Using different search methods in the Help Center

There are a variety of ways to search for content, depending on where you are in the Help Center.

This article contains the following sections:

• Using instant Help Center search to get content suggestions
• Using native Help Center search for specific results
• Using Knowledge Capture app search to find articles
• Using article suggestion search when an end-user submits a support request

Using instant Help Center search to get content suggestions

Instant search is used when you first start typing in the search field. As you type, article titles that match your search appear. Keep typing to reduce the list of articles.

Instant search uses partial word and searches only titles of knowledge base articles. Instant search does not include body text or lables of articles. Community posts are also not included in instant search.

You can click any matched article to go directly to the article without going to the search results page. If you don't see any articles that fit your criteria, press Enter, and the native Help Center search is applied.

Instant Search is available by default, in standard themes and themes that were customized after the release of instant search on July 5th, 2016. In standard themes you can disable Instant Search if needed.

Using native Help Center search for specific results

Native search is used when you type in the Help Center search field and click Enter. Search results appear as a list on the search results page. Native search uses full word search, not partial word search, and the search inlcudes titles, body text, and labels.

In this example, you'll see results for content that includes the words instant or search, with the first results containing both instant and search. See searching for content for tips on how to find phrases and operands to perform specific searches.

By default in standard themes, the number of votes and comments appear next to each result on the search results page. By default, you can filter your result set first by content type (knowledge base article or community post) and then by category or community topic.

Using Knowledge Capture app search to find articles

Knowledge Capture app search is used when an agent uses the Knowledge Capture app in the Support agent interface to find articles (see Searching and linking articles using the Knowledge Capture app).

The Knowledge Capture app search returns public and internal knowledge base articles. The search does not return other content, such as drafts or community posts. Internal articles indicate that they are locked and not available to the requester.

Using article suggestion search when an end-user submits a support request

Article suggestion search is used when an end-user submits a support request in Help Center. As the end-user types in the Subject field, articles are suggested by searching titles, content, and tags or labels in articles in the Help Center, and using a relevance score to order the results.

If a user clicks a suggested article, they are taken to the article directly, and the support ticket is not opened.

For information about disabling article suggestions, see How can I remove "Suggested Articles" from the ticket submission form?.