What is Keyword Search?

The Keyword Search feature allows you to enter keywords or phrases into the search bar on the Search page. This powerful tool helps you quickly narrow your search to find relevant projects or companies.

How do I use Keyword Search?

Next to the Filters button you will see the search bar. This is where you can apply keywords to your search and choose what parts of the project you want to search within.

Type a keyword or phrase into the search bar.

Press enter or click the search icon to the right side of the search bar.

You can search within three separate categories: Name, Details, or Documents.

Below is a quick breakdown of each category:

Name

Searches for keywords within a project’s name.

Details

Searches for keywords from the following fields that provide details about a project:

• Project Name
• Project ID
• Solicitation #
• Status
• Sector
• Project Type
• Building Use (and sub-building uses)
• Address (street, city, state)
• Description
• Trade, Trade Division, and CSI Code
• GC Company Name

Documents

Searches for keywords within any of a project’s attached/related documents.

Before we go any further, here is a short video to show you how to do a keyword search: 

Smart Search vs. Exact Search

In Modernized Search, all keyword searches will use Smart Search by default, which includes different forms of the keyword to find more helpful results.

Smart Search Example:

Searching the word floor will return results that contain floor or variations, such as flooring or floors. 

If you want your results to be more precise, you can use what is known as an Exact Search.

To do an Exact Search, which looks only for the exact word or phrase, users can put quotation marks around their search terms. 

Exact Search Example:

Searching the word “floor” will show results with the exact word floor, but NOT words like flooring or floors.

Search Operators

When searching for keywords, you can include the AND or OR operators as well as wildcards to fine tune your search.

AND

Results will include ALL keywords.

Example: Searching for concrete AND flooring will return results containing both keywords, concrete and flooring.

Note: The default operator for a search is AND. This means a search with multiple keywords, not enclosed in quotation marks, will be treated as though they have an AND operator between then.

Example: Searching concrete flooring will be treated the same as concrete AND flooring.

OR

Includes results with at least one of the keywords.

Example: Searching concrete OR flooring will return results than contain either concrete, flooring, or both.

NOT

Excludes results that contain a keyword.

Example: Searching flooring NOT concrete will return results that only contain flooring and do not contain concrete.

Wildcards

You can also use what’s known as a “wildcard”. This helps if the user is unsure about the spelling or wants to find different versions of a word.

To use a wildcard, the user types the part of the word they know, then adds an asterisk (*) where the missing letters would go.

Wildcard Example:

 Searching arch* returns results including architect, arches, archs, etc.

Here is a quick video to show you how to use Keyword Search to find specific words mentioned within the documents: 

Related Articles