Use the search bar to find documents by typing a few words, or get precise by searching a specific field, combining conditions and more. This guide explains everything the search bar understands, with examples.

Note: This article covers the new AODocs search, powered by OpenSearch. If your domain still uses Legacy Search (App Engine), follow Run an advanced search instead. If you're not sure which search is used, contact AODocs Support.

Automatically generated table of contents

Which search am I using?

AODocs is moving from Legacy Search (App Engine) to a new search powered by OpenSearch. The search syntax in this article only works with the new search. You can't tell from the interface which search is used: to find out, contact AODocs Support.

In a nutshell

I want to…	Type this
Find documents containing a word anywhere	`invoice`
Find documents containing all of several words	`invoice paris`
Find an exact phrase	`"purchase order"`
Search one field	`title:invoice`
Match a field exactly	`Status="In review"`
Exclude something	`invoice -draft` or `invoice NOT draft`
Either/or	`Country:(France OR Germany)`
Compare a number or date	`Amount>=1000`, `creation_date<2025-01-01`
Search a range	`Amount:100 to 500`
Find documents where a field is blank	`empty:Reviewer`

Searching everything (free text)

Type words without a field name and AODocs looks across the document's text properties (title, text and string fields, people, categories, reference values, URLs, folder names, …) and, if you extend the search to attachment content, the text inside attachments. Table cells are searched too.

This is a scope option users can select: search in metadata only, or extend search to attachment content.

Query	What it finds
`contract`	Documents with the word "contract" in any searchable property
`contract renewal`	Documents that contain both words (they can be in different properties). Documents where the words appear together as a phrase rank higher.
`"contract renewal"`	Only documents where the words appear next to each other, in that order
`john.doe@example.com`	Documents linked to that person, in any person property
`2025-04-14`	Documents with that date in any date property
`1250.50`	Documents with that number in any number property

Good to know:

Punctuation usually splits words, so real-time is searched as real and time.
Searching from inside a single library or class does not search library or class names. Searching across libraries does.
Cross-library search also uses the new search. It is faster and works whatever the attachment storage solution of your libraries, provided their attachments are indexed by the new search.
Boolean (yes/no) and location properties are not part of free-text search. Use a field search for those.

Searching a specific field

Put the field name, an operator and a value together, with no need for spaces around the operator.

fieldName:value
fieldName=value
fieldName:~value

Operator	Meaning	Example
`:`	Contains: the field contains this word or phrase	`title:invoice`
`=`	Equals: the whole field value is exactly this	`Status="In review"`
`:~`	Contains, with word variations (English): also finds "dogs" for "dog"	`comment:~dog`
`<` `<=` `>` `>=`	Compare numbers, dates and date-times	`Amount>=1000`
`a to b`	Range, from `a` to `b`	`Amount:100 to 500`

If a field name contains spaces, put it in double quotes:

"Total Amount">=1000
"Contract end date"<2026-01-01

Field names must be typed exactly as they are displayed (including capital letters).

Several values for one field

Group them in parentheses after the operator:

Country:(France OR Germany OR Spain)      # any of these
Item:(banana AND apple)                   # both values present (multi-value fields)
Status=("In review" OR Approved)          # equals either

Parentheses groups work with :, = and :~. They do not work with <, >, <= or >=.

Combining conditions

Operator	Meaning	Example
space or `AND`	Both must match	`invoice Country:France`
`OR`	At least one must match	`invoice OR receipt`
`NOT` or `-`	Must not match	`invoice NOT draft`, `invoice -draft`
`( )`	Group conditions	`invoice (France OR Germany)`

Rules to remember:

AND, OR and NOT must be written in capitals. In lowercase they are searched as ordinary words.
NOT needs a space after it. The - shortcut is attached to what it negates: -Country:France.
Negative numbers are fine: -42 is the number minus 42, not "NOT 42".
OR binds more tightly than AND. The order of evaluation is NOT, then OR, then AND (or a space). So a AND b OR c means a AND (b OR c), which is not what most people expect. When in doubt, add parentheses.
The word to is only special between two numbers, dates or times (10 to 20). stairway to heaven works as normal text.

