A to Z Guide to Searching in LawMaster

When searching in LawMaster for documents, matters, etc.

Basic Searching in LawMaster

Wild Cards

When Searching you can use a function in LawMaster called a “Wild Card” it normally looks like “%” but “*” can also be used as a Wild Card for a different purpose.                                                                                                              

Both the % Wild Card and the * Wild Card work like so… 

E.X. you wish to search for a document called “Trust Accounting May 2017” however you can only partially remember “Accounting” and remember it as “Accou”, so when searching you would use the * Wild Card. Using this the search will search for items, documents, etc. that have “Accou” as part of a larger word. 

Esc* will return items similar to “Escape”, “escalation” etc.

So in this case searching Accou* will return “Accounting”

When using a % Wild Card when searching in LawMaster it will search for that word (In this case “Accounting”) anyware in the description of the document. Narrowing it down to a reasonable number of documents that are similar.

**Please note: That unless you add in more keywords to your search with the % Wild Card in a search that searches through thousands (Folios, Matters, etc.) you will not be able to find what you are looking for and might have the same amount of Hits when searching with or without a Wild Card.

When searching without a Wild Card it will search “Searching” and will return only documents that description begins with “Searching”.

Example:

* Wild Card 

Without a Wild Card.

(No options or Folios)

With a * Wild Card.

**Please note that it is searching the text in the Folios, by selecting “Search within Documents” you will receive a larger amount of folios.

% Wild Card.

Without a Wild Card.

With a % Wild Card.

Boolean Operators

There are several Boolean Operators in LawMaster that can be used in searching.

You can use the AND, OR and NOT Boolean operators outside of word in text searching and can use the full table list in the Search Condition window anytime you are required to search for items via word in text in LawMaster.

In the Folios Enquiry screen for example, you can access the “Search Condition” window in the following image by clicking on the Word in text option in the dropdown, select search and then select the breadcrumbs next to the “Keyword” field.

Or by selecting the breadcrumbs when you have selected the search option.

These are…

How to use Inverted Commas

Inverted Commas are used to further help your searching in LawMaster.

There is a large difference when searching or not searching with inverted commas as LawMaster will search in a different way…

We will use “new operator” as an example here.

When searching without inverted commas you will type new operator into Lawmaster. LawMaster will read it as “new” AND “operator” and will look for and find topics that contain both the individual words instead of a phrase.

However, if you are searching with inverted commas, I.E. “new operator”. LawMaster will search topics the contain the literal phrase “new operator” and this includes all its grammatical variations.

Looking back to the Boolean operators section you can see an option for Phrase. This can also be used to easily search for items in LawMaster, especially when you are copy/ pasting information into the Search Condition window.

File/ Word in Text

When searching for File/ Word in Text you will be using all the aspects of searching that we have been talking about so far.

Word in text searching is used to identify a string of words in an area of LawMaster.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Some key information you should keep in mind when searching File/ Word in Text is that…

 LawMaster removes from the search options all words which match ‘and’, ‘of’, ‘or’, ‘the’. 

The basic rules for creating a Search in LawMaster are…

1.    Searches are not case-sensitive, so you can type your search in uppercase or lowercase characters.                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Searching as “document”, “DOCUMENT” or “DoCuMeNt” will not change the outcome of the search, this is true for searching for Entities, Matters, Folios, etc.

2.    You can search for any combination of letters (a-z) and numbers (0-9).

3.    Punctuation marks such as the period, colon, semicolon, comma and hyphen are ignored during a search.

4.    You can search for words or phrases and use wildcard expressions.

Where can I search in LawMaster

Here is a table where you can see all the areas in LawMaster where you can access the Search Condition windows or Word in Text options in the dropdown list.

All in the table below are Word in Text searchable.

Advanced Searching

Advanced Searches

In LawMaster there is an option when Entity and Matter Searching to do an Advanced Search.

The Advanced Search option is found next to the regular search options when in the Entity or Matter enquiry screens.

