Search a Code

CivicPlus leverages a powerful open-source search platform that allows you to quickly and accurately search the codes, ordinances, and documents of any municipality in the Code Library. This article will show you how to search within a single municipality's code.

Conduct a Municipality Search

1. Navigate to the Code you wish to search:

2. Enter your desired search terms in the Search or jump to box

3. Press Enter on your keyboard or select Search for…>> in the drop-down list:

   Note:

   Select a text result in the drop-down list to jump directly to that part of the code:

4. Your search results will appear with keywords from your search terms highlighted in yellow:

5. Click the name of a search result to be taken to that portion of the code:

6. View the selected search result or use the Prev Hit button, Next Hit button, or Search Results box to see other results:

   Note:

   Click Reset in the Search Results box to clear this search or click Advanced Search to return to the full list of search results:

7. Navigate the code and search results as desired

Filter and Sort Municipality Search Results

1. Conduct a municipality search from the Code Library:

2. Click Codes, Ordinances, or Documents above the search results to narrow down the results by publication type, if desired:

   Note:

   Codes are the default publication type for search results.

3. Click Search Municipal Website to view the results of this search pulled from the municipality's website if desired:

4. Check or uncheck the boxes next to the listed Products and Content options to narrow down the results by product type or parts of the code, if desired

   Note:

   If you have filtered your results to show Ordinances only, you will only be able to narrow the results down by Product type. If you have filtered your results to show Documents only, you will only be able to narrow the results down by Content.

5. Click Relevance to sort the results of the search by Relevance or by Document Order, if desired:

   Note:

   Results are sorted according to Relevance by default.

6. Select the Results per page drop-down list following the search results to select how many results appear on the page at one time, if desired

   Note:

   Ten search results are shown on the page at a time by default.

Share, Print, Download, or Email Search Results

1. Conduct a municipality search from the Code Library:

2. Click the checkboxes next to the desired search results:

3. Select an option:

   • Share: Click this option to open a Share Links pane that includes a link for each selected search result that can be copied, pasted, and shared as desired

     1. Copy a URL from the Links to share box:

     2. Paste the URL as desired

     3. Repeat Steps a and b as necessary

     4. Click Close to exit the Share Links panel:

   • Print: Click this option to open your browser or system print dialog box; a printer-friendly version of the selected search results will be available to print:

   • Download: Click this option to download the selected code search results as a Word document:

   • Email: Click this option to open an Email pane that allows you to add email recipients and send an email with links to the selected search results

     1. Fill in the email fields:

        • To (required): Input one or more email addresses that will receive this message

        • CC: Input email addresses that will be carbon copied on this message, if desired

        • Subject: This field auto-populates with text including the number of links being sent and the name of the publication, but it can be edited

        • Links being sent: This field auto-populates with links to the selected content

     2. Click Send: