ProjectWise Explorer Help

Search by Form Dialog

Used to create, run, and save advanced searches for documents in ProjectWise Explorer. If you want to run an advanced search that looks for folders and work areas, use the Define Search dialog.

Advanced document searches let you search based on any general document property, environment attribute, file property (if file properties have been extracted), or full text strings inside the attached file or in the document's attributes (if full text has been extracted).

For all text fields in this dialog, you can type into them, or you can open a dialog to configure the appropriate search expression by right-clicking in the field and selecting Format Criteria, or by clicking the Format button (...) to the right of the field.

The Search by Form dialog opens when you:

  • select Folder > Advanced Search in ProjectWise Explorer, if Document Search is set as the default advanced search method
  • click the Advanced Search icon in the Search toolbar in ProjectWise Explorer, if Document Search is set as the default advanced search method
  • select Document Search in the Select Search Definition Dialog, if you selected Folder > Advanced Search or clicked the Advanced Search icon in ProjectWise Explorer and no default search dialog was set

General tab, Document section

SettingDescription
Name Restricts the search to documents whose document name matches the name entered, or matches the custom search expression defined.
Description Restricts the search to documents whose document description matches the description entered, or matches the custom search expression defined.
Version Restricts the search to documents whose version matches the version entered, or matches the custom search expression defined.
Sequence / Only Current If multiple versions exist for a document, you can use the Sequence field to set the order in which versions of documents are to be returned in the search results list. If Only Current is on, only the current version of a document will be returned in the search results list.
Application Restricts the search to documents associated to the selected application. If no application is selected, documents of all application types are searched.
Workflow Restricts the search to documents in the selected workflow.
State Restricts the search to documents in the selected state. When a workflow is selected, you can only select a state within that workflow. If no workflow is selected, you can search on any state in the datasource.
Department If a particular department is set, the search is restricted to documents associated to that department.
Status If a particular status is set, the search is restricted to documents that match that status. Options are Checked In, Checked Out, Exported, Final, Not Checked In, Not Checked Out, Not Exported, and Not Final.
Status Set By If a particular user is set, the search is restricted to documents whose statuses have been set by that user.
(Status last changed) On The On field to the right of the Status Set By menu lets you restrict the search to documents whose status last changed, on, before, after, or between specific dates or dates and times. For example: Status Set By: 'Bill' On: 1/12/2020, searches for documents whose status user 'Bill' has affected on January 12, 2020. Or a more narrow search might be: Status Set By: 'Bill' On: BETWEEN '1/12/2020 7 AM' AND '1/12/2020 4 PM'.
Created By If a particular user is set, the search is restricted to documents created by that user.
(Created) On The On field to the right of the Created By menu lets you restrict the search to documents which have been created on, before, after, or between specific dates or dates and times. For example: Create By: 'Bill' On: 1/12/2020, searches for documents created by 'Bill' on January 12, 2020. Or a more narrow search might be: Created By: 'Bill' On: BETWEEN '1/12/2020 7 AM' AND '1/12/2020 4 PM'.
Updated By If set, the search is restricted to documents updated by the selected user.
(Updated) On The On field to the right of the Updated By menu lets you restrict the search to documents which have been updated on, before, after, or between specific dates or dates and times. For example: Updated By: 'Bill' On: 1/12/2020, searches for documents updated by 'Bill' on January 12, 2020. Or a more narrow search might be: Updated By: 'Bill' On: BETWEEN '1/12/2020 7 AM' AND '1/12/2020 4 PM'.

General tab, File section

SettingDescription
Name

Sets the file name to search for.

File Size If a value is specified, the search is restricted to files of this size or range of size.
Storage If a particular storage area is set, the search is restricted to documents in that storage area.
File Updated By If set, the search is restricted to files updated by the selected user.
(File Updated) On The On field to the right of the File Updated By menu lets you restrict the search to documents whose files have been updated on, before, after, or between specific dates or dates and times. For example: File Updated By: 'Bill' On: 1/12/2020, searches for documents whose files were updated by 'Bill' on January 12, 2020. Or a more narrow search might be: File Updated By: 'Bill' On: BETWEEN '1/12/2020 7 AM' AND '1/12/2020 4 PM'.