Searching by field type

Which operators work depends on the type of the property. The table gives the overview; details follow.

Property type	`=`	`:`	`:~`	`<` `>` `<=` `>=`	`to` range	`empty:`
Text / String	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	✅
Person	✅	✅	✅ (same as `:`)	❌	❌	✅
Date	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅	✅
Date & time	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅	✅
Time	✅	✅	✅ (same as `=`)	❌	❌	✅
Integer	✅	✅ (same as `=`)	✅	✅	✅	✅
Decimal	✅	✅ (same as `=`)	✅	✅	✅	✅
Yes/No	✅	✅ (same as `=`)	❌	❌	❌	✅
URL	✅ (link only)	✅	✅	❌	❌	✅
Category	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅
Reference catalog	✅	✅ (same as `=`)	❌	❌	❌	✅
Location	use `distance(...)`					✅

An operator that a property type does not support simply finds nothing.

Text and string properties

title:invoice               # the word "invoice" appears in the title
title:"purchase order"      # those words, next to each other and in this order
title:~invoice              # also matches variations such as "invoices"
Reference="INV-2025-001"    # the whole value is exactly this

title:dog matches "dog" and "dog food" but not "dogs". Use :~ for variations.
:~ stemming is English only. It is not perfect: ~care finds "care" and "caring" but not "cares" or "cared".
With :~ and several words, all the words must be present, in any order.

People

Author:john.doe@example.com      # exact person
Author=john.doe@example.com      # exact email address required
Author:john.doe                  # any address with that user part
Author:example.com               # anyone from the example.com domain

People are matched on their email address only, not on their first or last name. Author:John will not find "John Smith" unless "john" is part of the email.

Dates

Dates are written YYYY-MM-DD, always with two digits for month and day (2025-04-05, not 2025-4-5).

DueDate:2025-04-14                       # on that day
DueDate>=2025-01-01                      # on or after
DueDate<2025-12-31                       # before
DueDate:2025-01-01 to 2025-03-31         # between the two (both included)

Note: a range needs two different dates, with the earlier first. For a single day, use DueDate=2025-04-14.

Dates and times

Date-and-time properties (such as creation_date and last_update_date) accept either a date or a date with time (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM, 24-hour). Put date-times in quotes.

creation_date:2025-04-14                       # any time during that day
creation_date:"2025-04-14 09:30"               # during that minute
creation_date>=2025-04-01                      # from the start of April 1st
creation_date<"2025-04-14 09:30"               # before that moment
creation_date:2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30         # April 1st through all of April 30th

When you give only a date, the whole day is used:

>2025-04-14 means after the end of April 14th.
<=2025-04-14 means up to the end of April 14th.

Tip: To search a whole year (or month), use a range: creation_date:2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31. A year or month on its own (creation_date:2025, creation_date:2025-04) is not supported and finds nothing.

Time zones. Times you type are read in your time zone. To be explicit, add a zone to the time:

creation_date>="2025-04-14 09:30Z"               # UTC
creation_date>="2025-04-14 09:30+02:00"          # fixed offset
creation_date>="2025-04-14 09:30[Europe/Paris]"  # named time zone

Named time zones use the standard IANA "TZ identifier" (Region/City). You can find the full list in the "TZ identifier" column of the list of tz database time zones. Time zone names are case-sensitive and use underscores instead of spaces: write America/New_York, not america/new york. If the name is not recognized, the condition finds no results.

Plain date properties (without a time) are not affected by time zones.

Times

MeetingTime:11:50          # any time within 11:50 (11:50:00 to 11:50:59)

Time properties only support an exact-minute match. Comparisons (<, >) and ranges are not available.

