The navigation menu provides access to nearly every function of CiviCRM organized by individual CiviComponents (such as Contributions, Events and Mailings) . To the left of the navigation menu is the Quick search field (with the magnifying glass and “Name/Email” search prompt.).
To describe the paths to various functions, I’ll use “>” to separate actions or selections, starting with the top level menu. For example, the screen below is represented as “Search > Find Contacts” later in this document.
SEARCH
There are four essential ways to search, Quick search box, Find Contacts, Advanced Search and Search Builder.
Quick search box. Fastest method using predictive text. Begin typing “Last Name, First Name” or email address of contact. Point and click on one of the auto-complete options, or hit [ENTER] for all results. To refine the search, click the “Edit Search Criteria” bar to add or subtract criteria.
Find Contacts (Search > Find Contacts) is a subset of Advanced Search used for routine searching including name/email, Contact Type, Groups and Tags. Groups are a key organizing principle for CiviCRM. ALSD does not consistently use Tags.
Advanced Search (Search > Advanced Search) allows you to search against any criteria in the database. In addition to Groups and Tags, you can also search for Contact ID, membership status, participant status, address, email domain, etc.
You can also use a wild card (“%”) with Advanced Search searches. For example, you can find all people with an “Premium” in their Job Title by searching for “%premium%”.
Some reports, notably Mailing Reports, include links to related Advanced Searches. This aides significantly in the creation of Groups or the tagging of contacts for re-targeting or excluding contacts from subsequent messaging (e.g., exclude registered guests from additional “Hotel Closing” messaging).
Search Builder is a powerful query building tool that allows you to create highly specific searches using additional logical operators on all available fields.
Because Search Builder is essentially constructing a query for on-screen display, some basic knowledge of logical operators and wildcards is helpful. In most cases, using the operators “Like” or “Not Like” are the best for wildcard text searches.