# Find anything with advanced search

The two searches — the instant box in the top bar that sweeps the whole organization, and the Search screen's three-step criteria builder that digs into one project by field, operator, and value — plus the templates that save a search worth repeating.

Product: nucleus-one · Audience: user · Time: 15 minutes · Last verified: 2026-09-05

Canonical: https://help.ademero.com/nucleus-one/using-nucleus-one/find-anything-with-advanced-search

**At the end of this guide you'll use the right search for each job: the instant top-bar box when you know roughly what something's called, and the Search screen when you're hunting by *criteria* — this project, this content type, this field between these values.**

## The instant search: everywhere, by name

The **Search...** box in the top bar searches across your whole organization as you type, dropping down live hits labeled with their project, folder, and type. Pressing **Enter** runs a full-text search over documents, tasks, forms, and assets and lands you on a results page.

That's the reach-for-it-first tool. Its limit is precision — which is what the Search screen adds.

## The Search screen: one project, precise criteria

Open **Search** in the left navigation. It walks three steps:

*[Screenshot: The Search screen's three-step criteria builder, with a project chosen and field criteria being added]*

1. **Project** — pick one. Advanced search digs into a single project by design; for everything-everywhere, that's the top-bar box above.

2. **Content type** — **Document**, **Form**, or **Task**, plus an entry for each of the project's assets. (There's no "document type" step — the type of *content* is the axis here.)

3. **Optional criteria** — where the digging happens:
   - The **Content & metadata** box takes free text (Enter runs the search from here too).
   - The **FIELDS** button opens the project's field list — toggle on the ones to filter by, and each becomes a criterion row.
   - Enter a value in a criterion and its operator selector appears. Text fields offer **word starts with** / **does not start with**; numbers, currency, and dates offer the comparison set — **equals** through **is between and including**, which adds a second **to** input. Tasks add their own rows: **Assigned to**, **Due On**, **Milestone**, **Priority**, **Task State**.

4. Click **SEARCH**. Results arrive as cards (a toggle switches to a list), with your criteria fields as the columns.

**Success check:** search a project for documents where a date field **is between and including** two dates you know bracket real documents — the results should be exactly that slice, nothing else.

## Templates: save the search worth repeating

A search an administrator expects people to run weekly — "invoices this month missing a PO," "tasks past due by milestone" — can be saved as a **template**: build the criteria, then **SAVE AS TEMPLATE** (organization administrators only). From then on everyone picks it from **Select a template...** at the top of the Search screen, and admins can **UPDATE TEMPLATE** as the need evolves. If you've never seen the template picker, that just means none exist yet — it hides when the list is empty.

## Which search when

| You know… | Use |
| --- | --- |
| Part of its name, could be anywhere | Top-bar instant search |
| The words inside it, could be anywhere | Top-bar box + Enter (full text) |
| The project and the criteria that define it | **Search** screen |
| That this exact hunt happens every week | A saved **template** |

## What's next

- [Build and submit forms](https://help.ademero.com/nucleus-one/using-nucleus-one/build-and-submit-forms)
- [Manage project users and groups](https://help.ademero.com/nucleus-one/administration/manage-project-users-and-groups)