General tab, Folder section

SettingDescription
Look in If a particular folder is set, the search is restricted to looking for documents in that folder. When no folder is set, the search includes all folders in the datasource. You can click the Change button to browse to and select another folder. (If you have a folder selected when you select Folder > Advanced Search, the dialog is set by default to search for documents in the selected folder.)
Include subfolders If on, all subfolders of the folder specified in the Look in field will be searched.
Name Lets you search for a folder by specifying a folder's name. For example, through this field you could search for all folders having the name 'Design Files'. This field can also be useful if you know the name of the folder, but cannot otherwise find the folder through normal navigation (Look in). If the folder exists for the name you specify, but contains no documents, the folder will not be found.
Description Lets you search for a folder by specifying a folder's description. For example, through this field you could search for all folders having the description 'Design Files'. Like the Folder Name field, this field can be useful if you know the description of the folder, but cannot otherwise find the folder through normal navigation (Look in). If the folder exists for the description you specify, but contains no documents, the folder will not be found.
Environment Name By default this field displays the environment that is associated to the folder or work area that happens to be selected when you open the dialog. The environment displayed determines which attribute fields display on the Attributes and More Attributes tabs of this dialog. Click the Change button to the right of this field to change the environment displayed.
Find in this Environment only If on, the search will be restricted to the environment selected in the Environment Name field. If off, the search will search across all available environments. The state of this setting (on / off) when you close the Search by Form dialog will be remembered the next time you open it.

Attributes and More Attributes tab

Lets you search for environment attribute values (specifically, those in the active interface). The fields that display on these attribute pages depend on:

  • the environment specified in the Folder section on the General tab of this dialog
  • what additional attribute fields were created by your administrator when creating the environment
  • and whether or not an interface exists for the environment, and if more than one interface exists, which one is set as the active interface

File Properties tab

Lets you search on file property values, if file property extractions have been performed by your administrator on this datasource. If no property fields display on this tab, then most likely file property extractions have not yet occurred. The appearance of this tab in the dialog is determined by the user setting, User Interface > Show file properties.

Full Text tab

Lets you search on text strings contained in documents' files, or in text fields of general properties and environment attributes, if full text extractions have been performed by your administrator on this datasource. The appearance of this item in the dialog is determined by the user setting, User Interface > Show full text search.

SettingDescription
Look for Sets the full text string to search for.
Look inside (File Contents / ProjectWise Attributes)

Sets the items you want to look inside for the entered text. Select File Contents to look inside documents' files, or ProjectWise Attributes to look inside documents' general properties and environment attributes.

Return documents
  • Including exact phrase — Restricts the search to only documents containing text exactly as it appears in the Look for field.
  • Including all words — Restricts the search to documents containing all words in the Look for field, but not necessarily in that order.
  • Including any of the words — Restricts the search to documents containing any of the words in the Look for field.
  • Not including all words — Restricts the search to documents containing none of the words in the Look for field.

Spatial tab

Lets you enter search criteria to find documents in based on their spatial properties.

SettingDescription
Geometry Displays the background map assigned to the selected folder. Use the drawn geometry as a criterion to find all documents whose spatial location intersects the specified region. Documents that do not have a spatial location assigned will not be retrieved. Use the Edit button to manually draw the geometry to be used as the search criterion. Use the Clear button to remove the spatial location criteria from the current OR group.
Source Identifies the spatial location source of the selected folder.
  • Any — If set, no spatial location source will be used as a search criterion.
  • Custom — If set, the spatial location of the folder was specified manually by a user or is the result of an extraction process.
  • None — If set, no spatial location is associated to the folder.
  • Parent Folder — If set, the spatial location of the current folder will be inherited from the parent folder. This option is only available for subfolders whose parent folder has a spatial location.
Coordinate System Select the coordinate system associated to the spatial location. This option is available only when the spatial location source is set to custom.
Look For When this button is selected, the first page of search criteria appears for each tab you select.
Add OR Group Used to create another page of search criteria, referred to as an OR group, to be included in the same search. Using an OR group in a search, you can define multiple values for a single attribute and include them all in the same search.
Clear Clears the last page of search criteria that you have entered in the dialog. If you have created one or more OR groups, you need to click the Clear button once for each OR group, and then once to clear the original search criteria page (the search criteria that appears when you click the Look For button).
Saved Search
  • Save — Lets you save changes to the currently loaded saved search.
  • Save As — Opens the Save Search dialog, which lets you create a saved search based on the newly entered search criteria, or if you have loaded an existing saved search, lets you save the saved search under a new name.
  • Load — Opens the Open Saved Search dialog, which lets you open an existing saved search into the Search by Form dialog. Once opened, the criteria in the saved search populates the appropriate fields.
  • New Search — Closes the open saved search in preparation for a new search. If no saved search is open, New Search simply clears the fields for a new search to be created.
OK Initiates the search. If any results are found, they are displayed in the search results list, which replaces the document list in ProjectWise Explorer. Also, the Search by Form dialog becomes the Document Properties dialog, and lets you examine the properties of each document found by clicking through the list, using the left- and right-arrow buttons at the bottom of the dialog.
Cancel Disregards any search criteria you have entered and changes the Search by Form dialog to the Document Properties dialog.
Apply Like clicking OK, clicking Apply also initiates the search and displays any results in the search results list. However in this case, the Search by Form dialog does not become the Document Properties dialog, and you cannot use the dialog to click through the list of documents.
Show results in new window If on, and if any results are found, a new window opens to display the search results list.
Parent topic: Advanced Search
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