Overview

Find out all the unique ways you can search and find your films by any word, or find related films without typing a word!!

Search Settings

No special setup is required for searching in My Films, you can search by any field and a variety of methods.

However, on the Views Tab in MyFilms Setup, you can customize the separator(s) which determine how MyFilms identifies each 'value' or search term when a field contains multiple values (like Actors), as well as the separator used to identify actors' roles. The preset values work for most cases.

Search Methods

The My Films Search feature gives you a whole new experience of your film collection!  It allows you to search and find whatever you wish, often without typing a single character. There are three different search methods in My Films:

1. Related films search - by person or any field - makes browsing your collection an experience itself.

Example:  Have you ever wondered what other film you saw that actor in?  Or films directed by the same Director? Or filmed in your native country? Or which Studio produces the films you most like?

Imagine you have a film and would like to know what other films are in your collection with the same actor, or from the same director, producer - or the same country; or search movies having certain keywords of the selected movie? All this is possible and very user friendly. You don't even have to use the virtual keyboard to type in any keywords. Thus it's especially "remote friendly".

2. Global Search for any word - search in all fields or by field - and view a list of matching films:

Example: Have you ever wished to find a film, but you don't remember the title?

You'll never get stuck anymore only knowing you had a film about Osaka, but cannot find it because you can't remember the name. So if you remember it had something to do with "Osaka", just 'search by all fields' for 'Osaka', and My Films will show you all films in your catalog containing that keyword - either in the name, the description, the comment, the actor's name, the country, ....

3. Search Titles or Actors - for any word and display a list of search terms rather than a list of films

Example: You can't remember how to spell an actor's name!

Suppose you want to search for all your films where 'Bruce Willis' stars (you have so many!) but you can't remember how to spell 'Willis'.  In this case, you can Search Actors and enter 'Bruce'. My Films will display a list of all actors with 'Bruce' in their name and then you can select 'Bruce Willis' and view the films in which he stars.

How to Search

All searches are done from the Main window, not the Details window, and may all be accessed from the Main Menu > Search:

Note: If you have filtered your films, filters apply to searches as well. For example, if you have selected to view only unwatched films (either in Start Settings on the Views tab, or via the Global Filters menu option), your searches will only find unwatched films.

Related films

 Select Search related films by person or by fields - from either the Search menu or the context menu (F9 or Info/More remote button):

As of v 6.1.0, when viewing online movie info or a person's filmography, if My Films cannot find a 'match' for a movie in your local movie catalog, it may be due to different language or naming of titles. Thus you may select Search My Films from the context menu to search for related content with the same terms/keywords as the movie title in the list.

Search related films by person

To find all related films with the same actor, director, producer, etc. without typing a single character:

1. Select Search related films by person from either the context menu or the search menu. A dialog will display showing all the persons in the current film:

Simply select the person you wish to search for, and My Films will display a list of all the films in your database in which they appear.

If the person appears in more than one field, for example as an Actor, Director, Producer, Writer, etc., My Films will display a list of the matches:

Search related films by field

You can also search for related films by any field in your database.

1. Select Search related films by field - from either the Search menu or the context menu: 

A dialog will display showing the most commonly used fields, plus the *Show All* option to select another field:

For example, if you select 'Year', My Films will display the year of the current film:

Press enter to find all the films released in the same year. Or search for all films produced in the same country, etc.

Global Search (all films)

Search all films by field 

Select search on all films by fields from the Search menu to display a sub menu:

Last Search (Search History)

If you have previously searched all films by fields, or by a Title or Actors search, you can select and repeat (or modify) a previous search. My Films will display a list of all your previous searches (up to 30 previous searches are saved):

When you select a previous search the virtual keyboard will display for you to modify the search term if you wish.

Search on all fields

Enter a search term(s) using the Virtual keyboard and find all your films that contain the term(s). My Films will present you with a list of all fields/entries and the number of films found for them:

Select an item from the list to view the related films.

Search by field

From the Search all films by fields menu, select: 

• Original Title - to search the Original Title field
• Translated Title - to search the Translated Title field  
• *Show all* - to select another field.

As of v 6.0.0 you no longer need to define global search properties in Setup, you may select any field from the *Show all* list of all fields.

Select a field and type in your search term using the virtual keyboard. 

Search all persons by role

As of v 6.0.0 you can search for a person anywhere in your database and displays results by role. 

Example: You want to find all your films with Aaron Sorkin but don't remember how to spell his last name:

1. Enter the search term "Aaron" in the virtual keyboard to display:
   
2. Select the role you wish for the person you are searching for - e.g. Writer.  My Films will display the persons view:
   
3. Select the person you were looking for, in this case 'Aaron Sorkin' to view all the films in your database that he wrote.

Search by Title or Actors

From the Search menu you can also select:

• Search Title
• Search Actors

Search Title is basically the same as a global search by either the Original or Translated Title field. However, Search by Title will automatically search on whichever field you select in Setup (or Display Options) for Master Title.

Search Actors is similar to Search all persons by roles > Actors, i.e. it displays a list of actors with the search term in their name. A global search by the actors field will display a list of films.  So you can search actors if you don't know the exact name or spelling of an actor's name or remember their full name.

Note: As of v 6.0.1, Searches by Title or by Actors are also saved in the Search history, and display your recent searches to save you retyping common search terms. (see 'Last Search' above). Of course you may always choose to enter a new search term via the virtual keyboard.

Search for Online Videos

Prerequisites: OnlineVideos plugin

Why limit yourself to searching just your local movie catalog? As of v 6.1.0, My Films offers a new context menu option to Search Online Videos ....

You can choose any web site supported by the OnlineVideos plugin to search and display related trailers and videos, even if internet databases like IMDb, TMDb do not have any. Thus you can find online trailers or other videos, that relate to your movie (or person) - even, if that content is not registered e.g. on TMDb.

Related

• Using My Films