Who should use this guide?

This article applies to iManage Cloud customers connected to the imanage.work, imanagework.co.uk, and imanagework-au.com endpoints. You're connected to one of these endpoints if you're assigned to a non-numbered data center pod (A, B, C, and so on). You can confirm your pod assignment in Trust Center. 

For more information, refer to the following:

• The Services > Monitored Services section of Service Update: iManage Cloud Trust Center

• iManage Cloud: Important name changes for clarity in communications, documentation, and other resources

Summary

This guide details the best practices for users searching for content in iManage Work 10 clients, namely, iManage Work Desktop for Windows, iManage Work Desktop for Mac, and iManage Work Web. It's also intended for IT help desks and training departments building tip sheets for their user communities.

Search techniques covered include how to search with wildcards, Boolean, and special characters. Examples are provided for each technique. 

In this guide:

• Default search behavior

• Search interface in iManage Work

• Types of Search in iManage Work

• Search guidance for better results

Default search behavior

Before you begin searching, it is important to understand the default search behavior when conducting a full-text search. There are two base rules whenever you search in the full-text search fields:

• First, each search term is separated by an implicit AND operator. The AND operator returns documents containing all the specified terms, in any order. For example, a search for credit agreement is treated as a search for credit AND agreement and returns documents that contain both terms in any order. This search doesn't return documents that have only one of the search terms. See Using Boolean operators for a search.

• Second, it searches for stemmed variations of each search term. For example, a search for credit agreement returns documents with variations of the root of each word. That means that the search returns documents with credit as well as credits and credited. Likewise, agreement returns agreements as well as agree. See Stemming.

Search interface in iManage Work

In this section:

• Simple Search

• Advanced Search

When performing a simple or advanced search, you can define the scope for each search type along with the search language in which you wish to perform the search.

• Setting the search scope to In Recent Matters returns results from your Recent Matters list, which is content that you have accessed in your matters in the past 30 days.

• Setting the search scope to In Selected Databases returns results from all selected libraries. If your organization has only one library, then the same is available to you under the search scope. If your organization has multiple libraries, then either all libraries or ones that you are granted access to are available in the search scope.

Simple Search

In this section:

• Searching for Documents

• Searching for Emails

• Searching for Docs & Emails

• Searching for Folders

• Searching for Matters

• Searching for Clients

• Recent Searches

• Simple Search behavior examples

Searching for Documents

1. From the search type drop-down list, select Documents.

2. Select inside the search box and the list of options is displayed:

   • Title: This is the default option. Title search is performed against document titles; that is, documents are returned in the search results only if the search term is a part of the document title. If you have been using iManage Work 9.x, the Title field corresponds to the Document Name or Document Description fields that you may be familiar with.

   • Keyword: The Keyword search for documents performs a full-text search; this means it looks for your search term anywhere in the document, including the text of the document, title of the document, and metadata fields used for the document. You can also manually enter Keyword:<search string> in the search bar to perform this type of search.

   • Author/Operator: This search is performed if you are searching for individuals associated with the document. While entering the name of the user, you can use the @ symbol followed by the user name to display the list of users with similar names. This helps you select the required user without having to type the name fully. For example—@Jo displays all names that have the string Jo in them, such as John, Joseph and Joe. Entering a space stops suggestions from being triggered.

   • Number: The Number search performs the search on the Document Number. It does an exact number search across the entire library, even if you are within a folder. As a quick search option, in iManage Work 10 clients, you can enter the pound (#) sign in the search bar, followed by the document number. For example—entering #10 would search for document number 10.
     NOTE: You can either set Title or Keyword as the default search value by selecting it in the search box. The default is highlighted in blue. Your selection persists unless changed by you again. If Keyword isn't set as default, the default search criteria continues to be Title search for documents.
     See Boolean Operators Search for the supported search operators.

3. Start by entering the search term in the Search box and press Ctrl+Enter or Enter. The results list is narrowed down to display the documents that meet your search criteria.

