How does a quick search work?
WebCATS provides a quick search filter for client and contact records. This filter lets you:
- Search for client records by ID, company name, company e-mail, or primary point of contact first and/or last name
- Search for contact records by point of contact first and/or last name or e-mail address
The quick search feature is available from two locations in WebCATS. The most prominent location is at the top of the client or contact record summary screen. The other location is from the Views field's drop-down menu. Both of these locations are highlighted in the following graphic.
Depending on the global configurations in place for your program, these two quick search features may not perform the same search. It's possible that the Quick Search field at the top of the screen may only return records from the current active center while the "[Quick Search]" option from the Views drop-down menu can return records from all centers. Other possible configurations are that both quick search features search across all centers or, conversely, both are restricted to the current active only.
You'll be able to see which configuration is in place for your program for each quick search feature based on (1) the available center search criterion (when using the "[Quick Search]" picklist option under the Views field) and (2) how returned records are labeled in the Views field (when using the Quick Search field that is present from the client or contact record summary view). Both of these are illustrated in the below graphic.
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To perform a quick search, enter the company name, e-mail address, first and/or last contact name, or ID you are searching for. You can search for multiple keywords, but if you do, all keywords must be present in the name, e-mail address, or ID fields in order for it to be returned as a match.
Your search terms will generate matches when they appear anywhere in the fields being searched; for example, entering the keyword "smith" for a quick search will cause your search to match on records that contain "smith" by itself or as part of a bigger word such as "smithson." You do not need to enter any wildcard characters at the beginning or end of your keyword(s) in order for this to occur.
Note: Searches are not case sensitive, nor are their results influenced by any other filters you may have in place at the time you perform a quick search.
Configuring Quick Searches
If you're a system administrator and want to change your program's quick search configurations, you can do so from the WebCATS tab of WinCATS' global configurations. On this tab is a field titled Client/Contact Quicksearch and it offers four configurations that affect how restrictive or unrestrictive the search is:
- (Disabled). When this option is selected, the Quick Search field is not present from the client or contact record summary view. And the "[Quick Search]" picklist option under the Views field only allows searching of those records belonging to the current center.
- All centers (global). When this option is selected, the Quick Search field present on the client or contact record summary view searches records belonging to all centers. The "[Quick Search]" picklist option under the Views field also offers a global center search, but defaults to the current center only.
- Current center only (but allow global). When this option is selected, the Quick Search field present on the client or contact record summary view searches records belonging to the current center only. The "[Quick Search]" picklist option under the Views field offers the current center only search, but defaults to the global center search.
- Current center only (global not allowed). Both the Quick Search field present on the client or contact record summary view and the "[Quick Search]" picklist option under the Views field are restricted to searching records belonging to the current center only.