Numbers (integer and decimal)

Quantity=12
Amount:157.25
Amount>=1000
Amount:100 to 500.50       # both ends included
Amount:~135.42             # 135.42 up to, but not including, 135.43
Amount:~8                  # 8.0 up to, but not including, 8.1

Use a dot as the decimal separator. Commas and thousands separators (10,000) make the query invalid. Write 10000.
Integer properties only match whole numbers: Quantity=8 and Quantity=8.0 both find 8, while Quantity=8.5 finds nothing.
: on a number is exactly =. Use :~ for the "starts with these decimals" behavior.
Write numbers in plain form. Scientific notation (1e3) is not supported.

Yes/No

Completed:true
Approved=false
NOT Archived:true

Matching is not case-sensitive. false also finds documents where the property has no value at all.

URLs

Website:example            # "example" in the link or in the display text
Website:~documentation     # also "documenting", … (display text only)
Website="https://example.com/docs"   # the exact link

= compares the link only, not the display text.

Reference catalogs

Supplier="Acme Corp"
Supplier:"Acme Corp"       # same thing

Both operators require the complete reference value, as displayed.

Folders

folder="Finance/2025"      # documents in exactly this folder
folder:Finance             # a folder path containing "Finance"

Locations (geopoint)

Find documents within, or beyond, a radius (in whole meters) of a point:

distance(Location, 48.8584, 2.2945) < 5000     # within 5 km of the Eiffel Tower
distance(Location, 48.8584, 2.2945) > 5000     # more than 5 km away

The format is distance(fieldName, latitude, longitude).
< and <= mean "within"; > and >= mean "farther than".
The distance must be a whole number of meters.
No other operator works with distance(...).

Finding blank (or filled) fields

empty:Reviewer             # Reviewer has no value
notEmpty:Reviewer          # Reviewer has a value
NOT empty:Reviewer         # same as notEmpty:Reviewer
empty:"Contract end date"  # quote names with spaces

This works with custom and system properties alike (for instance empty:checkedOutAt finds documents that are not checked out).

empty: only finds documents whose class actually has that property. If you search a whole library, documents from classes without the property are not returned.

Table properties

A table property holds rows and columns. Refer to a column as TableName/ColumnName, using the names as displayed:

Contacts/Email:alice@example.com
Contacts/Age>=18
"Order lines / Unit price">100          # quote names with spaces; spaces around "/" are fine
empty:Contacts/Role                     # a row where Role is blank

Conditions on the same table are matched row by row. If you combine conditions on columns of one table, one single row has to satisfy all of them:

Contacts/Email="alice@example.com" AND Contacts/Role="admin"

only finds documents with a row that is Alice and admin, not a document where Alice is in one row and an admin is another. This also applies to OR and NOT inside the same table.

Conditions on different tables, or on a table and a regular property, are independent: each side just has to match somewhere in the document.

Row-by-row matching only happens when the condition for that table is a self-contained group. In Contacts/Email="alice" AND (Contacts/Role="admin" OR title:foo), the title part prevents it, and the two Contacts conditions can match in different rows.

Table cells are also found by free-text search (except category and reference-catalog cells).

Special characters, quotes and escaping

Some characters mean something to the search bar. To search for them, put the text in double quotes, or put a backslash \ in front of the character.

Character	Why	Write
space	separates words	`"two words"`
`:` `=` `<` `>` `~`	operators	`\:` `\=` `\<` `\>` `\~` or in quotes
`*` `?`	reserved	`\*` `\?` or in quotes
`,` `+`	reserved	`\,` `\+` or in quotes
`"`	quote mark	`\"`
`\`	the escape character itself	`\\`
`(` `)` `!` and a lone `-`	grouping / operators	in quotes

Examples:

"A - B"                    # a dash between words: use quotes
title:"Q1: results"        # a colon inside a value
title:Q1\:results          # a colon inside a single word, escaped
notes:foo\"bar             # a literal double quote

Inside double quotes everything is taken literally except the closing double quote. A query that can't be understood (for example an unbalanced parenthesis foo ( bar, or a stray :) returns an error rather than results.

System properties

Every document has built-in properties you can search by name. Names are typed in lowercase/underscore form exactly as shown.

