Advanced Search

Using 'codes' can help you get more accurate results when they are used in the search box.

Search Codes

There are several ways to modify and improve searches using 'codes'. Basic codes are the words AND, OR and NOT, but you can also use 'phrase' and 'strict order' codes.

Code words (AND, OR, NOT) must be in uppercase. They also have single character alternatives.

The 'AND' code

The 'AND' code is the default search type when no search code is applied. For example using the search term 'norfolk wildlife centre' is the same as searching for 'norfolk AND wildlife AND centre'. This search will give results where the caption contains all the words in any order.

You can also use the single character alternative '+' between the words, so 'norfolk+wildlife+centre' will produce the same results as 'norfolk AND wildlife AND centre'.

The 'OR' code

The 'OR' code must also be uppercase, and will give results where either or both of the search terms are in the caption.

Therefore, the search command 'Inspector OR ACO' will give results where a caption contains ‘inspector’ together with any that contain ‘aco’, as well as any that contain both words.

The pipe '|' character can be used as an alternative, so 'inspector|aco' will produce the same results.

The ‘NOT’ code

The ‘NOT’ code will exclude the term after the ‘NOT’ from the search. Therefore, the search term 'animal NOT centre' will give results that have 'animal' in the caption but will exclude any that have 'centre'.

Alternatively, a minus '-'  character can be used, like this: animal-centre

The 'Phrase' code (“”) 

The phrase search is used to find exact text matches by wrapping the search term in quote marks like this: “ABC DEF”.

Therefore the search term “RSPCA Inspector” will only give results that match this exact phrase in the caption.

The 'Strict Order' code (<<) 

'Strict order' searching gives results where the search terms appear in the order they are entered into the search box. For example the search 'RSPCA << Inspector' will give results where ‘RSPCA’ comes before ‘Inspector’ in the caption but not vice versa.

Searching across different fields

This is a powerful way to search the metadata fields by using codes in a single command. The Comms Hub uses the following fields:

Caption

Photographer

Date Shot

Category

Sub-category

The name of the field should be typed as they are shown above and in the Preview window. Field names and search terms are NOT case sensitive so capital letters can be ignored.

In its simplest form the search command is built like this: @{metadata field}:{search term}/

The code uses an '@' preceding the field name, followed by a colon ':' after the field name, followed by the search term and any codes, followed by a forward slash '/' to signify the end of the search term for that field.

So a simple search for ‘dog’ in the metadata field ‘Caption’ would be entered as: @Caption:dog/

This would return all assets with the word ‘dog’ in the ‘Caption’ metadata field only.

The forward slash '/' at the end allows spaces and phrases to be used within the search, like this: @Caption:animal NOT centre/

Combining commands

Searches in different metadata fields can be combined into a single command.

To find all assets with ‘dog’ in the ‘Caption’ field, and ‘2020’ in the ‘Date Shot’ field use the search term: @Caption:dog/ @Date Shot:2020/