By default, what determines where iManage WorkSite searches? …sounds like such a simple question. To begin, let’s assume that the FileSite client has been deployed with default settings… But I will **note where configuration could take you in a different direction.
On the surface…
Search location is a per-person context.
Most importantly, the location of a search is: the location where this user most recently searched with that search dialog.
For example, if search #N was within a workspace, then new search N+1 will be within that same workspace.
Or, if search #N was told to search within three databases, search N+1 will be within those samethree databases.
**If your desktop deployment includes a script for search.nrs or wssearch.nrs, this defaulting behavior could be quite different.
Next, I’ll talk about the user’s reset for the location, what determines that location, and some options for configuration.
To return to Square One
A user can wipe away the current context and jump back to the clean starting point. Two clicks on the ‘Clear’ button on the Search Dialog will blank all the search parameters and reset the Search Within location to its default value. Why two clicks? **That’s a different tangent…
Note: the search form at your firm may look quite different from this example. As part of the search form, the clear button could have been configured
- to sit in a different area of this form
- to display other words as its label.
**Regardless of its label, the clear button needs to be available on your search form somewhere.
But, where is Square One?
A per-desktop registry setting called SearchScopeDefault controls the starting value in the search location field. There are two behaviours to choose from here.
- Set to 0. This is the iManage as-installed behaviour. When this is in effect, the location field will be populated with the current user’s preferred database.
- Set to 1. The location field will be populated with all databases to which this user has login access.
As an administrator, you can use the server-side dbAdmin tool to see any user’s preferred database. If you discover that the preferred database is inconsistent from one database to the next, or is null, do not change it! You could disrupt that user’s Favourites, My Matters, etc. Ping me, and we can work together to scope out a brief consulting engagement to clear up the tangle with small-to-zero user impact.
How to set SearchScopeDefault
To switch between the preferred database and all databases, create or update the following Local Machine DWORD setting ‘SearchScopeDefault’.
Modifying the registry can cause serious system instability. Do not make changes lightly.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREInterwovenWorkSite8.0CommonOptions] DWORD SearchScopeDefault Default value 0 Set to 1 to populate with all libraries.
Documentation of this setting is provided in iManage’s 8.5 and 9.0 WorkSite Desktop Client Customization Guide.
Workspaces too
The Workspace Search form has behavior and configuration options very similar to document searches. Clear the form to return to your default search scope whatever that might be.
Contact me for assistance in deploying this configuration at your firm, or for further troubleshooting if it seems not to address your particular requirements. If I have already helped you with enough info to fix it on your own – leave a comment below.