Search files and folders

Search files and folders

You don't need to manually search through a long list of folders and files to locate what you're looking for. If you know the file name, the folder name, or the author's name, you can simply search using this information. If you only know a keyword inside the content of a file, you can also search for it in Zoho WorkDrive.

You can apply filters to further narrow down your search results. This can save you a lot of time when working on a range of projects.

WorkDrive now supports searching text (Optical Character Recognition) and objects (Object Detection) in images.

To search for a file or folder:

1. Go to your Zoho WorkDrive account. 
2. Click the Search icon  in the top-right corner of the screen.



3. Type a keyword into the search bar.

As you type, the top 20 matches found for the keyword will appear below. You can scroll down to see the Team Folders, folders, and files found for the search.



What's included in matches:
  1. Files and folders that have the file, folder, or author name matching with the keyword will be shown.
  2. Team Folders that have the team folder name or name of the user who created the team folder matching with the keyword will also be shown.
4. Press the Enter key or click the Show All Results tab at the bottom of the search results.

A new search screen with filters will open.



What's included in all results:
  1. Files that have content matching with the entire keyword will also be listed here. These results won't be shown as matches when you type keywords in the search bar. All word documents, presentations, spreadsheets, PDF files, or text files (including zip files) will be searched for any keyword match in their content.
  2. Team Folders, if found as matches in step three, will not be listed here.
  3. Files that have image text matching with the entire keyword will be listed.
  4. Files that have image objects matching with the entire keyword will be listed.
5. Add filters at the top of search results to narrow down your search further. 
 
All Location: Filter results based on their location from: My Folders, Shared with Me, and Team Folders. To choose a team folder, select the team first, then select a team folder in it.

All File Types: Filter results based on folders and file type: documents, spreadsheets, presentations, images, videos, etc.

All Dates: Filter results based on the date filters: Today, Yesterday, Last 7 Days, Last Month, or set a custom date.

Support for multiple teams is only available in WorkDrive's Enterprise Edition. Check the details of all editions of WorkDrive here.

6. Click on a file name to open it, or hover your mouse over the file and select GO TO FOLDER to go its location. To open a folder, click on its name.

Searching text within images - Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

This feature extracts text from all your images, i.e, from image files as well as from documents where images have been added. Texts will be extracted from images and converted into searchable metadeta through the method of Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

For example, if you use the search term "car", the OCR feature will fetch all images and documents where the word "car" occurs in images.



Supported languages for text extraction: 70 (check out all the supported languages here)
Supported image formats - jpeg, png, jpg, tiff, tif, bmp
Supported document formats - pdf, docx, doc, pptx, ppt

  1. Only printed texts in images can be searched in WorkDrive (hand-written texts are not supported).
  2. Texts in images cannot be searched using the Finder option.

Searching objects in images (Object Detection)



With WorkDrive's Object Detection feature, you can search for image files based on the actual objects present in them. For example, if you use the search term "laptop", the Object Detection feature will fetch all images that have the object laptop in them.

Here's the list of supported object categories in Search. We are constantly working towards adding new items.

  1. A search result is organized based on its relevancy score compared to all other results. Files with matching metadata (filename and author's name) are shown at the top of the search results, followed by files with matching content (text, image text and image object).

  2. Searching texts and objects in images is supported in both web and mobile apps.

  3. OCR and Object Detection will not be done on files uploaded before February 2020. We may index these files in the future.

    • Related Articles

    • Add files and folders to My Folders

      Zoho WorkDrive gives each user an exclusive space—My Folders—to create or upload files and folders for personal use. Any team member can create or upload files and folders in their My Folders. To create or upload files and folders in your Team ...

    • Sort or filter files and folders

      Sort files and folders Sort files and folders in a Team Folder or My Folders by Name, Last Modified, or Created Time for easier access. To sort files and folders: 1. Go to a Team Folder or My Folders in Zoho WorkDrive. 2. Select the Sort by icon  on ...

    • Deleting files and folders in Desktop Sync

      When you delete files and folders from the WorkDrive Sync folder in your desktop, a confirmation dialog will open. Upon confirmation, the selected files and folders will be deleted from the WorkDrive folder. The same files and folders will be deleted ...

    • Move or copy files and folders in My Folders

      In Zoho WorkDrive, My Folders is a private space where you can create files, store files, and share them with colleagues. You can move or copy files from your My Folders in the following three ways: Move or copy files and folders within My Folders ...

    • Delete and restore files and folders in My Folders

      Weed out unwanted files and folders in My Folders by deleting them. If you make a mistake, though, you can restore them instantly. You'll never have to worry about accidentally deleting an important file again! To delete a file or folder: 1. Navigate ...