Searching for Emails

1. From the search type drop-down list, select Emails.

2. Select inside the search box and the list of options is displayed:

   • Subject: This is the default option. Subject search looks for the search terms in the subject line of the emails.

   • Keyword: The Keyword search for emails performs a full-text search; this means it looks for your search term anywhere in the email, including the email, subject of the email, attachments (if any), and metadata fields used for the email.

   • From: The From search looks for the users (sender) in the From field of an email. You can search using first or last names.

   • To: The To search looks for the users (recipient) in the To field of an email.

   • Number: The Number search performs the search on the Document Number. It does an exact number search across the entire library, even if you are within a folder. As a quick search option, in iManage Work 10 clients, you can enter the pound (#) sign in the search bar, followed by the document number. For example—entering #10 would search for document number 10.
     NOTE: You can either set Subject or Keyword as the default search value by selecting it in the search box. The default is highlighted in blue. Your selection persists unless changed by you again. If Keyword isn't set as default, the default search criteria continues to be Subject search for emails.

     See Boolean Operators Search for the supported search operators.

3. Start by entering the search term in the Search box and press Ctrl+Enter or Enter. The results list is narrowed down to display the emails that meet your search criteria.

Searching for Docs & Emails

1. From the search type drop-down list, select Docs & Emails.

2. Select inside the search box and the list of options is displayed:

   • Title/Subject: This is the default option. Title search is performed against document titles; that is, documents are returned in the search results only if the search term is a part of the document title. Subject search looks for the search terms in the subject line of the emails.

   • Keyword: The Keyword search for emails performs a full-text search; this means it looks for your search term anywhere in the email, including the email, subject of the email, attachments (if any), and metadata fields used for the email. The Keyword search for documents performs a full-text search; this means it looks for your search term anywhere in the document, including the document, title of the document, and metadata fields used for the document.

   • Author/Operator/Filed By: This search is performed if you are searching for individuals associated with a document or email. While entering the name of the user, you can use the @ symbol followed by the user name to display the list of users with similar names. This helps you select the required user without having to type the name fully. For example—@Jo displays all names that have the string Jo in them, such as John, Joseph and Joe. Entering a space stops suggestions from being triggered.

   • Number: The Number search performs the search on the Document Number. It does an exact number search across the entire library, even if you are within a folder. As a quick search option, in iManage Work 10 clients, you can enter the pound (#) sign in the search bar, followed by the document number. For example—entering #10 would search for document number 10.
     NOTE: You can either set Title/Subject or Keyword as the default search value by selecting it in the search box. The default is highlighted in blue. Your selection persists unless changed by you again. If Keyword isn't set as default, the default search criteria continues to be Title/Subject search for docs and emails.

3. Start by entering the search term in the Search box and press Ctrl+Enter or Enter. The results list is narrowed down to display the docs and emails that meet your search criteria.

Searching for Folders

1. From the search type drop-down list, select Folders.

2. Select inside the search box and enter the name of the folder that you want to search and press Ctrl+Enter or Enter. The results list is narrowed down to the folders that meet your search criteria.

Searching for Matters

1. From the search type drop-down list, select Matters.

2. Select inside the search box and the list of options is displayed:

   • Title: This is the default option. Title search is performed against the matter names; that is, matters are returned in the search results only if the search term is a part of the matter name.

   • Keyword: The Keyword search for matters performs a full-text search; this means it looks for your search term anywhere in the Matter, including:

     • Workspace Name

     • Workspace Description

     • Custom metadata fields

       NOTE:

       • Full-text search is limited only to the above-mentioned fields.

       • You can either set Title or Keyword as the default search value by selecting it in the search box. The default is highlighted in blue. Your selection persists unless changed by you again. If Keyword isn't set as default, the default search criteria continues to be Title search for matters.

   • Description: Description search is performed against the description of the Matter, which typically is used to outline particular information about a Matter that might not be covered using the name.

   • Owner: The Owner search looks for matters based on the owner of the matter.

3. Start by entering the search term in the Search box and press Ctrl+Enter or Enter. The results list is narrowed down to display the matters that meet your search criteria.

