In this video, we’re going to be looking at the global search options, which are designed to work with our robust data structure and query tools. This means the global search will find something even when you’re not quite sure where to look, and it’s a lot easier to use. You can even use it to quickly access information with fewer clicks. The more you add to the search, the more narrow the results will be. It starts searching with as few as two characters. For example, if you use “Bob Smith,” it won’t include someone named Jane Smith. However, if you just use “Smith,” both Bob and Jane Smith will appear because the word is in both of their names.
The global search is located at the top of your page in the menu. If I start searching for the word “canyon,” it’s going to return a lot of results for me. It looks in a few areas, which I’ll break down.
Global Search Results
First, it looks at people and organizations to see if there are any records that match your search term. It checks the name of the person or organization, the email address, and the address on the record. For example, Canyon Wilson has “canyon” in his name. Enzo Taylor’s email has “canyon” in the domain. Penny Taylor has “canyon” in her address.
As you can see, the people results return before the organization results. You can actually change this in your My Settings page. If your members are predominantly people and you frequently search for them, having people return as the first result makes more sense and saves you from scrolling down. But if you often search for organizations, you can change the settings to have them appear first.
The next area it looks at is events. It will check the event name and the event description to see if your word is found within any of the event details. For example, “Canyon Craft Wine” has the word “canyon” in the title. The other two events that appear in the search results have “canyon” in the event description, even if it’s not in the title.
The next area it looks at is committees. It will check if the committee name or description has the search word. For example, “Canyon Region Committee” has “canyon” in the name, but the other two results are returning because “canyon” is in their descriptions.
The final two areas it looks at are notes and tasks. In each note and task, it will check the title or name, as well as the description, to see whether your search term is included.
Interacting with Search Results
Within the global search results, you can click on any of the items to open the corresponding area. For example, if I click on Tanya Duffy’s note, it will open the note details for me to look at. As you can see, the description of the note uses the word “canyon,” which is why it returned in the results when I searched for that word. If I want to, I can click on Tanya’s record to open and view all the information on her profile, or I can proceed to make changes to the note. I can then always go back to the global search to do further searching.
You can also use other search terms like a phone number, a member number, or an email address. For example, if I enter a phone number in the correct format, the search will look within people, organizations, notes, tasks, and committees. As you can see, these people and organizations have that exact phone number, which is why they returned in the results.
In summary, the global search is your friend when you’re looking for something specific, or you have a general word, phone number, or member number. Instead of clicking around just to find what you’re looking for, the global search helps you find what you need quickly with fewer clicks. I hope this gives you a good idea on how you can use the global search to your advantage. Thank you for watching.
