[Solved] Index Search should be free-text, not limited to Surname

RootsMagic
1

I often want to find someone by their Given name, or a middle name or suffix. The obvious way seems to be Index Search “Show Everyone” - but it only allows search by Surname (which it calls “Name”).

Which of all the choices is the least useful because this Index view also (only) sorts by Surname. So it appears that we have multiple ways to find that and no way to find anything else. [Am I missing something? Not very experienced with RM].

==> It would be much better if Index Search were just a free-text / string finder. Then I could easily locate anyone I want.

2

typing a comma, followed by some letters of a first name, will also filter down the index

1 Like
3

Aha, the secret handshake; thanks! But… now everybody will know :frowning: Until I forget, of course.

I was about to edit my request after realizing that the Index has to work with Fact fields, so a true free string search would be difficult.

==> So change my request to be radio buttons to let us select which field to search. The default could be Surname, with other choices Given Name and Prefix and Suffix.

4

Find Everywhere in the upper right corner.
And the comma-thing is always used for that index (surname,given) so associate surname to left of the comma and given to the right.

5

Thanks. My eyes never made it past the search box which is almost in the upper right corner, and it did no better than the Index search.

So my request can be cancelled. My mistake for not looking harder.

6

Sort of summarizing.

The true free string search is Find Everywhere. Find Everywhere is available in the upper right hand corner of the screen from an number of other posts, and adding a few more options.

Both the sidebar index and the People List view support searching the list of people by lastname, firstname. You can start with the comma to search only by first name.

There is some nuance. For example, if you search only for smith, it will search only in the last name field and it will find both Smith and Highsmith. If you want it to search only at the beginning of the name, precede the search with a double quote, viz., "smith will get you Smith without also getting you Highsmith.

For searching just for names and not for free text, there are some additional options under the main Search tab. For example, it’s a way to find a married or birth name, and to provide a few additional filters such as sex and birth and death. The same Find Everywhere option may be found again under the main Search tab.

2 Likes
8

Thanks for the explanation and tips.

9

This RM10 Help pages give more details on searching.

10

I had forgotten about the user of underscore (‘_’) for single chars.