Searching for Clients

1. From the search type drop-down list, select Clients.

2. Select inside the search box and enter the name of the client that you want to search for and press Ctrl+Enter or Enter. The results list is narrowed down to clients that meet your search criteria.
   NOTE:

   • Client search performs a Contains search as opposed to a Begins with search. Searching with the string Go would return all clients with Go in the name. For example—Goldberg and Snider Go.

   • Client search is always set to a library and you can only select one library.

Recent Searches

If you have previously searched for content, the Recent Searches list displays the last five searches. You can remove any of the displayed searches in the list by selecting X. You can also delete all the searches at once by selecting Clear Recent Searches.

NOTE:

• You can select any of your recent searches to re-run that search.

• The results displayed under Recent Searches are interface-dependent (iManage Work Desktop for Windows or iManage Work Desktop for Mac clients or iManage Work Web). You will see differences in the populated lists under each interface they access.

Simple Search behavior examples

Advanced Search

In this section:

• Advanced Search overview

• Advanced Search options and examples

Advanced Search overview

The Advanced Search interface provides search fields that you can use to refine the search results that iManage Work returns. When you enter a query in the Simple Search box and toggle (enable) to Advanced Search, the query is automatically entered into the respective field in Advanced Search.

Advanced Search in iManage Work Web client

Advanced Search in iManage Work Desktop for Windows client

1. From the search type drop-down list, select one of the following search types:

   • Documents

   • Emails

   • Docs & Emails

   • Matters

   • Folders

2. Select inside the search box and then enable the Advanced toggle.

3. Use the scope and the language drop-down to predefine the search scope and search language.

4. From the search field drop-down lists, select the type of search you want to run. In the text fields, enter the text you want to search for.
   For example—The following figure shows the results for a document search where:

   • The document must contain the word apple only in the Title and

   • The keyword litigation must appear without variations (Contains Exactly) in the title, description, content, or any metadata of the document.

     

5. Optional:

   • Select Add Another or Shift+Enter to add more levels of search criteria and narrow your search.

   • Select   next to a search criteria to remove it.

   • Select Clear values to clear all text fields.

   • Select Reset form to reset the search form to the default search fields.

6. Select In Recent Matters to display results from your Recent Matters list, which is content that you have accessed in your matters in the past 30 days, or, select In Selected Libraries to display matching documents in the search results.

NOTE:

• To perform a Number search separated by a comma in the new advanced search, you must select Doc. Number + Multiple Values as shown in the figure below, or if you type this in the simple search Number field, it'll auto-populate in advanced.

  

• You can add a combination of logical operators (AND, OR, NOT) in one option. For example:

  • Keyword → Contains → apple NOT samsung
    Or you can progressively use multiple options. For example:

  • Keyword → Contains → apple & Keyword → Does Not Contain → samsung.

The results for the examples above are the same.

Advanced Search options and examples

To get targeted search results, the Advanced Search feature provides various options, as applicable in different search fields. Some of the important options are explained here:

Types of Search in iManage Work

In this section:

• Full-text search

  • Searching for an exact match (exact word or exact phrase)

  • Searching for alphanumeric strings

• Handling special characters in a search

• Using wildcards for a search

• Using Boolean operators for a search

Full-text search

When searching through Documents, the search used most often is the Keyword or Title (default) search. When searching for Emails, it is Subject (default), From, To and Keyword. For Matter search, it's Title, Description, and Keyword. If you perform a client-level search, the client list conforming to your entered search criteria is displayed.

The default behavior returns documents that contain each search term, as well as variations, in any order.

Searching for an exact match (exact word or exact phrase)

Entering a search term in double quotes ("") using Simple Search (for example, "lease agreement") results in an exact search.

If you want to execute a search for the exact term or phrase, in Advanced Search, simply select the Contains Exactly option in the search options. Selecting this option cancels out wildcards, special characters, and other search operators (for example: AND, OR) that impact the search results. This option ensures that the search returns an exact match of the term(s).

