Search Filters With Operators
You can search for conversations, customers, and other data using a full text search. For the basics, start with Search in Help Scout. In this article list the different filters you can use, with details about the operators you can use with them, to narrow down your results.
In this article
Basic Filters
Help Scout search uses many standard search conventions that you'll find useful:
- Use quotes around a phrase to search for that exact phrase
- Use Boolean operators AND (or +), OR, and NOT (or -) to filter your results
- Use a wildcard (*) to find partial matches.
Note: To use a wildcard as the beginning of the search term, e.g. *searchterm, use one of the filters described below to narrow your search to speed up the results. For example, use body:*searchterm to narrow down to just the body of conversations.
In addition to those standards, we offer our own basic filters as well.
| Filter | Examples and Operators | What it Does |
|---|---|---|
| assigned | assigned:Josie Gato | Searches for conversations assigned to either Josie Gato |
| assigned:Josie Gato,Ron McNea | Searches for conversations assigned to either Josie Gato or Ron McNea | |
| assigned:josie* | Searches for conversations assigned to any User whose name starts with Josie | |
| customer | customer:Eliot | Searches for conversations with any customer named Eliot involved in the conversation, and any customer with the name Eliot |
| |
customer:"Eliot Rosewater" | Searches for conversations where a customer with the exact name Eliot Rosewater has been involved, or any customer with the exact name "Eliot Rosewater" |
| inbox | inbox:Orders | Searches for conversations or customers in the Orders Inbox (case sensitive) |
| inbox:Orders,Returns | Searches for conversations or customers in the Orders or Returns Inboxes (case sensitive) |
|
| status | status:active | Searches conversations that have a Active status. Active, Pending, Closed and Spam work here. |
| status:active,pending | Searches conversations that have a Active status or a Pending status. Active, Pending, Closed and Spam work here. | |
| subject | subject:rainbow | Searches for conversations where the subject contains the word "rainbow" |
| subject:"have a question" | Searches for conversation subjects that contain the exact phrase "have a question" (not case sensitive) | |
| subject:(coffee OR tea) | Searches for conversations where the subject contains the word "coffee" or the word "tea" | |
| subject:(coffee tea) | Searches for conversations where the subject contains the word "coffee" and contains the word "tea" in no particular order | |
| tag | tag:carrots | Searches for conversations that have the tag "carrots" |
| tag:"dogs love carrots" |
Searches for conversations that have the tag "dogs love carrots" | |
| tag:(dogs OR carrots) tag:dogs,carrots |
Searches for conversations that are tagged with either "dogs" or "carrots" | |
| type |
type:chat | Searches conversations of type chat. Chat, email, and phone type accepted. |
| |
type:email,chat | Searches for conversations of type chat or email. Chat, email, and phone type accepted. |
| body | body:"what a beautiful day" | Searches conversations where the customer reply, the User reply, or a note contains the exact phrase "what a beautiful day" |
| |
body:("what a day" OR "how about tomorrow") | Searches conversations where the customer reply, the User reply, or a note contains the exact phrase "what a day" or the exact phrase "how about tomorrow" |
| replyFrom | replyFrom:Josie Gato | Searches for conversations with replies from Help Scout User Josie Gato |
| noteFrom | noteFrom:Ron McNea | Searches for conversations with notes from a Help Scout User Ron McNea |
| number | number:1234 | Searches for conversation #1234 |
| id | id:123456 | Searches for the unique conversation ID (the number before the conversation number in the URL) |
| email:eliot@rosewater.org | Searches for a customer or conversations from a customer with the email eliot@rosewater.org | |
| |
email:rosewater.org | Searches for customers or conversations with customers with the email domain rosewater.org |
| attachments | attachments:true | Searches for conversations with attachments |
| |
attachments:false | Searches for conversations without attachments |
Timeframe Filters
| Filter | Examples and Operators | What it Does |
|---|---|---|
| after | after:2020-01-25 | Searches for conversations closed on or waiting since after January 25, 2020. |
| before | before:2019-12-31 | Searches for conversations closed on or waiting since before December 31, 2019 |
| between | between:2020-07-06&2020-07-10 | Searches for conversations closed or waiting since a day in the range of July 6, 2020 to July 10, 2020, including the start and end dates |
| on | on:2020-02-05 | Searches for email closed on or waiting since February 5, 2020 |
Note: Plus and Pro plan accounts that have set up Custom Fields will also be able to filter by those custom fields!
Advanced Search Options
Combine them all
You can combine filters and operators to create very precise searches. Just make sure you have a space between the filters! For example, if you want to find conversations that have a subject that includes "coffee" or "tea", assigned to Josie Gato, tagged with "carrots" this is your search:
subject:(coffee OR tea) assigned:Josie Gato tag:carrots
By default, two or more filters assumes that you mean that you want your results to match both criteria, meaning tag:carrots assigned:Josie Gato would bring you conversations that are tagged with carrots and assigned to Josie Gato. You can use OR and NOT operators instead of spaces between the filters to change that function.
Examples:
- tag:carrots OR assigned:Josie Gato would bring back all conversations assigned to Josie and all conversations tagged with carrots
- tag:carrots NOT assigned:Josie Gato would bring you all conversations tagged with carrots that are assigned to anyone other than Josie
Custom URLs
If you're looking for a way to construct a URL that runs a search query in Help Scout, just start with this URL:
https://secure.helpscout.net/search/?query=search+term
Just replace search+term with what you want to search for!