Search Filters are a way of refining search results so that they become more specific, thus saving you valuable time and energy. Tandem Vault is equipped with a robust and growing list of available search filters to help you find exactly what you're looking for. Almost all of our existing search filters were recommended by clients, so if you think you have a good idea, don't be afraid to share it with us at info@tandemvault.com. 


As always, when you're browsing assets you can adjust what the results look like, such as the background color and zoom. 


The filters can be expanded or collapsed, and toggled out of the way so that you can see more assets in the pane by clicking the arrow or pressing the "." key on your keyboard.

Once you've found a series of search filters you like, or if there is a set of criteria you need to access regularly such as all fall graduation photos in portrait mode with a rating of 7 stars or higher, you can save your search as a Smart Collection. 


Collections

Unlike the rest of the filters described here, the Collections area is actually not a filter. Instead, it is a quick toolbar that allows you to jump to any collection from the asset browsing area, create a new collection, or get redirected to the collection browsing area. 


Collection Results

This filter shows you how many of the assets you're viewing are in Collections, with a number next to each Collection name showing how many assets from your results are displayed there. There is also a category showing which assets are not in any Collections. 


License Groups

License Groups are a way of grouping assets with common licensing terms so that you can fulfill your legal obligations and prevent confusion among users. The filter shows a running tally of all licensed assets in the current search results, divided into their respective license groups, as well as a category showing how many assets do not have a License Group. Clicking the name of a group will refine the results so that they contain only groups covered by the selected license.


Metadata

Metadata is information embedded in the assets prior to upload or added later by a Vault user. There are eight (8) categories of searchable metadata, all of which are fill in the blank.  

  • Catalogue Number: The number assigned to an asset upon upload. You can enter multiple catalogue numbers, separated by commas, if you have a very particular group of assets in mind. 
  • Location: The place where the asset was created. Typing in California here will bring up all results with "California" in the asset's Info > Location area. 
  • Creator: Definitions of "creator" vary, but most use this to designate the person responsible for producing the asset. This filter allows you to find all the work by a particular writer or photographer. 
  • Caption: The caption is often used as a place to provide a few descriptive sentences about the asset(s), such as the occasion or other important contexts. Entering search terms into the caption box will bring up all assets containing these terms in the caption. 
  • Copyright: Copyrights protect intellectual property, so they can be recorded and searched in Vault as needed. 
  • Usage terms: Usage terms are determined by organization. Some create a formal set of terms, others prefer to keep this casual with phrases like "Okay to reuse these." However you do it, entering terms in this box will filter assets accordingly.
  • Exclude terms: This is a useful way to eliminate terms from your search. For instance, if you are looking for photos of Mississippi the state, you can enter the word "river" here to keep photos of the Mississippi River out of your results.
  • Filename: The filename is the actual name of the file, similar to its catalogue number, and was either selected before upload or changed in Vault to conform to naming conventions. If you know that you need to find "Rose_11," you can enter that here and get the precise file you're looking for. 


Note: You can also type a filename in the global search bar. If you only know part of the filename, type in what you can remember followed by an asterisk. Example: trees-WI*


File Type

Vault accepts all known file types. This filter will show the top ten most common file types in your results. Clicking one of the file types will filter results to show only that file type, which can make it easier to isolate PDFs or WAV files in a hurry. 


Tags

Tags are descriptive terms such as "water," "quarterly report," and "outdoors" that refer to aspects of the asset(s). Tags will show up in order from most to least popular, with the number of tagged assets listed next to the name of the tag. Clicking on View All will show all tags in the results. To filter by tag, simply click the one you want. You can repeat this as many times as needed until you have exactly the array of descriptive words you need. 

 


Curation

If you do not have permission to curate, you will not see this filter. If you do, this filter will help you quickly sort assets into Accepted, Pending, and Rejected and see how many fall into each category. You can see in the illustration that I have deleted all Rejected assets from the account, so there is a 0 next to the category in the filter. 


Color

The color filter is a way to filter assets by lighter versus darker shades. To use this filter, click on the color of your choice; you will see a dotted black line appear around the selected color. Please note that you can only click one color at a time, so choose a color that encompasses the categories you need. For instance, choose red instead of pink for more results. 



While the full color wheel is represented in the search options, results may not appear to change if two similar colors are selected. To determine color, Vault's algorithm blows the asset up to 32 pixels and counts the number of red, blue, green, etc. pixels, their distances, and then marks it accordingly into search results.  An asset may have an equal make-up, so it will appear under most color filters. In short, while this a very precise way for machines to read color, over-exposed photographs or photographs with a similar make-up of colors may yield interesting results for a human viewer. 


Feature

Your organization may or may not use these options, especially if License or Usage Groups are not relevant, but this can be a quick way to locate all assets that are not restricted by licensing or all photos containing human subjects. Even if you do not click a feature to activate it, you can still see how many assets fall into each category. As you can see below, there are no sublicenseable assets in my search results so I need to remove some filters if that is a requirement for me. 


Orientation

Vault's algorithms are able to tell at the time of upload if your photos are in landscape or portrait mode, and index them accordingly. To filter by portrait or landscape, simply click the category name. This filter also keeps a tally of how photos are in each category, so you can see at a glance which mode dominates your current search results. 


Date

The date filter is one of our most useful filters because it helps you quickly locate assets added within the last two weeks or since the last time you logged in. Clicking these categories will immediately filter results to show the applicable assets. 

This filter also allows you to specify ranges of upload dates (when they were uploaded to Vault), such as the last three months of uploads, and capture dates (when they were created), such as photos taken in the last year, regardless of when they were uploaded. Clicking the box will activate the calendar dropdown so that you can visually locate the range you need. 


Clicking the category at the top of the calendar will take you to the next level of time, allowing you to filter by increasingly long periods of time. Below you can see the path from days to months to years to decades. 



File Size

A larger file size typically implies higher image resolution or longer document. You can select a range of larger or smaller assets, measured in megabytes, if you are looking for particularly high-quality photos or short documents. Simply specify a range and click Apply. 


Rating

Users with permission to curate can assign ratings of 1 to 10 stars to assets. These ratings mean different things depending on the organization, but typically they denote relevance or quality. The higher an asset's rating, the closer it appears to the top of search results. Clicking this filter will show how many assets are unrated and how many fall under each numeric category. In the example, you can see that all of the assets in my current search are unrated. 


To search for a range, enter your starting and ending numbers (i.e. 7 to 10 stars). To search for a specific rating, enter the same number in both boxes (i.e. 5 to 5 stars). 


Expiration

Assets in License Groups may have been assigned an expiration date. To sort assets by expiration date, enter a range into the boxes or sort by 1,7, or 30 days.