When you select the Contains Exactly option, iManage Work searches for instances of that exact term without stemming it.

For example—a normal search for help, where the selected option is Contains, returns documents that contain the words helps, helpful, and helping. However, a search for help with the Contains Exactly option selected returns only documents with the exact term help.

For example—a phrase search for credit agreement, where the selected option is Contains, returns documents with variations of the root term for each word. That means that the search returns documents with credit as well as credits and credited. Likewise, agreement returns agreements or even agree. However, a search for credit agreement with Contains Exactly option selected returns only documents that contain the exact phrase credit agreement in that exact manner and order.

Searching for alphanumeric strings

The goal of any search is to find a particular document or set of documents. The more specific the criteria, the greater the likelihood of quick and accurate results. Therefore, the most commonly used search terms aren't real words, but are codes or numbers that represent clients, or numbers representing client or customer IDs, dates, invoices, and similar identifiers.

When searching for numbers or alphanumeric terms in iManage Work, please keep the following in mind:

1. Searching the Description and custom profile fields

   • It's possible to search for numbers or alphanumeric terms that are up to 250 characters long.

   • If the search term is for the exact number or alphanumeric term, you don't need to select Contains Exactly or add wildcards to return the document.
     For example—If you were searching for a document with the title "Invoice #553739", then a Description search for 553739 would return that document.

   • If the search term only contains a portion of the number or alphanumeric term, then wildcards are necessary to obtain a result.
     For example—If you were searching for a document with the title "Style2020", but only knew the first 5 letters of the invoice, you'd use a search for Style* to retrieve documents with terms in the title that begin with "Style", including "Style2020.”

   • When searching for dates in full-text, keep in mind that special characters are treated differently depending on whether the selected option is Contains or Contains Exactly.
     For example—A Contains search for 10/29/07 is actually interpreted as a search for 10 OR 29 OR 07 and returns documents that have one or any of these three numbers in any order. Consequently, the best practice when searching for dates in full-text is to select Contains Exactly. This yields the best search results. For instance, a search for 10/29/07 with the Contains Exactly option selected returns documents with the exact date 10/29/07. However, because the slash is a special character, the search also returns documents with 10 29 07, 10.29.07, and 10-29-07.

2. Searching in the document content

   • The rules for searching for numbers or alphanumeric terms in the document content (that is, the actual document text) are the same as those mentioned above for the Description field.

Handling special characters in a search

When conducting full-text searches against the profile metadata or the document content, it's important to understand how special characters are interpreted in the context of the search. Special characters are non-alphanumeric characters, such as punctuation marks.

The following characters have special meaning within the context of a search and can be used as follows:

• Wildcards (* and ?)

• Use parentheses () to build more complex nested queries.
  Example: A search for Jeff AND John AND (Ryan OR Steve) returns documents containing Jeff, John, and Ryan as well as documents containing Jeff, John, and Steve.

The following special characters behave differently within a search depending on whether the search term is a phrase search (which is enclosed in quotation marks) and whether the special character is separated from the search term(s) by spaces or other special characters:

~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * () _ + {} | [] \ : ; <> = _ ? , . /

• Special characters in a phrase search are ignored when searching in iManage Work. As a general rule, all special characters (including * and ?) are essentially treated the same as spaces between words. When executing a phrase search that includes a special character in the phrase, that character is ignored.
  For example—A search for self-evaluation with the Contains Exactly option selected returns documents with self-evaluation as well as self evaluation, self - evaluation, self--evaluation, and self\evaluation, and so on.

• Special characters included in a search term without interceding spaces or quotation marks are interpreted as an AND operator.
  For example—A search for the term self-evaluation is the equivalent of a search for self AND evaluation.

So a search for self-evaluation returns documents containing both self and evaluation (and the variants of each).

The one exception to this rule is the Underscore (_), which is treated as if it were an alphanumeric character in this case.

Using wildcards for a search

iManage Work supports wildcard characters. A wildcard search in iManage Work is designed to return expanded variations of search term(s). This is a powerful search technique that allows users to search for a term where some of the characters are unknown.

