Search Logic
Use search commands such as AND, OR and quotes, and see how filters are combined.
Updated on 6 October 2026
Elium searches the full text of the articles: title, body, tags, comments and the text of attached files, such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel or PDF files. Audio and video files are transcribed, so you can also find the words that people say in them.
Search commands
By default, a search finds the articles that contain all the words you type. Use these commands to change this. Write AND, OR and NOT in capital letters.
| Command | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| AND | All the words must be present. This is the default. | knowledge AND management |
| OR | At least one of the words must be present. | knowledge OR management |
| NOT | Removes the articles that contain the word. | knowledge NOT Elium |
"…" | The words must appear together, in this order. | "knowledge management" |
( ) | Groups words, as in a math formula. | knowledge AND (management OR sharing) |
? | Replaces one character. | t?pe finds "type" and "tape" |
* | Replaces several characters. | orga* finds "organised", "organisation" and more |
"…"~N | The words must be at most N words apart. | "knowledge management"~8 |
Use ? and * with care: they can return many results that you do not expect.
Words in quotes are searched exactly as written: "refund" does not find "refunds". Very common words, such as "the", "and", "le" or "et", are always ignored, even in quotes. The search algorithm explains why.
Tag filters
On the search page, tags are grouped by category.
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Tags of the same category are combined with OR. The results have at least one of the tags. For example, "Elium" and "marketing" in "Organisation" show the articles with "Elium", "marketing" or both.
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Tags of different categories are combined with AND. The results need a tag from each category. In the example, also ticking "global" in "Place" keeps only the articles that are also tagged "global".
Other filters
When you select several values in one filter, they are combined with OR:
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several spaces or groups of spaces: articles from any of these spaces;
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several content owners: articles from any of these people;
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several templates or content types: articles of any of these types.
Different filters are combined with AND. For example, a space and a template show only the articles of this space that use this template.