The advanced search system is a powerful tool that can produce highly-refined search results. This article covers the general functionality of the system.
When searching for a file type using the system, we follow the same basic steps, while changing the 'body' field to 'type' as shown below. Searches can be done both for a specific file type (e.g. pdf, png, txt, etc.) or for a general category: Image, Audio, Text, Video, Archive, Email, Email Collection, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and iWork
Performing an advanced search by file type from the Advanced Search view:
1. Click the 'Advanced Search' button in the left pane
2. Click on the 'Create New Search' button
3. Click anywhere in the condition box to enter the search criteria. Alternatively, click on the edit icon (the pencil) that appears when you hover over the condition box
4. Select the 'type' parameter from the drop-down menu. This is otherwise set to 'body' by default
5. In the drop-down box that appears on the right, select the type of file you want to search for. You can also begin typing the file type into the box and it will immediately give you suggestions of all recognized file types that begin with those letters
6. (Optional) Add additional conditions that you wish to include in the search by clicking on the '+Click to add condition' text present in the query builder area, and connecting them to the 'type' query using the 'AND', 'OR' or 'NOT' operators (e.g. type = image AND body CONTAINS "construction schematics")
7. Click on the 'execute search' button
Performing an advanced search by file type from the search bar:
1. Type "type = <filetype>" in the search bar at the top of the screen, where "<filetype>" is either the extension you are searching for or one of the general categories listed above
2. Select the ‘Advanced Search’ tab in the drop-down menu that appears under the search bar
3. (Optional) Add any other parameters you wish to search for, connecting them to the 'type' search with 'AND', 'OR' or 'NOT' operators
4. Hit the return key to perform the search
NOTE: The 'NOT' operator can be extremely useful when combined with the 'type' search to exclude all files of a certain type from search results. For example, "type = Word AND (NOT type = doc)" will produce results excluding the Microsoft Word-related 'doc' file type, while still including all other file types that are Microsoft Word-specific (docx, docm, dotx, docm, etc.)
Performing an advanced search by file type for an unsupported file type:
GoldFynch supports a large number of file types. In the event that you do happen to be searching for files of a type that are not supported yet, you can search for it in the advanced search view using the 'name.ext' parameter instead of 'type', as shown in the image below:
- Perform an advanced search from the 'advanced search' view as described above, but in step 4. instead of using the 'type' parameter, use the 'name.ext' parameter, and in step 5. enter the extension in the text entry box that is provided
Note: Type' searches from the advanced search tab of the search bar automatically check against all file types, supported or otherwise
Filtering by file type from an existing search
- After performing any search on GoldFynch, the results will be presented in the 'Search' view along with the different file types of the results, as long as there is more than one file type
- These file types will be grouped into the general file categories in the right pane
- Simply click on the '+' button next to one of these categories to see all file types within it
- Click on a specific file type to filter the results down to only files of that file type. Learn more about filtering and working with your search results here
