Searching Zendesk Support data

In Zendesk Support, you can search for data, such as ticket properties, user properties, comments, tags, Help Center articles, and so on, using the search tool, located in the top toolbar. Administrators can search everything, and agents can search the tickets and users that they have permission to see. For example, if as an agent you are limited to only seeing tickets in the groups that you belong to, you will only be able to see those tickets in your search results.

This article covers the following topics:

• Accessing the search tool
• Using a simple text search
• Using an advanced search
• Previewing ticket details from search results
• Understanding your search results
• Updating tickets in bulk from search results
• Using search keywords
• Sharing search URLs

Accessing the search tool

There are a few ways you can get to the Zendesk Support search tool.

You can click the Search icon () in the upper-right of the top toolbar, which opens the simple search box:

You can click the Search icon and hit Enter, or select Advanced search, which opens the advanced search page:

You can hover your cursor over the add tab in the upper-left of the top toolbar and select Search, which opens the advanced search page:

Or you can use the keyboard shortcut (control + alt + f), which opens the simple search box.

Using a simple text search

A simple text search gives you an unfiltered list of everything you can access that contains your search terms.

To do a simple search

1. Click the Search icon () in the upper-right of the top toolbar.
2. Enter your query in the search box.
3. Press Enter.

Your search results are displayed in a new tab on the toolbar.

Using an advanced search

In addition to the full text search, you can narrow your search results using search filters. You can filter for just the type of elements you want to see: tickets, articles, users, or organizations. Each category offers relevant ways to further refine your results.

To do an advanced search

1. Click the Search icon () in the upper-right of the top toolbar.
2. Hit Enter, or click Advanced search.
3. Enter your search terms in the text bar, then click Filters.
4. Click the Search dropdown to select the type of element you want to include in your search.

   

5. Fill out the options as needed to refine your search.

You can further narrow your search results using search operators and keywords. For more information on this kind of advanced search, see Zendesk Support advanced search.

Previewing ticket details from search results

Hovering your cursor over the subject of a result displays a preview of that ticket, allowing you to glean more information about the ticket without having to open it. In the preview window, snippets of comments or fields containing your search term(s) are displayed, with the search term(s) highlighted, so you can determine whether the ticket is relevant to your search before opening it.

To preview a ticket from the search results

• Hover your cursor over the subject of a result to display a preview of that ticket.

  

Understanding your search results

Your search results are sorted into categories for tickets, users, articles, and organizations. Each category contains different columns, icons, and other elements, to help you identify, filter, sort, or otherwise organize your search results.

To select the type of result you want to view

• Click the category at the top of the search results page.

Tickets

The Tickets category returns a list of support requests that have your search term(s) in their subject line or comments. This category contains the most options for organizing your results. It has columns displaying the following information relevant to the ticket:

• ID, the ticket's numeric identifier.
• Subject, the text from the ticket's subject line.
• Requested, the date the ticket was submitted.
• Updated, the last time the ticket was updated.
• Requester, the name of the user who submitted the ticket.
• Group, the group assigned to handle the ticket.

Each result is preceded by an icon indicating that ticket's current status:

To open a ticket from the search results

• Click anywhere on a ticket result's row opens that ticket in a new tab.

To sort your ticket search results

• Click on the Requested or Updated column in the search results to toggle between displaying results in ascending or descending order by date.

Note: The comment automatically added to a ticket solved by Answer Bot ("Yes, this article solved my issue") is not included in Explore.

Users

The Users category returns a list of accounts who include your search term(s) in their names, or elsewhere in their profiles. The results for this category contain the following columns:

• Name, the user's submitted name.
• Email, the user's email address.
• Organization, the company or group they work for.
• Role, the role assigned to that user (agent, admin, end-user, and the like).
• Updated, the last time the user's profile was updated.

To open a user profile from a search result

• Click anywhere on a user's row to open that user's profile in a new tab.

Articles

The Articles category returns a list of knowledge base entries that mention your search term(s). The results for this category contain the following columns:

• Title, the article's title.
• Updated, the last time the article was updated.
• Created, the date the article was posted to the knowledge base.

To open an article from a search result

• Click anywhere on an article's row to open that article in a new browser window or tab.

Organizations

The Organizations category returns a list of collections of users that include your search term(s) in their names, or elsewhere in their profiles. The results for this category contain the following columns:

• Name, the organization's submitted name.
• Notes, any notes added to their profile.
• Created, the date the organization first registered.
• Updated, the last time the organization updated its profile.

To open an organization profile from a search result

• Click anywhere on an organization's row to open that organization's profile in a new tab.

Updating tickets in bulk from search results

You can make ticket updates to many tickets at the same time. For example, if you want to assign yourself to a number a tickets, you just select them in the search results and set yourself as the assignee. You can also delete, merge, or mark as spam the selected tickets.

To update multiple tickets

1. In your search results, select the tickets you want to update. You can pick and choose the tickets you want to update, or select the entire list by clicking the check box at the top left of the results list.
2. Click the dropdown arrow on the Edit X ticket(s) button, and select an option. OR
3. Click the Update X ticket(s) button to open the ticket editor.
4. Update the ticket information as needed. See Bulk updating, deleting, and merging tickets for more information on bulk updating.
5. Click Submit to apply the changes to your selected tickets, or click the menu dropdown on the Submit button to apply the changes.

Using search keywords

You can create more complex search statements using search operators and keywords.

You can restrict your searches to look for specific ticket, user, article, group, or organization data. To do this, you use the data object properties as keywords in a search. For example, the following search returns all closed tickets containing the words "help" and "center."

Zendesk Support also includes search operators commonly used when searching the Internet, such as: (equals), > (greater than), < (less than), and "" (phrase search).

For all of the details about searching your data in Zendesk Support, see Zendesk search reference in the Administrator Guide.

Sharing search URLs

You can copy search query strings you create in Support to your clipboard, where you can then share them with other users. When you share a search query with another user and they click it, the string will perform the search in their own Support instance using the same query you created.

To copy and share search queries

1. In the Support search box, enter a search query.
2. Click the copy and share search query icon as shown in the image below.

   

The search query is copied to your clipboard as shown in the image below.

You can now send the query to other users, for example, by pasting it into an email.