Search - Introduction

This section introduces the different Query tools in Openlaw, and shows you how to pick one and how to set a default Query. It also summarises the purpose of the different Queries.

Almost every function of Openlaw operates only over the current Selection - the sub-set of Items which were the result of the last Query or which were loaded as a Bundle.

The picture shows the button on the Control Panel which gives access to the Query Functions, and shows that there are currently 15 Items selected out of a possible 25 Items.

Picking a Query

There are several Query tools. The picture shows the list which appears if you take <Find> from the Control Panel menu.

There are separate sections on each of these options - see the section The Query Options below.

Available Queries and Setting a Default

There are two levels of customisation which affect what you see on this Menu and what your default Query is:

There is a Licence Option which an Administrator can use to make Queries unavailable to users either because they are not relevant or because they are customisable options which have not been taken for the Case.

One of the User-Changeable Settings on the Set Menu allows you to choose a default Query, that is, the one which comes up when you press the binoculars button on the Control panel.

The next picture shows how you pick one of the options as your default.

The norm is that all users have all Queries available to them, with Quick Query as the default option.

If you take, say, Quick Query, then that is the Query option which will come up by default when you press the binoculars button <Make a new Selection>. You can choose any other Query Option from the Find menu, and this will persist until you end the session or pick a new default. The Query you choose here will be the default when you next start up the Case.

The Query Options

Quick Query allows selection by reference to key fields only and offers only limited index orders. It will meet many of the search requirements for everyday use.

Most of the other Queries focus on specific sources of information in a fixed range of index orders.

The Alias Names Query is a quick way of searching by reference to the Names of e.g. Sender and Recipient.

The Notes (and Keywords) Query find Items by using words or phrases dropped into the Notes field.

The Categories Query allows searches by any permutation of the Check Boxes on the Categories tab.

The Site Comments Query limits the searches to comments dropped into the Site Comments field on the Text tab.

The Text Query allows you to search for specific text in the Text Box on the Text Tab and/or for the contents of any text or memo field.

The Query Wizard is a sophisticated tool which allows you to make Selections by reference to any permutation of fields, and to choose any index order, or combination of index orders, in which to display them.

All the Queries allow sub-queries of Bundles.

The Query Wizard (Custom) and Quick Query (Custom) are customisable search tools which are only available to users who have specified their own requirements e.g. for a limited number of fields to be available. This is a chargeable variant made available in the licence file.

There is a separate section on searching OCR text.