Searching in Attached Files

You can search the full text of files that you have attached to references in your project from within Citavi. How to do this depends on the kind of project you are working with:

• Cloud project: Citavi indexes PDF files und ePub files as soon as you upload them to a cloud project. You can then search the full text of the attached files as described below.
• DBServer project: Full text search must first be enabled on the SQL server before you can search the attached files.
• Local project: In the absence of indexing, Citavi has to search individual PDF files one at a time. This process takes considerably longer.

Searching in Attached Files

1. In the Reference Editor, on the toolbar, click Search or press Ctrl+F3.
2. If you're searching all fields, Citavi will look for your search terms in all attached files. If you only want to search attached files, insert the ft: field code.
3. Click Search.
4. Citavi displays the files containing the search term under Locations.
5. Select the file you want view and click Show.

Examples

When you enter the term Information literacy Citavi searches all fields and all attached files.
t: information literacy searches for the term in title fields but not in quotations, attached files, etc.
ft: information literacy searches for the term in attached files but not in title fields, quotations, etc.
a: Smith AND ft: information literacy searches for the author "Smith" and an attached file containing the term "information literacy".

Search operators such as =, >, >=, < and <= don't work in full-text searches. In full-text searches, a search for a date (e.g. 1-1-2017) will only retrieve the exact string of characters entered.
The use of a question mark ? as a placeholder for unspecified letters also doesn't work in full-text searches. However, you can use an asterisk * to truncate search terms as long as you are working with cloud projects or have set up full-text indexing on an SQL server for your DBServer projects.

Helpful Hints

• The search does not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters.
  Searching for "WHO goes to court" also returns "Who goes to court?".
• The Whole words only checkbox does not work for the full-text search in attachments.
  Searching for lit does not return literacy.
• Use an asterisk (truncation) to search for parts of words:
  Searching for Litera* returns literate, literacy, literature, etc.
• The Equivalent characters option in the Search dialog is not supported. (Please note: The SQL Server full text search handles certain character combinations as the same character (for example the German character ß and ss). These settings cannot be changed.):
  Entering the German word Buße returns Busse.
• You can use quotation marks to search for word combinations (phrases):
  "photovoltaic solar cells" or "photo* solar cells"
• You can combine the search in your project with the search within full text:
  (a: Watson OR a: Crick) AND ft: Desoxy*
• You can combine multiple full text search queries:
  ft: Desoxy* AND ft: Watson AND ft: Crick
• You can use regular expressions, but if you do the database index is ignored and each attached file is searched individually:
  RX_M[ae][iy]e?r