AppColl allows filtering for specific information you wish to see, in any of the seven modules. In the Change View section in the left column, click the Add Filters button.

This will produce a popup window, where you can select filters, as shown below.

The top row lists any optionally preset filters (in this case, all open tasks). To filter, use the drop-down menu under the Column heading to select a database field (such as RespondBy) to filter on. Use the text box on the right to identify your filter condition (in the example, "Next 30 Days" is the date range). Click the Add button on the far right, and the search will show the number of results in the Count column on the far left. Set additional filters to further narrow the data. When you have all filters set, click the Execute button to run all of the filter queries and return the data set.

The below screen shot shows another example of a query.

Row 1 shows there are 251 open tasks.

Row 2 shows there are 124 open tasks where the matter type is Utility: Non-Provisional.

Row 3 shows there are 44 open tasks where the matter type is Utility: Non-Provisional and where the client is ABC Tech Company.

Row 4 shows there are 36 open tasks, where the matter type is Utility: Non-Provisional and the client is ABC Tech Company, and that have external deadlines.

In this example, a total of 36 items meet all four search criteria. Remove any of the filters by clicking the trashcan icon on the far right of the row and clicking Execute.

If filters are in place, the Change View section will show a summary of all the filters. To edit existing filters, click the Edit Filters button to reopen the popup window. Click the trashcan under the Edit Filters button to remove all the filters without opening the popup window.

Depending on the module and the column (data field) chosen for filtering, the search type varies.

• For data fields with a limited set of choices, such as the Role data field in the Contacts module, AppColl provides a dropdown menu with a list of choices. Select one or more checkboxes to include those items in the search.

• Date data fields show a dropdown menu with various date search options. Select one option and enter additional information as prompted.

• Amount data fields show Lowest Value and Highest Value options. To search for all values greater than 0, enter 0.01 in the Lowest Value box.

• Data fields without pre-defined values show a blank text box for free-form editing. See below for more information on how to design text-field searches. 

Text-Field Searches 

• Text searches are not case sensitive.
• For quick searches or searches that include several similar results, use partial information. For example, type 'non' (without quotes) in a data field to quickly return Utility: Non-Provisional. Type 'provisional' (without quotes) in a data field to return both Utility: Provisional and Utility: Non-Provisional.
• To search for a phrase or word compound, use quotes around the search term. For example, 'office action' will search for all records that contain exactly that text.
• To generate results that meet more than one search criteria, use a combination of search terms with a space between each search term. (The space acts as an implicit 'and’.)
• To generate results that meet at least one search criteria, use 'or' between two or more search terms.
• To search for results that don’t contain certain words, precede the search term with 'not’. For example, to search for all matters from mainland China, you could filter the country data field for 'China not Taiwan’.
• When searching application or patent numbers in matters, you do not need to enter any formatting characters (such as ‘/’ or ‘.’).
• Syntax order affects your results. 'Not’ has higher precedence than 'or’; 'or' has higher precedence than 'and’. So, if you specified the search text as:

                      cat dog or rat or 'blue fish' not chicken

AppColl would interpret that text as

                      cat and (dog or rat or 'blue fish') and not chicken

Some examples:

         Record Text                     Match

         cat dog                               Yes

         cat rat                                 Yes

         cat rat chicken                    No

         cat fish                                No

         rat                                       No

         cat blue rat fish                   No

         cat 'blue fish' rat                Yes

Database Queries

Complex filters can be created with database queries. Click here for specific instructions.