Searching with cSearch

The content of this website is last updated to F2 version 12. cBrain are working hard on supplying you with the newest documentation of F2.

To open the cSearch window in F2, click on cSearch in the case, record, or main window ribbon or use the keyboard shortcut F4.

Figure 1. The "cSearch" menu item

cSearch searches all of F2, meaning both the “Archive”, “My private records”, “My deleted records”, and “Library”.

Figure 2. The cSearch window

In accordance with F2’s access control, cSearch only finds results which you can access.

Simple search

Enter a single word in the cSearch search field, e.g. minutes, to perform a search across all cases, records, documents, etc. which include the word.

Enter multiple words in the field, e.g. minutes meeting, to perform a search across cases, records, documents, etc. which include both words.

cSearch displays an excerpt of each result with the search word(s) bolded, letting you see the context at a glance.

Figure 3. A simple search in cSearch

Click the search field and press the down arrow key to open a list of metadata search fields. A selected metadata field is highlighted in blue.

Figure 4. Metadata search fields in cSearch

Using the asterisk

The asterisk "*" functions as a wildcard, i.e. as a stand-in for any number of characters. This means that searching for public* yields results beginning with "public", including "publication" and "publicity".

cSearch automatically adds an implicit asterisk after the search string. This means that entering public and public* yield the same results. If you don’t want to use the wildcard function, add a space after the search string. For example, searching for public will yield records, cases, documents, etc. containing the text string public, but excluding publication and publicity.

The above only applies to a certain number of metadata fields. It is not applicable when selecting metadata fields such as Record type:, Deadline:, or similar fields for which the search input is limited.

Using the question mark

The question mark "\?" functions as a wildcard for a single character. Searching for e.g. Eri?a will yield results containing both Erica and Erika.

Searching for text strings

In cSearch, searching for text strings is limited to the “Title”, “Content” and metadata fields. cSearch automatically searches these fields when the user enters text in the search field.

When searching for text strings, cSearch only yields results in which the entire string appears in the same category. This means that a search for communications officer will only yield results in which both words appear in the same field, e.g. “Content”. Objects in which officer appears in “Content” and communications appears in “Title” are not included.

In a search for multiple words, e.g. application position, an asterisk is automatically added at the end of the string. To avoid the wildcard function, add a space at the end.

cSearch does not consider the word order of the search text. This means that performing a search for the words in the above paragraph (with no space at the end) yields results such as “Application for the position of communications officer” and “RE: The position of communications officer (application #2)”.

To search for an ordered text string, use quotation marks, e.g. “application for the position”. This will yield results that matches the word order of the text in the quotation marks exactly.

cSearch does not automatically add an asterisk in searches with text in quotation marks.

Searching with AND, OR, NOT

When searching for multiple words, cSearch only shows results which contain all the entered search words. This can be adjusted using the logical operators AND, OR and NOT.

Operator Example

Operator	Example
AND	A search for `job AND application` will find records, documents, etc. containing both the word job and application.
OR	A search for `job OR application` will find records, documents, etc. containing either the word job or application.
NOT	A search for `job NOT application` will find records, documents, etc. containing the word job, but not the word application.

AND

A search for job AND application will find records, documents, etc. containing both the word job and application.

A search for job OR application will find records, documents, etc. containing either the word job or application.

NOT

A search for job NOT application will find records, documents, etc. containing the word job, but not the word application.

The operators must be capitalised. cSearch does not add an asterisk to searches with AND, OR, or NOT.

Using parentheses

cSearch contains various metadata search fields which are described in later sections. When using metadata search fields, cSearch groups the search words as follows: A search for from:Klaus agenda yields results with Klaus in the “From” field and agenda* as free text in various fields.

Parentheses can be added to change this grouping. A search for from:(Klaus Salomon) yields results with Klaus Salomon in the “From” fields in F2.

Searching with intervals

cSearch uses brackets when searching for intervals.

For example, it is possible to search for records with a deadline between January 1st and July 1st by entering deadline:[1-1-2025 1-7-2025], or to search for records with an ID number between 100 and 400 by searching for id:[100 400].

Date intervals

The “Created”, “Deadline”, and “Letter date” fields contain special syntax to make it easier to search for intervals, such as deadline:Yesterday, deadline:Today, deadline:Tomorrow, and deadline:-3 (up to three days ago). You can display these options by typing deadline: in the search field, along with suggestions from your search history.

Figure 5. Search for “Deadline”

Extended search

If a normal search does not yield the expected result, the search may be broadened by switching to Extended search via the drop-down menu as shown below.

Figure 6. Switch to extended search

An Extended search finds words related to the entered search word in two ways:

Search for synonyms. Searching for report will also include results containing words such as account and paper.
Search for words similar to the search word. Searching for situaion (note the missing “t”) will also include results containing situation because of the similarity between the two words.

As with a normal search, an extended search lets you use operators and metadata fields.

cSearch comes with a thesaurus. After an extended search, the included synonyms can be viewed by clicking the

icon as shown above. An administrator may add more synonyms.