· Search (find)
Use First Look Pro’s updated Search command to perform a Quick Search, a “Search By Example,” or an “Advanced Search” of your preplans. The group of records found with a search can be saved to an .XML file and quickly retrieved later using the Saved Searches command found on the Search Menu.
For all of the Search methods, you must choose which field you want to search. Use the drop-down menu on the upper-right of the list to choose whether to search the Occupant, Address 1, City, or Preplan ID field.
Quick Search
Two methods of searching are available using the Quick Search option: “Starts With” and “Contains”
The “Starts With” search method
In this method, typing in the search box moves the cursor (highlight bar) to the first record on the list where the selected search field starts with the letters typed.
Click the “Starts With” radio button to choose the Search Type.
Use the Search/Sort By drop-down list to select which field you want to search, the Occupant field in this example.
Click in the Search text field and type: kenwood
With each letter you type, the search is narrowed to find the field that starts with those letters. The highlight cursor moves to the first record whose Occupant field starts with k, then ke, then ken, and so on. If needed, you can also use the scroll bar and arrows on the right of the list to see additional records containing the keyword.
When the desired record is highlighted, click the OK button to open the record. Alternately, you may double-click the desired record in the list to open it.
Note: Click Cancel to close the Search screen without navigating to a particular record.
The “Contains” search Method
In this method, as letters are typed into the search field the search is narrowed, bringing up the first record that contains those letters. Clicking “Next” automatically scrolls to the next record that contains the letters.
For example,
Click the Contains radio button to select the Search Type.
Use the Search/Sort By drop-down list to select which field you want to search, the Occupant field in this example.
Click in the Occupant field and type “Madeira”.
The highlight bar scrolls the list to the first record that contains the key word Madeira in the Occupant field.
Once you find the desired record, double click it or click the button to open that record.
Note: If the correct record cannot be found with the Quick Search method, use the Search By Example or Advanced Search features to refine your search options.
Search By Example
Search By Example allows you to be very specific about how you search for records. With this method, you select the Search Type (“Starts With” or “Contains”) and then enter the search criteria in one or more of the displayed fields.
For example, suppose you want to find all the schools in your database. Using Search By Example, enter a Search Type of “Contains” and enter the word “school” in the Occupant field. When you click Preview, any record with “school” in its name is displayed. Click OK to view just those records in First Look Pro. You could narrow the Search even further by also entering a street name in the Address1 field. Then only schools on that street would be found.
Search By Example allows you to search for records by entering example text in one or more of the following fields:
Occupant
PrePlan ID
Address 1
Address 2
City
State
Zip
Map Page
Last Inspection
To perform a Search By Example:
Select Search By Example from the top of the Search dialog.
Click the radio button to select the Search Type: either Starts With or Contains.
Click in each of the desired fields and enter the example text for the search criteria - in this example type “Madeira” in the occupant field and “FP2” in the PrePlan ID field.
Click the Preview button to see the results of the search. Here, the search found all the records with Madeira in the Occupant name and FP2 in the Preplan.
Click the OK button to open this group of records in the First Look Pro main screen.
Note: Click the Save As button to save the search results to an .XML file format. The saved query can then be opened again at any time using the Saved Searches command found on the Search Menu pull-down menu.
Advanced Search
Advanced Search offers Boolean Search options for refining your query to improve the search results. Although Boolean search tools are somewhat complex, most professionals prefer them, because they can compose more precise queries that way.
For example say you want to search for an occupant that has Indian Hill in the keyword phrase:
Click the drop-down arrow in the Field cell to display the menu and select Occupant from the list.
Click the drop-down arrow in the Condition Field cell to display the menu and select “is like” from the list.
Click in the Value field and type: Indian Hill
Conditions significantly improve the odds of finding records that you want. If you are searching for a record that you know contains the key phrase “Indian Hill”, selecting the condition “is like” will preview all the records that include the phrase Indian Hill in the occupant field.
Click the Preview button to display the results of the search.
The results display every record with an instance of Indian Hill in the occupant field.
Since most database can be quite large this type of search may produce a sizable number of records found. What if you wanted to find the record just for Indian Hill Church?
The wildcard field (located just below the Operation/ Where field) allow you to refine your search by adding an “And/OR” association to the existing values you have entered.
When using the “And” wildcard the search broadens to include the additional terms you enter.
When using the “Or” wildcard the search includes alternate terms that you enter.
For example, we have already searched on the phrase Indian Hill, but what if we want to refine that search to include a particular address?
Click the drop-down arrow in the Wildcard field and choose the And option from the list.
Click the drop-down arrow in the Field cell to display the menu and select Address 1 from the list.
Click the drop-down arrow in the Condition Field cell to display the menu and select “is like” from the list.
Click in the Value field and type: 7100
Click the Preview button to display the results of the search.
Other Conditions
Search interprets the And /Or association between terms and broadens a search. When unrestricted, it can produce an enormous number of hits. That is, it will display all the records that include the keywords. But what if you are interested in records pages that do not include the phrase 7100?
Is Not Like, excludes the use of the term in the search for the field you have selected. It is used to reduce a large number of hits when other searches have failed.
When applied to the search example we used above, selecting the condition “is not like” with a value of 7100 will cause all records containing 7100 in the address 1 field to be omitted from the search results.
You have asked for a search for an occupant named Indian Hill, but without an address of 7100. Here's how Advances Search looks using the Boolean search method:
Occupant is like Indian Hill AND NOT an Address 1 of 7100.
A search engine would interpret this Boolean expression in the following way:
"The user wants me to show all records that include the word Indian Hill, but he or she wants me to subtract pages that include the word 7100.
The operator AND means that the field that is selected has to be in the text of the records to be listed. Records including the Value following Is Not Like will not be listed.
