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Onboarding - VC Search Basics (Video)

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This document explains how to perform basic and advanced searches in Virtual Cabinet, including using keyword and index-based searches, managing search results, saving and reusing searches, searching from Outlook, and using powerful content and Boolean search options so documents are easy to locate and never lost.

 

Understand the Search Screen Layout

The search screen contains several key areas you will use throughout the process:

  • A ribbon toolbar with buttons along the top of the window
  • A central keyword search box for entering general search terms
  • A search results panel in the middle to display matching documents
  • A search criteria panel on the left, showing:
  • The cabinets and folders you can search within
  • The indexes (fields) you can search on

 

Perform a Basic Keyword Search Across All Cabinets

Enter a simple keyword, such as bank, into the central keyword search box, then either:

  • Click the Search button, or
  • Press Enter on your keyboard

The keyword search:

  • Runs across all cabinets you have access to
  • Searches all indexes on each document

Any documents that match will appear in the search results panel. Be aware that this broad search can return more results than you actually need.

 

Use the Search Criteria Panel to Target Your Search

Use the search criteria panel on the left for more powerful, targeted searches:

  • The upper part lists all cabinets and folders you can search in
  • The lower part shows the indexes available for the currently selected cabinet or folder

To search the entire system (all documents in all cabinets), select Virtual Cabinet at the top of the list.

To search within a single cabinet:

  1. Select the specific cabinet from the list.
  2. Review the lower half of the panel, which now displays all indexes available for that cabinet.
  3. Use these index fields (e.g., client, document type, date) to narrow and target your search.
  4. Keep in mind that targeted index searches reduce load on your server:
    • Searching a million documents via a keyword across 40 indexes can be very intensive
    • Searching by a specific index field only asks the server to look in that single field on each document, which is far more efficient

You may notice that date fields (such as Document Date) are set to Range by default. This is controlled by your default operators and allows quick date range searches.

 

Apply Date Ranges and Other Useful Index Filters

When a date index is set to Range, you can quickly:

  1. Tick the checkbox next to the date field
  2. Select a From and To date to define your range

As you scroll through the index fields, selecting different sections (e.g., General) will update the available fields below to match what can be filed in that section.

Use these fields to refine your search further. Particularly useful indexes include:

  • File Extension
  • Date Range (for limiting results to specific periods)
  • Publish to Portal
  • The special email indexes at the bottom

The email-related indexes capture details in the background of emails, such as:

  • Email address
  • Date received

This allows you to search for emails from a specific person. If you do not remember the full email address, change the operator to Contains and type the part you remember. This will return correspondence documents relating to that person.

 

Choose and Switch Between Search Result Views

Use the view buttons in the top-right corner of the search results to change how results are displayed:

  • List View:
  • Shows results in a table
  • One document per row
  • Preview View:
  • Shows results in a table
  • Displays a preview of the first page of the selected document on the right-hand side
  • Thumbnail View:
  • Displays small thumbnail previews of each document in the results

You can gain more workspace by auto-hiding the search criteria panel if needed.

To customize the columns:

  • Right-click any column header to show or hide data columns
  • Drag a column header left or right to reorder the columns

 

Group, Sort, and Filter Search Results

To make large result sets easier to navigate, you can group, sort, and filter:

Group documents:

  1. Drag a column header (e.g., Client, Document Type) to the area labeled
    “Drag a column header here to group by that column”.
  2. Create multiple groups and subgroups by dragging additional headers into this area.
  3. To remove a grouping, drag the header out of the grouping box.

Sort documents:

  • Click a column header once to sort by that column (ascending or descending).
  • A small arrow appears showing the sort direction.
  • Click the same header again to reverse the sort direction.

Filter documents:

  • Click in the blank space directly below a column header.
  • Type the text you want to filter by (e.g., bank in the Description column).

Filtering is extremely powerful for pinpointing specific documents. A recommended approach is:

  1. Use index fields to find the document type and client.
  2. Use the Description filter to type exactly what you are looking for.
  3. Use the Preview pane to confirm you have located the correct document.

 

Move from Basic to Advanced Searching

Up to this point, you have learned:

  • The layout of the search screen
  • How to use indexes and default operators
  • How search results are displayed
  • How to group, sort, and filter results

The next steps focus on advanced searching techniques that help you work faster and ensure documents are never lost in Virtual Cabinet.

 

Choose and Save Your Preferred Indexes

When Virtual Cabinet is selected at the top of the cabinet list, you can define which indexes you always want to see:

  1. Click Choose My Indexes.
  2. Select the indexes you commonly search on (for example, Client Name and Document Entry Date).
  3. Click OK.
  4. Close and reopen the search tab.

From then on, those chosen index fields will load by default each time you open the search tab.

