Using Find

Find is the most advanced search method in Meridian; it can find either documents or folders. It gives you complete flexibility of the search scope, properties, and conditions. Find can include referenced documents in its results and its results can be saved and shared with other users.

To find documents:

  1. In the Search ribbon, in the Find group, click Find or Find in This Folder. The Find Documents dialog box appears.

    Note:

    Find allows you to specify the scope of your search as multiple vaults, the current vault or a specified folder. Find in This Folder limits the scope of your search to the selected folder as indicated by this icon , which is not necessarily the folder containing the highlighted document. They can be different.

  2. On the Search tab, type all or part of the document name in Name. The wildcard characters ? (any single character) and * (any string of characters) are accepted. The effective search criteria will be the combination of the Name criterion and the criteria in the Current criteria list.

  3. The default criteria in the Current criteria list are properties configured by a system administrator and criteria that you have used recently. Select any that you want included in the search. Click Reset to clear the list.

    To add a criterion to the list:

    1. Select an option from Property.
    2. Select a search condition from Condition.
    3. Type your desired search text in Value.
    4. Click Add to List.
    5. Repeat steps a to d to add more criteria.
    6. The default search operator is OR. Select All these criteria must be met to combine all the selected criteria (AND operator).
  4. If you clicked Find to search in multiple vaults, select Selected vaults and then on the Vaults tab, select the vaults to search in the right column and click the left arrow button to add them to the left column.
  5. To search in only specific document types, select them on the Document Types tab as described in Document types options.
  6. To include documents that are related by Meridian references to your search results, select options on the References tab as described in References options.
  7. Click Find Now to run the search. Click Close to abort the search. The Search results page appears.
  8. To reset all your search criteria and start a new search, click Reset.

To find folders:

  1. In the Search ribbon, click Find Folders. The Find Folders dialog box appears.
  2. The default folder search scope is the entire current vault. To limit the scope to a specific folder, select This folder and type its name. To search recursively through its subfolders, enable and subfolders.
  3. On the Search tab, type all or part of the folder name in Name. The wildcard characters ? (any single character) and * (any string of characters) are accepted. The effective search criteria will be the combination of the Name criterion and the criteria in Current criteria list.

  4. The default criteria in the Current criteria list are properties configured by a system administrator and criteria that you have used recently. Select any that you want included in the search. Click Reset to clear the list.

    To add a criterion to the list:

    1. Select an option from Property.
    2. Select a search condition from Condition.
    3. Type your desired search text in Value.
    4. Click Add to List.
    5. Repeat steps a to d to add more criteria.
    6. The default search operator is OR. Select All these criteria must be met to combine all the selected criteria (AND operator).
  5. To search in only specific folder types, select them on the Folder Types tab.
  6. Click Find Now to run the search. Click Close to abort the search. The Search results page appears.
  7. To reset all your search criteria and start a new search, click Reset.

To use Find:

  1. Do one of the following:

    • On the Edit menu, select Find.
    • Click the downward pointing arrow next to the Find button on the Main toolbar and then select Find documents or Find folders. The command that you choose then becomes the default button in the toolbar.
    • Press Ctrl+F.
    • On the shortcut menu of a folder within which you want to search, select Find...

    The Find Documents or the Find Folders dialog box opens, depending on which method you used to start the command. If you selected Find on a folder shortcut menu, search criteria are automatically typed in the dialog for you. The criteria match the contents of the folder where you started the search.

    Note:

    Depending on the value of KeepSearchSettings in the following registry key, your previous search settings are restored.

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cyco\AutoManager Meridian\CurrentVersion\AMFind\Settings
  2. Click options and type text using the descriptions in the following topics.
  3. After you have configured the search options that you want, click Find Now. If the search is successful, the dialog expands to list the results. Only the first 250 items appear in the list. Click 250 More to view additional items.
  4. Select an item and click Details to show the thumbnail and a limited number of properties for the selected item. Double-click the thumbnail to open the selected document in a new viewer window. Double-click the property page to open a new Properties dialog box that shows all of the item’s property pages for viewing or editing.
  5. Click the Go To button or double-click the item to close the dialog and to make the selected item the current item.
  6. Click New Search to clear all selections and reset the dialog to its default settings, ready to begin a new search.
  7. Click Save or Save As to save the current results as a collection. For details, see Creating and editing a collection.
  8. Click Close to close the dialog.