Limit a search to specific folders

Folders in your Qvidian library are listed under the "Folders" tab in the left navigation pane. You can limit your search to specific folders. This is useful when you have a very large library of content that is well defined and content records are categorized and kept in separate folders and subfolders. If you know where your content records would be then you can limit your search to the selected folders.

Note: You have to manually select the folders you want to search. To auto-select subfolders you must enable it in the Folder Settings.

Qvidian does not select the sub-folders automatically when you select a top-level folder. Similarly, Qvidian does not automatically run a search when you change the search scope by selecting or deselecting folders.

Example: If you select some folders and run a search and later you add more folders to expand the scope of the search, the newly added folders are not searched automatically.

  1. Open the Folders tab.
  2. Click the Folder Settings Folder Settings icon icon.
  3. Select the desired checkboxes to update your settings: 
    • Auto-select SubFolders: Enable this option to select all the sub-folders contained in a folder. When this option is not enabled, only the top level folder is selected and the sub-folders must be selected manually. The "Auto-Select Subfolders" option will be enabled for any users that do not currently have a preference set or have reset their preferences.
    • Auto-run Search: Enable this option, to update the search results automatically, when you add or remove folders to search, or the number of matches in a folder change due to the addition of new matching records to the folder. This is useful for users that frequently browse folders, or just want quicker response times. This is not for users that often select a large number of folders one at a time.

Note: These settings only apply to the current library instance. To apply these settings to any library instance you open, you have to save the Folder Settings to the default workspace. To know more about workspaces, see The library.

The checkboxes present on each folder have three states selected, unselected, and partially selected. Each state informs you if the folder or its subfolders is selected. This is useful when you have a large library with nested folder structures, and you must scroll down a long list to verify if a subfolder is selected.

  • Not checked Not checked icon icon: Indicates that a folder nor any of its subfolders are selected.
  • Checked Checked icon icon: Indicates that the folder is selected. When you deselect the checkbox the following events occur:
    • If auto-select subfolders is active, then the box clears, and any selected subfolder is deselected.
    • If auto-select subfolders is not active and:
      • If none of the subfolders are selected, then the box clears.
      • If one or more subfolders are selected, then the box changes to partially checked. If the top-level folder is partially selected then the checkbox on the top-level folder clears.

    • Note: The "Auto-Select Subfolders" option will be enabled for any users that do not currently have a preference set or have reset their preferences

  • Partially checked Partially checked icon icon: Indicates that one or more subfolders is selected. Click to clear the checkbox and deselect any selected subfolders and partially selected top level folders.

The "Auto-Select Subfolders" option will be enabled for any users that do not currently have a preference set or have reset their preferences. Selecting and deselecting folders affects search results in the following ways:

  • When you select a folder, only the content records in that folder are searched. The subfolders and the content records in them are not searched unless they are selected.
  • When you run a search without selecting any folders in the library all the folders in the library are searched including the unassigned content records. Unassigned records are orphaned records that used to be in a folder that was deleted.
  • To search all folders in the library excluding unassigned records. Enable auto-select subfolders and select the checkbox on the top-level Content Library folder to select all the folders and subfolders in the library.
  • To deselect all the selected library folders from a search, clear the checkbox on the Content Library folder.
  • To search multiple folders, select the folders manually. Enable auto-select subfolders to select all the subfolders automatically.
  • To remove multiple folders from being searched, deselect the folder manually. Enable auto-select subfolders to deselect all the subfolders automatically.

Note: When you want to select or deselect folders manually ensure that auto-select subfolders is not activated in Folder Settings.

Search Results

The number of folders you select in the library displays in parenthesis at the top besides the "Folders" tab. The number of content records in a folder that match the search terms, display in a blue bubble. Click the bubble to view only the search results from that folder.

  1. To search for a specific folder, enter the folder name into the Find a Folder... search box and click the Search Search icon icon or Enter.
  2. Once the desired folders and parameters are found, click the Search button at the bottom of the panel.
  3. View the folder's contents. For more information, see Browse the Library Folders.

Tip: The number displayed to the right of each folder represents the number of records you can view depending on your permissions.

Next tasks:

  • If you cannot find the content record you were seeking, try an advanced search.
  • Once you have found your content record, you can perform multiple actions on it such as Edit, Download, Export, and Preview.