Advanced Entity Searching

I will expand on several options that require more information to be used effectively.

There are several search options for Advanced Searching entity’s, these are…

Form:

This Searches by several different options as seen, this can help when specifying specific areas that match the entity. From the entity bank details to Other, you are able to narrow down a specific entity with only using otherwise useless information (If searching basically)

Entities added for a given date range:

Entities verified before date or unverified:

Entities with missing Attributes:

Top Clients:

This lists the firm’s top number of Clients (as specified by the maximum record setting) by value (fees billed) or by number of Matters opened over the date range given.

The date range used is aligned to the nearest accounting period boundary. This search can be performed using one of two methods of calculation:

1.    The report can take into account the Fees Billed of Related Entities using the ZM-ZS/ZS-ZM Credit-Control relationship. To perform the search in this manner, tick the “Use ‘Credit Control’ Entity relationship” check box on the Top Client Search.

2.    Alternatively, the report can take into account the Fees Billed of any Related Entities where the Relationship Type parameter has the “Influence Fees?” field ticked. This method is in line with the “Client Financial Analysis” method of calculation. To have the search use this method of calculation, the “Use ‘Credit Control’ entity relationship” check box on the Top Client Search must be un-ticked.

The default for the “Use ‘Credit Control’ Entity Relationship” check box can be set by parameter 00-R23083. Setting the par_flag with a value of “Y” will have the default setting for the check box as ticked.

Marketing:

This screen allows Entity Attributes (maximum of 5) to be specified in an AND/OR combination. When using multiple operators such as AND, OR and NOT the order of operations is determined by Boolean algebra therefore ANDs have a higher priority than ORs. The user may select an Attribute Type and leave the Attribute Code field blank to indicate “All”. The description field will be updated appropriately e.g. "Business Type - All". The Search Results for Client Attribute Type - "All" will include Client Attribute Codes that have been marked as Not Visible but still exist against Entity Details.

• Fees billed this year and last year.
• Work done in relation to specified Matter Work Types since a given date.
• Work performed by specified work units since a given date.
• Entity Name Range >= From AND < To.  The From and To are optional.
• Firm Classification – This field is designed to hold the primary relationship that an Entity has with the firm.

Advanced Matter Searching

I will expand on several options that require more information to be used effectively.

There are several search options for Advanced Searching Matters, these are…

Form:

Entities added for a given date range:

Attributes:

When selecting the attribute, you are presented with the following screen to select the Work Type.

You can then select whether to search only for Matters with the selected Work Type, or to search for Matters of different Work Types, but which use the same Variable Template.

Selecting an Attribute from the grid and pressing OK will populate the selected Attribute into the Attribute Search Form, as below.

Depending on the Attribute selected, different conditional statements will appear to the right of the attribute for the user to choose. Additional Attributes can be built into the search by pressing the “Add” button.

The bottom half of the screen allows the user to select other Attributes to be displayed in the search result grid, but which do not form part of the search criteria. By default, Attributes selected as search criteria will be automatically added to the list of attributes displayed in the search result.

From the context menu on the list of Display Attributes, you can Delete a selected Display Attribute and move selected Attributes up or down the list. This will change the order of the columns that will appear in the resulting search.

Pressing “OK” will cause the search to be run and the results displayed in the Matter Search grid. The search parameters are retained in the attribute search until the Matter Search screen is closed, allowing the user to test a search, return to the search form to add or delete Attributes and then test again.

The search can also be saved to Favourites via the “Save” button, which will display the following screen:

On this screen, the user may enter a Name and a Description for the search. The user can also elect to share the search with other Resources using the “Share With” field. This field allows a look up and the selection of multiple Resources, who will then be able to search for and add the search from their own Favourites Tab.

If no Resource is listed in the “Share With” field, only the Author of the search is able to add the search to their Favourites. Note that any Resource listed in the “Share With” field can also modify or delete the search.