Are you finding that your Full Text searches aren’t delivering the precise results you need? Perhaps you’re overwhelmed with too many irrelevant results, or you’re not retrieving the documents you’re looking for. Adjusting your Full Text Search preferences can drastically improve the quality and relevance of your search results.
This guide walks you through the process, with clear explanations of the preferences available and their impact on your search results.
Full Text Search is a powerful tool that scans ProLaw documents to retrieve information based on keywords and settings. However, by default, some preferences may lead to unnecessary or inaccurate results. Customizing these preferences is essential to tailoring the search to your needs, ensuring greater accuracy and efficiency.
Step 1: Access the Preferences
To adjust your Full Text Search preferences:
Head to Events Off the Dashboard in ProLaw.
Navigate to Tools.
Select Preferences from the dropdown menu.
Step 2: Understand and Select Your Preferences
Each search preference fine-tunes the way results are retrieved. Here's a breakdown to help you decide which options to enable or disable:
Fuzzy Searching
What it does: Accounts for minor misspellings or variations in spelling. For example, if you search for “division,” it may also return results for “divifion.”
Use it when: You're working with data prone to spelling errors or inconsistencies.
Keep in mind: Words in the search must still start with the same letter. Only minor errors in the rest of the word are allowed.
Phonic Searching
What it does: Identifies words that sound similar to the search term. For instance, searching for “chin” might return results for “thin.”
Use it when: Searching for names or places that are commonly misspelled phonetically.
Keep in mind: It may return unexpected results, so only enable this when necessary.
Stemming
What it does: Finds variations of a root word. For example, searching “tempt” will return results for “tempting” and related derivatives.
Use it when: You want to include multiple forms of a word without entering each variation manually.
Synonyms and Related Words
Current status: These options are not functional at the moment, so enabling them will not impact your search results.
Limit Matches
What it does: Restricts the number of results displayed, based on the limit you set. For example, setting the limit to 50 or 100 will return only the most relevant results.
Use it when: You want to speed up the search process and avoid sifting through an overwhelming number of results.
Recommended setting: Between 50 and 100, depending on your firm’s preference.
Step 3: Apply Your Customizations
After understanding the functions of each preference, adjust your settings within the Preferences menu:
Tick or untick the boxes for options like Fuzzy Searching, Phonic Searching, and Stemming, based on your needs.
Set a value for Limit Matches to determine the maximum number of results displayed.
Save your changes before exiting the menu.
Start small: Initially, enable only the preferences you think you’ll need. Test the results and adjust as necessary.
Fine-tune gradually: If your results are still too broad or too narrow, experiment with toggling options like Fuzzy Searching or lowering your Limit Matches.
Reach out for help: If you're uncertain about which settings are best for your needs, the Sophus Support Team is available at inquire@sophusconsulting.com.
Customizing your Full Text Search preferences is a simple yet powerful way to enhance your experience and improve efficiency. By learning how these settings work and tailoring them to your unique requirements, you’ll save valuable time and get to the results you need faster.
Take control of your searches today, and feel free to contact our team for further assistance.
If you have any questions or run into any issues, please reach out to the Sophus Support Team by clicking the Contact Us button. Thank you.