You can browse through tagged articles, or you can use various filters such as keywords, tags, and title to find the articles that you want.
Because every article is assigned to a team, the search results will only list articles that you are allowed to access due to your team membership.
When you specify a keyword, the system performs a full text search of the article’s contents for the keyword. You can use keywords to include or exclude articles in the search results.
Click the Syntax Help link for guidance on syntax. Note that the syntax for full-text search varies depending on the type of database that you use. The guidelines below demonstrate basic search rules.
z You can search for keywords and phrases. Keywords and phrases are not case-sensitive.
z Phrases must be enclosed in double quotes. For example, “the whole nine yards”.
z To specify multiple keywords, you can use spaces. Using spaces is similar to using the OR operator. For example, if you search for brown blue, the search results will return articles that contain brown or blue.
z Using the plus (+) sign will return articles that have both the words. For example, brown +blue will return only articles that contain both the words.
z To ensure that a word is included in the search, use the plus (+) sign before the word. For example, to find articles on the impact of global warming on polar bears, you can search for “global warming” +bears or “global warming”
+“polar bears”.
z To exclude keywords or phrases, use the minus (-) sign. For example, brown blue -yellow. When you specify a word in the Excluding these words field in Advanced Search, you do not need to use the minus sign.
z Use wildcard characters % or * to specify a partial word. For example, to find words that begin with super, you can search for super% or super*.
Note: Words that contain a maximum of three letters are treated as stop words in MySQL, unless they are part of a phrase. Hence, the search results will not display articles containing such words.
To perform a full text search for an article
1. In the Shortcuts menu on the Knowledge Base tab, click Articles.
The Search tab displays on the page.
2. Enter one or more keywords or a phrase in the search field to find articles that contain them.
3. To restrict the search, select a criterion from theSearch within drop-down list.
4. Click Search.
To perform an advanced search
1. Select the Advanced tab and specify one or more of the following criteria:
Search within: From the drop-down list, select the criterion such as a time period or a tag.
Containing these words: Enter one or more keywords or phrases. Use a space to separate keywords from each other. Use quotes to enclose a phrase.
Excluding these words: Enter one or more keywords or phrases to exclude from the search. Use a space to separate keywords or phrases from each other.
Knowledge Base Module
Note: In order to exclude a keyword or phrase, you must first specify the keyword or phrase that you want to find in the Containing these words field.
Under this Tag: Enter the tag name or click Select to choose the tag from the Article Tag list.
2. For more search filters, click More Options.
3. Specify any of the following criteria:
Title. Enter the article’s title.
Viewing Frequency. From the drop-down list, select the number of articles that were viewed most frequently or the least frequently.
Status. From the drop-down list, select the article’s status such as Draft or Published.
Team. To search for articles assigned to a team, enter the name of the team or click Select to choose a team from the Teams list.
Note: If you are not a member of the selected team, the search results will not display any articles.
Approved By. To search for articles assigned to a specific approver, enter the person’s name or click Select to choose a user from the Users list.
Author. To search for articles authored by a specific user, enter the person’s name or click Select to choose the user from the Users list.
Published After. To search for articles published after a specific date, enter the date or click the calendar icon to select it.
Expires After. To search for articles that expires after a specific date, enter the date or click the calendar icon to select it.
Save this search as. To save the specified search criteria for future use, enter a name, for example Search1, and click Save.
Previous Saved Searches. To search using a saved search criteria, select the name of the saved search from the drop-down list and click Search.
4. Click Search to commence the search for articles that meet the specified criteria.
The search results display a list of articles that match your criteria.
5. Click an article name to view its contents.
Click the article name to view its contents. Alternatively, point the cursor at the article name to view its contents in a separate window as shown below. You can display the contents of multiple articles simultaneously in this manner.
To browse for an article
1. In the Shortcuts menu of the Knowledge Base module, click Articles, and select the Browse tab.