News from Canto
October, 2007     

In this issue:

Cumulus Power Tips

Quicksearch 101: AND, OR & WHAT?

Quicksearch is one of the most popular features in Cumulus because it's so easy to use: type in a word and hit return. But quick searches can be even more useful when you understand how multi-word searches work, and which fields Cumulus is actually searching.

"This AND That" versus "This OR That"

Cumulus defaults to an "or" search when you enter more than one term into the QuickSearch field.

Example:

VEHICLES BIKES

...finds "vehicles" OR "bikes."

If you want to ensure all your search terms are found, enter the search terms this way:

VEHICLES && BIKES

This will find assets records with "vehicles" AND "bikes."

Using two ampersands together ("&&") tells Cumulus you're not looking for a single ampersand in your search.

Example:

VEHICLES & BIKES

... finds "vehicles" OR "&" OR "bikes."

You can string the && and || operators together to build more complex searches, such as:

VEHICLES && BIKES || ANIMALS

This finds "vehicles" AND "bikes" OR "animals." The matrix below offers some examples of assets that would be found by this search:

Asset Record Name Results Reason
vehicles_bikes_honda.tif YES! "Vehicles" and "bikes" are both found.
vehicles_planes_cessna.tif NO! "Vehicles" is found, but not "bikes."
animals_cow.tif YES! "Animals" is found.
vehicles_animals_horse.tif YES!

Even though "bikes" is not found, which means the "vehicles && bikes" part of the query would return false, "animals" is found.

The query example above uses the asset record field as a target, but any combination of Cumulus fields can be considered by the Quicksearch tool. Read on to learn more.

Choosing Which Fields are Searched

So, now that you've mastered AND and OR searching, how do you determine which fields Cumulus actually searches through when you use the Quicksearch tool?

By default, Cumulus searches:

  • Record Name — This is the asset record name field. This field usually contains the name of the asset, making it easy to find files based on their names. (We say "usually" here because you can edit this field after the asset has been cataloged.)
  • Notes — This is the notes field of the asset record.
  • Keywords — This is the asset record's Keywords metadata field. Don't confuse this with the Keywords category hierarchy. When you assign an asset to a Keyword category, the name of that category is not copied into the Keywords metadata field.
  • Categories — This is the asset's Categories metadata field. This field does include the names of all categories assigned to the asset.

Users can specifically select which metadata fields are searched by the Quicksearch tool for each catalog they use.

To change the fields searched by the Quicksearch tool:

  1. Open the Preferences window for your catalog.
  2. Under the User Settings section, click the Search & Sort tab.
  3. Inside the Quicksearch Fields area you'll see options for choosing fields.
  4. Select either the default fields, or choose fields of your own. When you choose specific fields, only those fields are searched. So if you also want to include some of the default fields, you must add those to your selected fields.

Search and Sort Preferences

In this image, three metadata fields have been selected for searching: Comments, Document Text and Job Name.

The Quicksearch field settings you affect your user account regardless of the Cumulus client software you use to connect. So, even if you define your choices on a Mac client, those same choices will be in effect when using the Windows or Web clients.

If you are unable to access the User Settings section of the Preferences window, talk to your Cumulus administrator about adding that permission to your account.

This month's Power Tip is known to work with all editions of Cumulus 7.0 and later.

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