Global search

Find a candidate, a job, a client or a contact without going through its list: open the global search from any page of the ATS, type a few letters, and open the record with Enter. When empty, the same window shows your recently viewed records and quick actions — create a candidate, create a job, add a comment to a candidate.

Where to find it

Top bar → the Search… button, right next to the logo
Keyboard → Ctrl + K (Windows) or ⌘ K (Mac), from any page of the ATS

Who can use it

Everyone — the quick actions depend on your permissions (see below)

Opening and closing the search

• The Search… button in the top bar, right next to the logo. It shows the shortcut for your computer: Ctrl K or ⌘K. On a small screen, only the magnifying glass is shown.
• Ctrl + K (Windows) or ⌘ K (Mac), from any page — even while you are typing in a form field.
• To close it: Esc, a click outside the window, or Ctrl + K / ⌘ K again.

The window always opens empty, ready for your search.

What the search covers

Type at least 3 characters. Results arrive as soon as you stop typing, in four groups — Candidates, Jobs, Clients and Contacts, under the names your organization gives these sections — with at most 5 results per group.

Group	What is searched	What each row shows
Candidates	The name, then the content of the record: CVs, comments and files	Name · current position · city
Jobs	The job’s title and content — including filled and closed jobs	Title (in your language) · client · job number, and an Open, Filled or Closed status chip
Clients	The name, then the content of the record	Name · city
Contacts	The name, then the content of the record	Name · title · company

For a text search, the typed words are shown in bold in the results.

Note

Prospect clients do not appear. With the CRM module, clients still in prospection or lost are tracked in the CRM: the ATS global search does not offer them, just like the client list.

The order of the results

The search puts the best match first, so that Enter opens the right record straight away:

1. In each group, the names that match best

   First a name identical to what you typed, then names that start with your text, then names where a word starts with your text, then names that contain it. When two records match equally well, the one containing more of the typed words comes first.

2. The groups, from best to least good

   The group holding the best match is shown first. Type the beginning of a job title: unless a candidate’s name matches better, the Jobs group comes before Candidates, and Enter opens that job.

3. Records found only in their content come last

   See the next section.

”Found in the CV, notes or files”

A text search also looks through the content of the records: the text of CVs, comments and files. A candidate, a client or a contact can therefore be found even though nothing shown on its row — name, email, phone, position or title — contains the typed words. For example, type the name of a former employer: you find the candidates whose CV mentions it.

These rows carry the italic label Found in the CV, notes or files, so you know why they are listed. They come after the visible matches of their group, and a group holding only such results comes after all the others. That way, Enter never opens a record found only in a CV while a record matches by its name.

Jobs never carry this label: a job found only through its description simply comes last in its group.

Searching by phone, email, LinkedIn URL or job number

The search recognizes what you type — the bottom of the window reminds you: Also searches by phone, email, LinkedIn URL or job number.

• A phone number — type the full number, area code included, with or without spaces, dashes, dots or parentheses: 418 555-0143, (418) 555-0143, 4185550143 or +1 418 555 0143 find the same person, whatever format the number was saved in. A run of 7 digits or more is read as a phone number. The search covers candidates, clients and contacts (main and mobile numbers), and the number found is shown on the row.
• An email address — type the full address. It is looked up among the emails of candidates, clients and contacts, and the address found is shown on the row.
• A LinkedIn profile URL — paste the profile address (https://www.linkedin.com/in/…) to find the candidate or contact with that profile.
• A job number — type the digits only, without #, 3 to 6 digits. The job with that number is shown first, and Enter opens it. The usual search also runs in every group, in case those digits are part of a name, a title or a phone number.

Tip

Jobs numbered 1 to 99. Because of the 3-character minimum, a 1- or 2-digit number is not searched as a job number. Find those jobs by their title, or from the job list.

Moving with the keyboard

Key	Effect
↑ / ↓	Move from row to row — after the last one, you are back at the first
Enter	Open the highlighted record
Ctrl + Enter (Windows) or ⌘ + Enter (Mac)	Open the record in a new tab
Ctrl + click / ⌘ + click	Open the clicked record in a new tab
Esc	Close the search

Hovering a row with the mouse also highlights it. The main keys are recalled at the bottom of the window.

Recently viewed

As long as you have typed fewer than 3 characters, the window shows Recently viewed: the last 8 candidates, jobs, clients and contacts whose page you opened, the most recent at the top. Each row shows the kind of record and a detail — a candidate’s current position, a job’s client and number, a client’s city, a contact’s title.

Note

This list belongs to you and to this browser. It is not shared with your colleagues and does not follow you to another browser or another computer, where it starts from scratch. Clearing Nextal’s browsing data empties it too.

Quick actions

Below Recently viewed, the Quick actions group offers three shortcuts. You choose them like a record: arrows then Enter, or a click. Each one appears only if you have the permissions it needs; as soon as you type 3 characters, the actions give way to the results.

Action	What it does	Shown if you have
New candidate	Opens the candidate list with the Add Candidate panel already open: drop in a CV, or type first name, last name, email and phone.	Candidate Create and Candidate List
New job	Opens the job list with the usual job creation panel — from a template or from scratch —, with no client preselected.	Job Create and Job List
Add a comment to a candidate	Lets you choose a candidate, then opens the comment panel on their record (details below).	Candidate List

If you are already on the candidate list (or the job list), the panel opens on top of it and the list keeps your filters, sort and search. Reloading the page afterwards does not reopen the panel.

Add a comment to a candidate

1. Choose the action

   The window turns into a candidate search: at the top, ← Back · Add a comment — choose a candidate, and the field shows Search for a candidate…. Only candidates are searched, and Recently viewed shows candidates only. With no recent candidate, the window says Type the candidate’s name, phone or email.

2. Find the candidate

   Search as usual, from 3 characters: name, phone, email or LinkedIn URL. To go back to the normal search, click Back, or press Backspace (⌫) while the field is empty.

3. Choose them

   Enter or a click. The window closes and the New comment panel opens — the same one as in the candidate’s Comments tab: the About line with their name, an optional job picked from the ones they applied to, and the editor, where @ mentions a colleague. Here, Ctrl + Enter does not open a tab: it opens the panel, like Enter.

4. Save

   The Comment added message confirms it and the panel closes. The comment is in the candidate’s Comments tab.

Note

If you close the panel without saving, your text is not lost: run the action again on the same candidate, in the same browser tab, to get it back.

If that candidate’s page is already open behind the window, its Comments tab shows the new comment after the page is reloaded.

If the candidate cannot be opened, the message This candidate could not be opened. is shown.

When nothing shows up

• No results for “…” — nothing matches. Check the spelling, try a single word, or part of the name.
• The search failed. Please try again. — the search could not be run, for example because the connection dropped. Type a letter again or reopen the window.
• Fewer than 3 characters — the window keeps showing your recent records and the quick actions: nothing is searched yet.
• No recently viewed records. — you have not opened any record in this browser yet, and no quick action is offered to you. Type 3 characters to start a search.

Tips

• To go fast, use the global search; to filter, use the lists. The global search shows 5 results per group, without filters. To sort, combine filters, save a view or export, go through the candidate list or the job, client and contact lists.
• Type the rarest word. An uncommon last name or a job number brings the right record to the top, ready to open with Enter.
• Compare without losing your place. Ctrl + Enter (⌘ + Enter on a Mac) opens the record in a new tab: the page you were on stays open.
• Get back to a record without searching. Ctrl + K, the arrows, then Enter: your last 8 opened records are there, without typing anything.