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
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 hover your cursor over the add tab in the upper-left of the top toolbar and select Search, which opens the search page:
Or you can use the keyboard shortcut (control + alt + f/control + option + f), which opens the simple search box.
Using search
The text search gives you an unfiltered list of everything you can access that contains your search terms.
- Click the Search icon (
) in the upper-right of the top toolbar.
- Enter your query in the search box.
- Press Enter.
Your search results are displayed in a new tab on the toolbar.
In addition to full text search, you can perform a search using common search operators combined with data property keywords and values to narrow your results. See Zendesk Support advanced search for more information.
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:
- Click anywhere on a ticket result's row opens that ticket in a new tab.
- Click on the Requested or Updated column in the search results to toggle between displaying results in ascending or descending order by date.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Click anywhere on an organization's row to open that organization's profile in a new tab.
Filtering your search results
You can further 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 filter search results
- Peform a search, as described above.
- On the search results page, click Filters.
- Click the Search dropdown to select the type of element you want to include in your search.
- Fill out the options as needed to refine your search.
You can further narrow your filtered 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.
- Hover your cursor over the subject of a result to display a preview of that ticket.
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
- 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.
- Click the dropdown arrow on the Edit X ticket(s) button, and select an option. OR
- Click the Update X ticket(s) button to open the ticket editor.
- Update the ticket information as needed. See Managing tickets in bulk for more information.
- Click Submit to apply the changes to your selected tickets, or click the menu dropdown on the Submit button to apply the changes.
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
- Peform a search, as described above.
- On the search results page, click the Copy link button .
The search query is copied to your clipboard. You can now send the query to other users, for example, by pasting it into an email.
12 Comments
Hi all,
I'm about to launch a very small beta for agents who are searching for articles in the agent interface. This beta will not change the search experience for anyone in Help Center, but rather is a precursor to that step. You will not see any interface changes during this beta, as the change only impacts the results themselves. You will also not be able to search for community posts within the agent interface quite yet.
If you're interested, please sign up here: https://zendesk.wufoo.com/forms/article-search-for-agents-beta/
You'll be able to choose whether you'd like this rolled out to your entire account, or, if you'd prefer, you can turn it on for individual agents.
Best,
Erin
Hi All,
We are interested in learning how you, Zendesk customers, use the Zendesk search in your work to help us continue enhancing and improving this feature.
If you and your team are interested in sharing how search supports your work and are available for talking to us, please sign up using the form here. http://goo.gl/forms/IDuqGK20uu397YAb2
We will follow up from there if we find a match to our study. Due to limited resource available, we may not be able to cover all customers.
Thanks!
I don't understand zendesk search. I have for example a ticket with an order number in the subject. When I search for this number, the ticket doesn't come up !
It doesn't work either if I put that number in the description, or in tags, or in a custom field...
Please help. Also I'm an admin, so it isn't a problem of tickets i'm not allowed to see.
Hi everyone,
I just wanna ask if there is a way that I can use this search with Zendesk Application Framework v2? like for example, I will pass a string for my app and then this zendesk search will do its job to populate the list. Also, I tried to use the routeTo function of api, but it only support user, organization and ticket. I thought search is available because it also possible to add a tab for the search but unfortunately not.
It will be really a great help in our team if this feature is available. If you know any alternatives please let me know. Thank you.
I hope you can help me with this.
Sincerely,
Austin
Hey Austin! I'm checking with out Developer Relations folks to see if we can find an answer for you. Sit tight!
Hi there Austin-
Thanks for writing in. I think this is best served over in our Zendesk Apps Developer Community - may I ask you to please cross-post? You have posed some great questions here, and I would also ask if you could please expand on what it is you are trying to achieve overall, what your use-case is.
You have a couple options in regards to search - client.request() to achieve locally, or your own application hosted elsewhere. Depending on the nature of the data you would be retrieving would determine the design choice here giving consideration to performance. Please join us over in the Developer Community I linked above and engage with our other members who may have other methods and advice to provide.
Thanks!
Is there a way to see the Organization as a column in the Tickets tab?
Welcome to the Community, Megan! Sorry for the delayed response.
There isn't a way to customize the columns in the search results, but you can customize them in Views. Can you tell me more about what you're trying to do with your searches? It might be that using Views would get the job done better.
Did search functionality change?
Previously, when I searched an organization, I went straight to this view:
Now it looks like this:
And I have to double-click to open the first view.
Can I revert back?
Hi Amy,
There were some changes in the underlying technology, but this is not expected behavior. The product manager believes you may have discovered a bug and would like for you to submit a ticket to support.
I did submit a ticket and they said it was expected behavior. Seems like there is a disconnect here somewhere.
sounds like it. I'll follow up!
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