Browsing Folders

Instead of searching through keywords, you can also search through your clauses by browsing through your folders and subfolders.

For example, if you are looking for a typical interpretation boilerplate clause, the keyword interpretation will itself probably not be a very good candidate, as it will lead to many noise search results with clauses that also happen to contain the word interpretation. In such case, it is probably much faster to browse to Clauses > Boilerplate > Interpretation and take a clause there.

Searching through folders is very straightforward: you simply select a folder, and you are presented with a list of all the clauses in that folder, or any of its subfolders. If you want to further narrow down your search results, you can then click on a subfolder, or start filtering your results.

Filtering through keywords

To narrow down your search results, you can enter one or more keywords in the Filter input box. ClauseBuddy will then only show search results that are simultaneously within the folder you selected (or any of its subfolders) and also meet the keywords you entered.

Check out our page on Searching by keywords to learn more on how you enter keywords; all the tips & tricks described there, apply equally to the filtering in the context of Browse.

When to use

For legal professionals, browsing through folders is actually the most natural way to search. After all, when you are thinking about a certain clause, you are probably (at least implicitly) thinking primarily about a kind of clause — e.g., "I want to insert an entire agreement clause" or "I need an applicable law clause".

If your library has a reasonably decent structure (taxonomy), you can therefore very quickly find a relevant clause, without having to come up with smart combinations of keywords.

Folder searches will not work well in chaotic clause libraries and "residual" folders where difficult-to-categorise clauses are thrown together. In such scenarios, keywords may be a better fit.