--- title: How to Search for Documents description: Essal Office has a powerful full-text search engine. Every document you upload is processed through OCR (optical character recognition) to extract all... --- [Skip to content](https://help.essal.cloud/en/article/1461-#main-content) English Show submenu for translations [More support](https://help.essal.cloud/en/kb-tickets/new?hsLang=en) [Customer portal](https://clients.essal.cloud/tickets?hsLang=en) [![logo](https://help.essal.cloud/hubfs/logo.svg)](https://help.essal.cloud/?hsLang=en) - [Home](https://essal.cloud/) - [Products](https://essal.cloud/products) - [Industries](https://essal.cloud/industries) - [About](https://essal.cloud/about) - [Contact](https://essal.cloud/contact) Open main navigation Close main navigation - [Home](https://essal.cloud/) - [Products](https://essal.cloud/products) - [Industries](https://essal.cloud/industries) - [About](https://essal.cloud/about) - [Contact](https://essal.cloud/contact) - English Show submenu for translations - [More support](https://help.essal.cloud/en/kb-tickets/new) - [Customer portal](https://clients.essal.cloud/tickets) - [Home](https://essal.cloud/) [Home](https://essal.cloud/) Essal Help Center - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. 1. [Help Center](https://help.essal.cloud/en?hsLang=en) 2. [Essal Office](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en) 3. [Searching and saved views](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#searching-and-saved-views) # How to Search for Documents Essal Office has a powerful full-text search engine. Every document you upload is processed through OCR (optical character recognition) to extract all readable text. That text is indexed and becomes instantly searchable — you can find a document by words that appear inside it, not just in its title. --- ## Using the Search Bar The search bar is always visible at the top of the document list. To search: 1. Click the search bar 2. Type one or more words 3. Press **Enter** or wait for results to update Results update as you type. Every document whose title, content, correspondent name, document type, or tags contain the search terms will appear. --- ## How Search Works Essal Office searches across all indexed fields simultaneously: - **Searched field**: Document title - **Examples**: "Acme Invoice March 2026" - **Searched field**: Document content (OCR text) - **Examples**: Words appearing anywhere in the scanned text - **Searched field**: Correspondent name - **Examples**: "Acme Supplies" - **Searched field**: Document type name - **Examples**: "Invoice", "Contract" - **Searched field**: Tag names - **Examples**: "Finance", "Pending Payment" - **Searched field**: Custom field values - **Examples**: Depends on field type --- ## Searching for Multiple Words By default, a search for `acme invoice` returns documents that contain either `acme` or `invoice`. To narrow results to documents containing both words, use the advanced search syntax. --- ## Tips for Effective Searching - Search for words likely to be unique to the document you need — an invoice number, a person's name, a product reference - If results are too broad, add more words or combine with filters (see below) - If results are too narrow (no results), check that the words actually appear in the document's Content tab — OCR errors may have distorted a word --- ## Combining Search with Filters The search bar and filter panel work together. You can type a search query and simultaneously apply filters for correspondent, document type, date range, or tags. The results show only documents that match all active conditions. This combination is very powerful: search for a keyword to narrow content, then filter by date range or correspondent to get to exactly the document you need. --- ## Search Is Case-Insensitive You do not need to match capitalisation. Searching for `invoice` returns documents containing `Invoice`, `INVOICE`, or `invoice`. - [Essal Office](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#main-content) - [Getting started](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#getting-started) - [Searching and saved views](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#searching-and-saved-views) - [Correspondents and document types](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#correspondents-and-document-types) - [Email import](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#email-import) - [Users groups and permissions](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#users-groups-and-permissions) - [Sharing documents](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#sharing-documents) - [Working with documents](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#working-with-documents) - [Pdf tools](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#pdf-tools) - [Uploading documents](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#uploading-documents) - [Archive serial numbers](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#archive-serial-numbers) - [Workflows and automation](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#workflows-and-automation) - [Organizing with tags](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#organizing-with-tags) - [Troubleshooting and faq](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#troubleshooting-and-faq) - [Account and security](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#account-and-security) - [Custom fields](https://help.essal.cloud/en/essal-office?hsLang=en#custom-fields) - [Portal](https://admin.essal.cloud/) - [Newsroom](https://newsroom.essal.cloud/) - [Careers](https://careers.essal.cloud/) - [Help](https://support.essal.cloud/) - [Status](https://status.essal.cloud/) - [Contact](https://essal.cloud/contact) - [Terms](https://legal.essal.cloud/terms) [![logo](https://help.essal.cloud/hubfs/logo.svg "logo")](https://essal.cloud/) Essal LLC Copyright © 2026, Essal