NOTE:

• Wildcard searches may take longer to run than non-wildcard searches.

• Wildcard searches aren't applicable for Client and Folder.

iManage Work supports single and multiple character wildcard searches within single terms. You can apply wildcard characters to single terms, but not to search phrases.

There are two wildcard characters – the question mark (?) and asterisk (*).

• Use a question mark (?) as a wildcard in place of a single unknown character.
  For example—if you are uncertain whether a name is Smith or Smyth, entering Sm?th returns documents that contain either name variation. Similarly, a search for b?rn returns documents that match the word born, barn, or burn.

• Use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard in place of any number of unknown characters.
  For example—a search for m*or returns all documents that contain words such as major, mayor, and mentor. Wildcards can be used in the beginning, middle, or end of a search term. A search for *vert* returns documents that contain convertible, inverted, vertigo, and covert. Similarly, a search for auto* matches the words automobile, autograph, and autobiography.

Using Boolean operators for a search

iManage Work Indexer accepts simple or complex Boolean and bracketed Boolean expressions, and it returns a list of matching documents. You can form Boolean expressions using a range of Boolean operators:

Logical Operator Combination: iManage Work Indexer supports multiple Boolean connector searches. For example, (landlord OR tenant) AND guarantor, landlord OR (tenant OR guarantor), (landlord OR tenant) NOT guarantor, and more.

NOTE:

• When specifying Boolean operators with keywords such as AND or NOT, the keywords must be in all uppercase.

• You must not place any part of the search term in "" as an indication of priority. The system reads the order of the operators from left to right. Terms placed within () are read as a unit.

Stemming

By default, full-text searches in iManage Work return variations of the search term. This behavior is known as stemming. iManage Work Indexer automatically stems the search term when it processes a search and returns variations of the search term.

Stemming is a sophisticated search technique wherein the search term is reduced to its base root to broaden the search to include terms that share the same root. For example, a search for test would return documents with test as well as testing, tested, and tester. However, the search wouldn't return the word testament. This process can broaden searches to include all variations of a term.

Stop words

Stop words are common words that typically modify the meaning of other words but carry no inherent meaning themselves, such as adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions. Words such as the, or, a are used too frequently to carry any significance within a search query. As a result, such terms are generally excluded, or stopped, and effectively ignored when entered as search criteria. Entering a search that contains only stop words returns zero results, even though the word may in fact exist in all documents.

In iManage Work Indexer, the language-specific stop words files are pre-populated with a default list of stop words. The stop words present in the list are omitted when searching. Entering a search term that contains only stop words doesn't return results.

NOTE:
A firm can add, if desired, a custom list of terms to be considered as stop words when performing full-text search in the stop words file. Stop word lists are configurable and can vary from firm to firm.

• A Contains search (the default Advanced search) with stop words returns documents that contain each search term, as well as variations, in any order within the document, but the stop words are ignored.
  For example—In a search for look at the cars, the words at and the are considered stop words, so the actual search submitted by iManage Work will be for look cars. It returns documents with both look and car (along with stemmed variations) regardless of whether at or the exists in the text.

• A Contains Exactly search with stop words returns documents that contain the exact phrase in the exact manner and order quoted, but the stop words are ignored.
  For example—In a search for look at the cars, the words at and the are considered stop words, so the actual search submitted by iManage Work will be for look cars. It'll return documents containing look at the cars, look at those cars, and look cars.

Search guidance for better results

If a search doesn't return the document you want to retrieve, try the following tips before running the search again:

• Search for the document using profile fields (metadata), such as the document number without any full-text criteria. If the document isn't retrieved, it might be due to reasons other than search, such as the document being deleted or restricted security access.
  However, if the document is retrieved with a simple document number search, then it's possible that the document has not yet been full-text indexed, which implies that full-text indexing is in progress.

• Check the search query for potential stop words or special characters. Try to reformulate the query with other terms in the target document.

• Select the correct library (libraries) for better results.