You specify search criteria by selecting options on the Custom Search screen. Default criteria are provided, but it is not necessary to enter values in every field. If you do not enter any values, and you clear any existing default values, then click the Search button, Custom Search returns all of the records in your database, which could be a very large result set. Selecting options on this screen will narrow your search results to a more manageable result set.

Note: For custom objects, the criterion "Main Assignee" has a default value equal to the logged-in user. If you want your search to include more records than this, be sure to alter or clear this criterion.

Filtering Criteria

There are three options for filtering your search criteria.

When you select radio button All of the following, every criterion that you specify must be satisfied for a record to appear in the search results. In this case, adding more criteria makes your result set narrower (smaller).

When you select Any of the following, a record needs to satisfy only one of the criteria to appear in search results. In this case, adding more criteria potentially makes your result set larger, increasing the time it takes to return the results.

The Group the following radio button combines the functions of the two previous radio buttons. When you select Group the following, a new Group column appears in the table. Search fields with the same Group values will only produce results if all the group's criteria are met, similar to selecting the All of the following radio button. Qualifying search results from each separate group (designated by matching numerical values) will all appear in the search results, similar to the Any of the following radio button.

Selecting Criteria

To select criteria, complete one or more of the following:

•Group—This column only appears if you select the Group the following radio button. Group your criteria together by giving them matching values, separating the groups with unique values. Group values can be numbers 1-9 only. Alphabet characters, special characters, and 0 are invalid values. There is no limit to the amount of criteria allowed in a single group.

•Field—Select the name of the field that you want to search. This drop-down list contains all of the field names associated with this record type.

•Operator—Select the option that describes the criteria that you want to use to further narrow your results, such as Contains or Has Value. See Operators for more information.

•Value—Enter the specific value that you want to use to return specific results, based on the Field and Operator that you selected, if available. For example, if you want to find all of the users with the last name Smith, in the Field list, select Contact Name, in the Operator list, select Contains, and in the Value field, enter Smith.

Selecting Multiple Values

For text fields, user fields, number fields, and projects, you can search using multiple values by clicking the plus sign in the Value area to add additional value fields. For example, if you want to find all of the projects modified by Deby Howard and Kevin Ranch, in the Field list, select Modified By, in the Operator list, select Equal To, and in the Value drop-down list, select a project type. Enter Howard, Deby in the first box, click the plus sign and enter Ranch, Kevin in the second box. The search results will contain all of the projects that were modified by these users.

For specific information about which Operators you can use when using multiple-value options, see Operators.

Note: For custom objects, there is a default criterion of "Assignee" equal to the logged-in user. If you want your search to include more records than this, be sure to alter or clear this criterion.