Searching a table from the view bar

The magnifier sits at the right end of the view bar. Click it and it expands into an input; type, and the view narrows as you type — the query runs on the server, so it searches the whole table, not only the rows your browser happens to have loaded.

• Keystrokes are debounced for a quarter second, so the grid follows your typing without a request per letter.
• Escape clears the search and collapses the box. The small × clears it but keeps you in the box for the next query.
• The record count at the bottom updates live, so "how many mention this" is answered without counting.

What it searches

The rule is the words on the record. Search matches:

• Text fields — single-line text, long text, email, phone and URL, and formulas that produce text.
• Select values, by the label you read. Searching shipped finds the records whose Status is Shipped, even though the cell stores an id underneath and the word appears nowhere in the row.
• People, by name as well as address. sarah finds the records assigned to Sarah Nassar; so does sarah@example.com.
• Linked records, by their names. On Orders, searching acme finds the orders linked to the Acme Holdings customer. One step across, never two: it reads the linked record's own name and stops there.

Case-insensitive, Arabic included, and a literal % or _ is a character, not a wildcard.

What it deliberately doesn't match: numbers, dates, checkboxes and attachments. A number is stored as 1500 and read as "EGP 1,500.00"; a date is stored as an instant and read as "12 Aug" — so a term would have to match a value you are not looking at. Those get exact answers from filters instead, which is the better tool for them anyway: Due is before today is a question august cannot ask. Lookups and rollups are also skipped — their value lives on another table, and that table is searchable in its own right.

If you keep searching for the same select value, that's a saved view with a filter wanting to exist — Status is New still beats hoping the word "new" appears nowhere else.

It composes with the view

Search doesn't replace the view's filter — it narrows within it. On a view filtered to unpaid orders, searching van finds the unpaid orders that mention a van, not every order that does. The Filter panel shows both numbers while you have a search on — matching records out of the searched total — so you can see what each layer is contributing.

The same one search applies across the table's views: switch from the grid to the board or the calendar and the search term rides along, composing with each view's own filters.

The column summaries follow too. They compute over the records currently matching, so searching ribbon on an orders table turns the Total column's sum into "the value of orders mentioning ribbon" — a question answered without building anything.

It's yours, and it's temporary

A search is session state, not view configuration. It isn't saved into the view and teammates never see it. Reload the page or switch to another table and the box is empty again. Filters are the durable version of the same idea — that's the split: search for the question you're asking right now, filter for the question the view always answers.

The questions people ask

Does searching a customer's name find their orders? Yes, since 2026-09-02 — searching acme on Orders finds the orders linked to Acme Holdings. It reads the linked record's name, the one its display field holds, and goes exactly that far: a customer's own linked records are not searched from here. For anything deeper, search that table, or filter Orders by the link.

Why did that record come up? Something on it carries your term that isn't its name — a status, a person, a linked record. In the link picker each such card says which field matched, and results that match the name come first. In the grid, the column summaries and the record count are the quickest way to see how wide a term has landed.

Does it search fields the view hides? Yes. Hiding a field is a display setting (hiding fields); the search runs against the table, so a match in a hidden field still surfaces the row. If a result looks inexplicable, that's usually why.

Is there search on a shared view? No — a public view link shows the view exactly as you shared it, with no search box. What you share is what they see.