Find Utility
To initiate a search (find) based on a specific set of criteria, click the binoculars icon located on the toolbar. You can also access this using Edit > Find or the shortcut Ctrl+F.
Select the search type from the available options:
- Contact/Company: allows you to select search criteria from all fields in contact and company records
- Activities: searches Activity records
- Assignments: Searches Assignment records
- Tracking: Searches Tracking records
- History: Searches History records
When performing Activities, Assignments, Tracking, or History searches, the results will be records from those tables. For example, searching Activities will return Activity records that match the criteria; searching Assignments will return Assignment records, etc.
Choose your search type and select Next to continue.
Contact/Company Find
The Contact/Company find allows you to search within contact and company records in your ContactEase database. After you select Contact/Company as the search type, click OK. You will see nine additional search types unique to the Contact/Company search function:
- Simple
- Advanced
- Date
- Categories
- Marked By
- Companies
- Client/Matter
- Duplicates
- Security
Simple Search (Contact/Company)
A simple search looks for a single field within the contact or company record of your database.
1. Start by selecting the records to search:
- All Records searches every record in the database
- Marked Records searches only those records "Marked By" you
- Selections Only searches among currently selected records (those highlighted)
- Current List Only searches the results of your current search
- NOT in Current List searches the entire database for the criteria entered excluding the results from the current list
2. Next, you'll select the field to search. All fields in ContactEase will display in the dropdown list. Use the down arrow and scroll to find the field to use in your search or type the first letter of the field name. Note: some fields have a prefix attached such as Email or Field.
3. Then, you'll select the Condition to apply to the field. You can search for text that Begins with certain characters, for a field that Is empty, for exact text (Equals), or even a string of characters within the body of text (Includes). Depending on the field selected, the condition options may appear differently.
4. Finally, select or enter a Value. If the field contains a list, you'll be offered the values from that list in the dropdown menu. You can also enter a value.
Contact/Company Search Results
When the Find is executed, the results will appear in the upper window of your display.
The search results will remain under the search results tab (the last tab on the left in the upper window of your display) until a new search is run.
You can toggle back and forth between the search results and the list view screen without disturbing the search results. This allows you to find other records not included in the results.
The results can be sorted by clicking on the column header (if an arrow is present) or by going to View > Menu and selecting the sort order of the display.
Advanced Search (Contact/Company)
An Advanced search looks at more than one field at the same time. This search allows for complex and/or requests and can be saved and run again.
Date Search (Contact/Company)
Date search is used to locate records created or modified within a specific period of time. Using this search you can locate records created or modified within a specific period of time. The modified date refers to the Last Modified Date. If you wish to locate a modification made on a specific date, use the History find.
Categories Search (Contact/Company)
Categories is used to search for records that contain one or more ContactEase categories. To select the records to search, you'll choose a Search option from the dropdown list:
- All Records searches all contacts in the database.
- Marked Records searches only those records marked by you.
- Selections Only searches only those records you've selected (highlighted).
- Current List Only searches only those records that are in the selected list currently displayed.
- Not in Current List searches only those records not in the selected current list.
Next, you'll select a Result option which determines how the records are presented:
- Normal lists each contact for each match and presents records that match at least one of the conditions in the search criteria. If a record matches three of the conditions, it will appear three times in the display once for each category match.
- Summary presents a contact record only once regardless of the number of matches found. A summary result will not show the category column.
- Without shows records where none of the selections match.
- Union shows only contact records where all of the criteria match whenever two or more conditions are presented. If two conditions are presented, records that display must contain both selections. The record is only presented once in the results display.
Marked By Search (Contact/Company)
Marked By allows you to search for records marked for one or more users. To begin, select the records you'd like to search:
- All Records searches all contacts in the database.
- Marked Records searches only those records you have marked.
- Selections Only searches only those records that you have selected (highlighted).
- Current List Only searches only those records that are in the list currently selected.
Now, select how you'd like to display the results of your search:
- Normal – List each contact for each match: Presents records that match at least one of the Marked By names checked. The results are presented for each match. If a record matches three of the conditions, it will appear three times in the display, once for each Marked By match. When Normal is selected, a new column will appear in the result list with the name of the Marked By user being searched and the display will be grouped by that user.
- Summary: A contact record is presented only once regardless of the number of matches found. A summary result will not show the Marked By column.
- Without: Shows records where none of the selections match.
- Union: Whenever two or more conditions are presented, this will show only contact records where all of the criteria matches (Marked By all of the users selected). If two conditions are presented, the records displayed contain both selections. The record is only presented once in the results display.
Companies Search (Contact/Company)
The Companies search allows you to select a company or companies and view all contact records for your selections.
Click to expand the list and then check the box to select one or more companies.
Client/Matter Search (Contact/Company)
Client/Matter searches client and matter numbers assigned to a contact. Note that not all firms choose to enter this information. This is optional and must be populated manually or through an integration with your firm's time and billing system.
Client and matter information is located on the Record tab. If your firm synchronizes with Outlook, this information is also available on the Outlook form in the CE Client/Matter section.
Duplicates Search (Contact/Company)
A Duplicates search creates a list of duplicate and potential duplicate records based on specific fields.
To initiate a search, check the boxes next to the fields you'd like to compare and select OK.
Security Search (Contact/Company)
This search allows you to locate records that have the same security rights. You can locate records that are Marked, Public, Private or Semi-Private. Only Administrative users are able to designate the “for user” option. This enables an Admin user to get a list of all records marked by a specific user.
Find all records which are:
- Public: Records with an access setting of Public.
- Semi-Private: Records with an access setting of Semi-Private. You must then choose the user ID.
- Private: Records with an access setting of Private. You must then choose the user ID.
- Marked: Shows you all records that are marked based on the user ID.
- All Semi Private: Shows you all records in the database with a semi-private setting.
- All Private: Shows you all records where the record access is Private
- All Marked: Shows you all records that are marked for anyone
- All NOT Marked: Shows you all contact records that are not marked for anyone. If you are a synchronized Outlook firm, these are usually called orphaned records. These records are in the ContactEase database only and not linked with any user’s Outlook folder.
- All Marked for >1 user: Shows you records that are linked with (or marked for) more than one Outlook user.