Searching items

Use the Find Text window to find chart items which contain particular text. This tool is useful for analysis. For example, to find all the items that contain a particular street name, or a reference to a certain organization, or a phone number with a specific area code.

About this task

You define:
  • The text to be searched for (the search pattern)
  • The items and which parts of items to search
  • The behavior on finding a match

Procedure

  1. Open the Find Text window:
    • Click Find Text.
    • Select Edit > Find Text.
  2. Type the text to search for, and the type of search to use.
    OptionDescription
    Complex Searching You can enhance your search by including regular expressions, or wild card characters. For more information about regular expressions, see Regular expressions
    Find Items Not Matching Searches for items that do not contain the text.
    Search Cards Search for text in cards. Select the required card options in the Coverage area.
  3. Select the Search Area. You can specify:
    • Whether to search for text on entities, links, or entities or both.
    • To include hidden chart items in the search select Reveal Hidden.
    • To apply the search only to the chart items currently selected, select Selection Only.
  4. Select the item elements that you want to search in the Coverage area.
  5. In the Action area, specify the action you want to perform on the items found:
    Edit First Opens the Item Properties window for the first matching item at the page that contains the search pattern. The text is highlighted. Press the F3 key to find any further matches within this item and then move to the next item. Alternatively, close the Item Properties window and use Find Next Text to find the next matching item.
    Select First Selects the first item found which contains the search pattern. Press the F3 key or use Find Next Text to find the next matching item.
    Select All Selects all the items which contain the search pattern.
    Add to Selection Adds any matching items to the current selection. Only available when items are selected on the chart.
    Remove from Selection Removes any matching items from the current selection. Only available when items are selected on the chart.
    Select Sibling Links Selects all the links between 2 entities when 1 link matches. Only available when Select First or Select All is selected.