You can also:

  1. Choose indexes such as Publish to Portal.
  2. Set Publish to Portal as a search criterion and run a search.

This returns all documents currently published to the portal, which is particularly useful if you use the portal system regularly.

To navigate date fields more efficiently (without opening the full calendar control):

  • Place your cursor in a date field.
  • Use the Up or Down arrow keys to cycle through days, months, or years quickly.

Run your search to find, for example, all documents from the last 18 months.

You can now also launch and manage saved searches directly from the search screen:

  • Treat saved searches like bookmarks in a web browser.
  • Create saved searches for frequently used clients or common search criteria.
  • Launch them with a single click from the search tab or from the bottom of your home screen.

 

Customize Views and Columns for Advanced Navigation

As discussed earlier, you can switch between List, Preview, and Thumbnail views and hide the search criteria panel to gain space.

In any of these views, you can:

  • Right-click column headers to show or hide columns
  • Drag column headers to change their order

For example:

  • Resize and reposition the Email Attachment column.
  • Move the Version and File ID columns closer together.
  • Reposition a “blocker” field from the far left to another position.

If you bring the Preview pane back into view, you will notice “Excel freeze panes”-style behavior, allowing key fields on the left to remain visible while you scroll horizontally.

You can also group by Client (or a similar client section field) to create a folder-like structure within the results.

If desired, right-click and uncheck the Client column to gain more horizontal space, since you are already using it as a grouping field.

Next, adjust the ordering of documents:

  • By default, Document Entry Date may be sorted in descending order within each group.
  • Click on the Client grouping/column to sort clients in descending alphabetical order, resulting in groups such as Accounts and Audit, Company Secretarial, and General.

To apply a secondary sort within those groups:

  1. Hold down the Shift key.
  2. Click another column (e.g., Document Type) to group or sort document types together.

Using Shift + Click allows you to define multi-level sort orders, which Virtual Cabinet will remember next time.

 

Search from Within Outlook

When viewing an indexed email in Outlook with the Virtual Cabinet pane open, you can see all the indexes associated with where that email was filed.

If you click on an index such as Client Name, Virtual Cabinet will perform a “bond search” and show all results for that client directly from Outlook.

 

Enable and Use Content Searching

Content searching helps when you have forgotten where a document was filed or need to locate information quickly within document text.

  1. Select the relevant cabinet (e.g., the Client filing cabinet).
  2. Click the Search Content button; it will turn gray when enabled.
  3. Enter your search terms in the Keyword search box.

For example, search for Thomas Norfolk. Virtual Cabinet will search the content of documents in the selected cabinet for:

  • Thomas
  • Norfolk
  • Or both together

Click Search to run the content search. The results will:

  • List matching documents
  • Highlight in black the occurrences of your search terms within the relevant paragraphs

Click a hyperlink in the results to open a document directly at the location where “Thomas” and “Norfolk” appear.

In this advanced section, you have covered:

  • Choosing your own indexes
  • Navigating date fields
  • Saving searches
  • Grouping, filtering, and ordering results
  • Searching from Outlook
  • Content searching

 

Use Boolean Searches for Precise Content Matching

Boolean searching provides very precise control over content searches and is the most advanced search feature in Virtual Cabinet.

Exact phrase search:

If you want to find documents containing the exact phrase “Thomas Norfolk”:

  1. Type "Thomas Norfolk" (with double quotes) in the keyword box.
  2. Click Search.

This ensures Virtual Cabinet looks for Thomas directly next to Norfolk, returning only documents with that exact phrase.

Search for documents containing multiple terms:

To find documents that contain both Thomas and Samantha (anywhere in the document):

  1. Type Thomas AND Samantha in the keyword box.
  2. Ensure AND is in capital letters.
  3. Click Search.

The results will include only documents where both names appear.

Conversely, to find documents that contain Thomas but not Samantha:

  1. Type Thomas NOT Samantha in the keyword box, with NOT in capitals.
  2. Click Search.

This returns documents where Thomas is mentioned but Samantha is not.

You can also use wildcard and “fuzzy” matching:

Wildcard searches:

  • Searching for "test" (in quotes) returns only documents that contain the exact word test.
  • Searching for test* (with an asterisk, no quotes) returns documents containing words that start with test, such as testing and testament.

Fuzzy (similar) searches using the tilde (~):

  • Searching for word~ will return documents with close variations such as ward and wording, depending on similarity.

 

 

Combine Index-Based and Content Searches

For maximum precision, combine index filters with content search terms.

For example:

  1. In the index panel, set Description to live.
  2. Enable Search Content.
  3. In the keyword box, type Thomas.
  4. Click Search.

Virtual Cabinet will return documents:

  • Whose Description index contains live, and
  • Whose content contains the word Thomas.

 

This combined approach allows you to pinpoint exactly the documents you need, using both structured index data and full-text content searching.

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