How To Use the Quick Search Functionality

Quick Search is a useful way to search for documents and other objects in the vault. Quick Search looks for objects that contain the search word in the file contents or metadata. You can choose whether to search for metadata, file contents, or both by selecting the Metadata, File contents or Both option in the Filters tab. By default, both metadata and file contents are searched. This setting is retained for all subsequent searches. See The Filters Tab for more ways to refine your search.

In the search field, enter a search string that has to do with the object, such as the title, the login account of a person who has edited it, or a customer related to it, and click the search button. The search string does not need to be a whole word — you can truncate the word by using an asterisk. For example, when you search for data in the Demo Vault with the search string specific*, you will find a document named Technical Specifications, because the name contains the string searched for.

To search for a particular word form, disable the Look for different inflected forms of the words in Quick Search option in the Additional Conditions dialog. This option is enabled by default. When you do this to search for, say, the word "corporation", the search results include only those objects that match this exact word, not corporate, incorporated, and so on.

Words and phrases searched for are stored in the search drop-down menu, making it easy to repeat recent searches.

Does your M-Files look different? - This video features the latest M-Files user interface (released in November 2022). Please note that the lessons in this video still apply. To access tutorial videos featuring the previous user interface, please click here here.

To upgrade to the new user interface, please consult your organization's M-Files Business admin to see about updating your M-Files application.