full text searching, you can search by words or phrases within the cabinet documents by entering them in the Fulltext field. For more information about how to search using full text, see the Full Text Search section below.

Some simple things to remember about basic searching:

• Search is not case sensitive.
• By default, any documents found must meet all of your entered parameters (a logical AND).  This can be changed by selecting OR from the file cabinet icon at the top of the search dialog - then the documents found could meet any of your parameters.
• A wildcard is automatically added to the end of your search string.  You can also manually enter a * wildcard to the beginning of your search string if desired.
• You can see how the data in any field is formatted by clicking the field name (or right-clicking the field itself) and choosing Select List from the pop-up menu to see a list of some of the values in that field.

Full Text Search

The Fulltext search field is the most flexible and powerful way to find documents in the Online Document System.  The system will search the body of all documents in the file cabinet you selected for text matching what you enter into the Fulltext search field.  To make searching for text easier, you can format your search in specific ways to restrict or expand the search results (see examples below).

Things to remember about full text searching:

• The full text search is not case sensitive.
• A wildcard is automatically added to the end of your search string.  To negate this wildcard, surround your search term in double quotes. 
• Wildcards are only attached to the end of the full string you entered into the search field, not to individual words in that field.  You can attach a wildcard to individual terms manually by typing a * where desired.
  
• Words entered into the Fulltext search box are automatically ANDed together, meaning the system searches for documents that contain all of the words entered wherever they are in the document (even if they are not together).
• To search for multiple words together (phrases), surround the desired phrase with double-quotes.

Examples

Your Result List

Once you have entered your desired parameters, and clicked the Search button, a list of documents matching your parameters will be displayed.  The colums displayed vary based upon the file cabinet you are searching.

Double-click a listed document to view it

To display one of the documents, simply double-click the document in your result list.  If necessary, you can navigate multiple pages of results by using the 'Page' links at the bottom of your result list.  You can also change the number of documents listed on each page of results by selecting "Results per page" from the file cabinet icon menu at the top of your result list.

TIP: To refine your search without having to re-enter your parameters, click the file cabinet icon at the top of your result list and select New Search from the menu.

Viewing Your Documents

To display one of the documents in your result list, simply double-click the desired document and your document will be displayed on the right side of the window.  If your search was a full text search, the system will automatically go to the first page of your document that contains one of your search terms.  It will also highlight your search terms within your document. 

You can use the toolbars described below to navigate through your document and to save or print it for later use.

Toolbars

The document pane contains several toolbars located between your result list and your document designed to aid you in your use of your document.  The function of each toolbar is described below, and you can hover your mouse cursor over any icon see what its function is.

Navigation

The Navigation toolbar allows you to easily move within your document, either page-by-page or file-by-file.

There are two sets of navigation buttons in this toolbar.  The top set allows you to move from page to page within your document, or to go to a specific page by entering the page number in the Page box and pressing <enter> on your keyboard.

The second set of navigation icons allows you to move from file to file within the same document.  Most documents only have one file associated with them, in which case this option will be grayed out.

Tools (Saving and Printing)

The Tools toolbar enables you to save or print all or part of your document.  You can also use the binoculars icons to continue your full text search within your document, or to search for other text within it.

To either save or print any part of a document you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer.  You can obtain Acrobat Reader for free from Adobe systems.

To save or print your document click the printer icon and select whether you want to save/print your entire document or only part of it from the menus.  You can choose to save/print your document with or without annotations (notes made on the document after it was entered into the system).

Once you have selected how you want to save/print your document, your web browser will download a PDF copy of it to your computer and open it within Acrobat Reader.  You can then use the functions of Acrobat Reader to either save or print your document.  If you need assistance using Acrobat Reader, please see the Acrobat Reader documentation.

Searching within the document

From the Tools toolbar, you can also continue your full text search within your document, or even conduct a new full text search within your document.  To do this, use the binoculars icons in the toolbar and follow any prompts.

Display

The Display toolbar allows you to change the zoom level of your document, magnify particular sections of a page, or rotate the document as necessary to make it easier to read. 

If the document is zoomed in so that only a portion of the pages appears in the viewer, you can move the document around on the screen by clicking and dragging it.

Overview

The Overview toolbar allows you to display thumbnail images of each of the pages of your document.  This can be useful if you are looking for a particular type of page within your document that may have a unique format easily identifiable in a thumbnail.

To display the thumbnails, click the + icon next to the thumbnail of your document's first page.  Thumbnails of the rest of your  document's pages will then be displayed below the first (they may take a couple of seconds to display).  

You can navigate to a page within your document by clicking on its thumbnail.