There are a number of methods you can use to find content in the knowledge base.
Note: When you search, any comments associated with an article and post are also searched. Therefore, the search term might not be in an article or post itself, but in a linked comment.
- Find multiple words: Use double quotes (") around each word to find content that contains all those words.
For example,
"article" "title" "section" "author"retrieves content that contains all four words, in any order. Make sure you put spaces between the search words, otherwise the search handles the text as one string.You'll get hits if there is a stemmed version of a word (e.g. articles). You won't get hits where content contains only the words title and section, for example.Note: If you use single quotes (') around a word, the single quotes are ignored. If you search for'article' 'title' 'section' 'author', you'll see hits for all content that contains any of the words title or article or section or author(exactly as if you had searched without the single quotes). - Find a phrase: Use double quotes (") around a phrase to find content that contains all the words in that phrase.
For example,
"article title"retrieves all content that contains the words article and title, in that order. You'll also get hits if there is a stemmed version of the word (e.g. articles). You won't get hits where content contains only the word title, for example.Note: If you use single quotes (') around a phrase, the single quotes are ignored. - Exclude results containing certain words: Use the minus operator (-) in front of the search term to find every article or post that does not include that word or phrase.
For example,
reporting bugs -supportreturns content containing the words reporting and bugs, but excludes those that contain the word support from the result set. - Combine operands for advanced search: you can combine the operands above to find a very specific set of results.
For example,
"reporting bugs" -supportreturns hits for content that contains both the words reporting and bugs, but does not contain the word support.
Using the search filters
You can use the search results filter panel to refine the content that appears in the search results pane. Filters appear as bolded headings that display the content groupings within that filter and the number of search results for each content group.
You can select the following filter options to control the content that is displayed on the search results page.
Note: The filter options available to you depend on your help center configuration and enabled features. The filter options described below appear if you've enabled multiple help center search and external content. If you do not have these features, some filters will not appear.
- Source - Search results grouped by their point of origin. Your native help center is a default source. Additional sources are defined during multiple help center enablement and Federated Search configuration. If content from only one source is relevant to the search, the content from that source will be selected by default and the source filter will not appear. The source filter can contain one or more of the following:
- All sources - Content from the native help center and, if configured, other help centers and external content.
- Other help center brands in the account - Search results from each help center brand, if multiple help centers are enabled and search has been configured to include results from those help centers.
- External content - Content from external sources that match the search query (for example website name). This filter is available only if Federated Search is enabled and search has been configured to include results from external content. External content sources are defined during search crawler setup or through the Federated Search API. See About Zendesk Federated Search.
- Type - Search results grouped by the kind of content that the search result is. Articles are a default content type and will always appear. Additional types appear if a community is enabled (Community posts) and if there are external content of other types in your search results. The Type filter can contain one or more of the following:
- All Types - Content from all defined types in your application.
- Articles - Help center articles that match the search query. Articles can originate from either the native help center or other help centers in your account, if multiple help center search is enabled (see Enabling search across multiple help centers). When you select this type, the By Category subfilter appears, allowing you to further refine your search.
- Community - Community posts that match the search query. When you select this type, the By Topic subfilter appears, allowing you to further refine your search.