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A Find can be created for any folder or document type defined in the system (based on your access privileges). Basing a Find on a folder/document type indicates what data will be searched on and what information will be retrieved. For example, Finds based on the Jobs folder type will retrieve job information, Finds based on a change order document type will retrieve change order information, and Finds based on the Digital Resources folder type will retrieve digital asset information.
1. Select New Find from the Find menu. This will open a new Find window, allowing you to specify the search criteria that will be used by the Find.
During the creation of a Find, it is necessary to select the folder/document type upon which the Find will be based. This action is the first step in determining which database fields will be available for use within the Find. The second step of this process will be to indicate the form that the Find should utilize when retrieving information from Virtual Ticket Developer. The fields included on the specified form will also determine which database fields are available for use within the Find.
2. Click the Search expander ( 
) button to select the folder/document type and form on which you want to base the Find. Selecting the form will both determine which database fields are available for searching and display a search criterion row in the window.
3. Click the Find Mode ( 
) button and select DESIGN. This will put the Find into Design mode and allow you to start specifying the search criteria.
Note: You may also specify search criteria in Normal mode. When setting up Finds, however, Design mode is recommended because it allows you to specify the search criteria that will be hidden when the Find is saved and subsequently used in Runtime mode.
4. Select a database field on which you want to have the Find used from the database field popup. The fields available are determined by the folder/document type and the form on which the Find is based.
5. Select the operator you want to apply to the database field from the operator popup. The operators available depend on the database field selected, but may include: starts with, contains, does not contain, equal, not equal, less than, less than or equal, greater than or equal, and greater than.
6. Specify the field or value on which the operator will be run. The value entered/field selected will become the default value/field that appears each time the Find is accessed within Virtual Ticket Developer.
To compare the value of the database field selected in Step 4 to a constant value, type the value in the text field for the search criterion, or click the expander 
to the right of the text field to select a value. The values available depend on the database field selected.
NOTE: When the “contains” operator is used, spaces entered in the text entry field are treated as AND*s; the search criterion will be satisfied if each word entered in the text entry field is present *somewhere within the database field. To have the database field searched for a phrase that contains spaces, place the phrase within quotes (for example, the search criterion DBField contains word1 ''word2 word3'' will search for records whose DBField field contains both word1 and the phrase word2 word3).
To compare the value of the database field selected in Step 4 with the value of another field, click the expander 
to the right of the text field, select Switch to field, then select the appropriate database field. The fields available are determined by the folder/document and the form on which the Find is based. You can also switch back to entering a value in a text field by selecting “Switch to values” from the database field popup.
To use MetaScript to compare the value of the database field selected in Step 4, type the appropriate MetaScript in the text field.
7. OPTIONAL: Click the check box to hide the search criterion when the Find is executed in Runtime mode. “Checking” the check box will hide the search criterion while leaving the check box “unchecked” will keep the search criterion visible to the user.
8. OPTIONAL: To define additional search criteria, click the Plus button ( 
), select either AND or OR and repeat Steps 4-7 for each additional criterion you would like to include in the Find. If this will be a Context Find, a maximum of six criteria can be defined for the Find.
Note: In the Virtual Ticket system, AND has a higher priority than OR in all conditions. For example,
Criterion1
and Criterion2
or Criterion3
will be interpreted as “(Criterion1 AND Criterion2) OR Criterion3”. A Find based on the above criteria will retrieve the folders/documents for which Criterion1 and Criterion2 are both true, as well as those for which only Criterion3 is true.
If you would like the search criteria to be interpreted as “Criterion1 AND (Criterion2 OR Criterion3)”, you must use the following set of search criteria:
Criterion1
and Criterion2
or Criterion1
and Criterion3
A Find based on these search criteria will only retrieve the folders/documents for which Criterion1 is true and either Criterion2 or Criterion3 (or both) is true.
9. OPTIONAL: If the Find is based on the Digital Resources folder type, specify any reference searching criteria you want to include in the Find. For details on specifying this information, please refer to the “Reference Searching” section below.
Note: Reference searching is only available if the Find was created from the Tools:Find Digital Resources submenu. Reference searching is not available for Finds based on the Digital Resources folder type, but created from the Tools:Find Documents submenu.
10. Click the Find Mode ( 
) button and select either NORMAL or RUNTIME. This will put the Find into either the Normal or Runtime modes and allow you to use and save the Find. For more information on Normal and Runtime modes, please refer to the “Find Modes” section above.
11. Click Search ( 
). The Find will retrieve all folder/document records that match the search criteria you have defined from the Virtual Ticket database. These search results will be displayed in the lower portion of the Find window, allowing you to review, modify, and attach documents to the records retrieved by the Find. The results retrieved by the Find also allow you to confirm that the search criteria have been properly defined.
12. OPTIONAL: Customize the search results grid listing. To do so, open the Grid Customization window for the Find by clicking the Customize Grid button ( 
). This window allows you to specify the columns that will appear in the search results grid of the Find, the columns’ order of appearance, and the columns’ sort order. Click OK to close the Grid Customization window. Additional information on customizing the Grid can be found in the “Customizing Grid Displays” section of the guide.
13. OPTIONAL: Click SAVE AS to save the Find so that it may be reused. A Save Search dialog box will appear, asking you to specify a name and an optional shortcut for the Find.
14. Type the name of the Find in the Save As field, specify shortcut keys for the Find in the Shortcut field (if desired).
NOTE: Only shortcuts that don’t use the Shift key are available for Local Finds, since the Shift key is reserved for Global Find shortcuts. Additionally, some shortcuts are already reserved by the system and are not available for assignment to Finds.
To always load the appearance settings (Digital Resources/Documents Tab, pane dimensions, window size, etc...) from the database when the Find is opened, select the “Always reset find appearance on load” checkbox (see above).
To save the Find as a Context Find, select the “Show in context find menu” checkbox. This is only available for Finds based on Digital Resources.
To save the Find to a pre-existing category, use the category selector.
To save the Find to a new category, type the category name in the Category field.
15. Click OK. This will save the new Find and display the Find name as a menu entry in the Find menu and, if applicable, in the Context menu.
At this point, the Find has been created, saved, and has become available in the appropriate menus for use.