Name	Type	What it is
`title`	Text	Document title
`documentId`	ID	Document ID
`library`	Text	Library name (cross-library searches)
`libraryId`	ID	Library ID
`class`	Text	Document class name (cross-class and cross-library searches)
`classId`	ID	Class ID
`templateId`	ID	Template ID
`sequenceId`	Integer	Document sequence number
`creation_date`	Date & time	When the document was created
`last_update_date`	Date & time	When it was last modified
`created_by`	Person	Creator
`updated_by`	Person	Last editor
`state`	Text	Workflow state name
`state_id`	ID	Workflow state ID
`state_index`	Integer	Position of the workflow state
`stateChangeDate`	Date & time	When the state last changed
`stateChangeAuthors`	Person	Who changed the state
`checkedOutAt`	Date & time	When it was checked out
`checked_out_by`	Person	Who checked it out
`version`	Text	Version number
`version_description`	Text	Version description
`version_creation_date`	Date & time	When the current version was created
`version_creator`	Person	Who created the current version
`folder`	Folder	Parent folder
`mime_type_group`	ID	Type of the main file (document, image, …)
`numberOfAttachments`	Integer	Number of attachments
`fullSizeOfAttachments`	Integer	Total attachment size
`incomplete`	Yes/No	Has missing required values
`invalidValues`	Yes/No	Has invalid values
`hasEvaluationError`	Yes/No	Has a formula error
`draft`	Yes/No	Is a draft

"ID" properties (documentId, classId, …) are matched exactly: =, : and :~ all mean "equal to".

Examples

# Unsigned contracts expiring this quarter
class:Contract "Expiry date":2025-07-01 to 2025-09-30 NOT Signed:true

# Invoices over 1,000 from France or Germany, created in 2025
invoice Amount>1000 Country:(France OR Germany) creation_date:2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31

# Anything John edited, excluding drafts
updated_by:john.doe NOT draft:true

# Documents without an owner, in the Legal folder
empty:Owner folder:Legal

# Contracts with no expiry date
class:Contract empty:"Expiry date"

# Offices within 10 km of a point
distance(Location, 51.5072, -0.1276) <= 10000

# Orders with a row for product ABC that is not yet shipped (same row)
Orders/Product="ABC" AND NOT Orders/Status="Shipped"

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause
"Invalid query" / syntax error	Unbalanced parentheses, a special character that needs quotes or escaping (see Special characters, quotes and escaping), or a number written with a comma
No results for a field search	Field name not typed exactly as displayed; operator not supported by that property type; value not in the expected format (e.g. `2025-4-5`)
`AND` / `OR` ignored	Operators typed in lowercase
`a AND b OR c` gives surprising results	`OR` is evaluated before `AND`. Add parentheses: `(a AND b) OR c`
`dog` doesn't find "dogs"	Use `:~` (`title:~dog`)
Range finds nothing	The start must be earlier than the end, and a one-day range must use `=`
Can't find documents you know exist	You only see results for documents you have permission to access

Search syntax for the new AODocs search

Automatically generated table of contents

Which search am I using?

In a nutshell

Searching everything (free text)

Searching a specific field

Several values for one field

Combining conditions

Searching by field type

Text and string properties

People

Dates

Dates and times

Times

Numbers (integer and decimal)

Yes/No

URLs

Categories

Reference catalogs

Folders

Locations (geopoint)

Finding blank (or filled) fields

Table properties

Special characters, quotes and escaping

System properties

Examples

Troubleshooting

Comments

Automatically generated table of contents

Which search am I using?

In a nutshell

Searching everything (free text)

Searching a specific field

Several values for one field

Combining conditions

Searching by field type

Text and string properties

People

Dates

Dates and times

Times

Numbers (integer and decimal)

Yes/No

URLs

Categories

Reference catalogs

Folders

Locations (geopoint)

Finding blank (or filled) fields

Table properties

Special characters, quotes and escaping

System properties

Examples

Troubleshooting

Comments

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