Help

Searching and Browsing GEDS

1. Overview
2. Browsing
3. General Search
4. Advanced Search
5. Field Box
6. Match Box
7. Search Results

Accessibility Help

1. Accessibility Features Statement

Overview

When you first connect to the directory, you are presented with a general search box. From this point, you can either perform a government-wide search or browse the contents of a department or agency by clicking on "Department Listing".

Searches are based on the current location within the directory.  Your current location appears in bold at the top of the search form. For example, Search in :  Canada.

When searching through the directory, the search result page will list employees alphabetically by surname, given name. A maximum of 1,000 search results will be listed.

The general search box appears on all browse pages. An advanced search page is also available by clicking on the Advanced Search link.

Browsing

To browse through GEDS listings by department, click on the Departmental Listing link. From here, you can begin viewing the contents of a department or agency by clicking on a department name. When you do this, a list of the "Organizations", "People" and "Roles" which report to that department or agency appears. You can view the contents of one of the displayed sub-organizations by clicking on its entry on the screen. You can continue this process and steadily work your way down the organizational structure.

When performing a search after browsing to an organization in a department, only that organization and any sub-organizations below it will be searched in.

General Search

The general search form accepts the following values:

• surname (eg. Smith)
• surname, given name (eg. Smith, John)
• given name and surname (eg. John Smith)
• phone number (eg. 613-999-9999 or (613) 999-9999 or 6139999999)

Accented characters are ignored in a general search. For example, a search for cote, andré and a search for cote, andre would return the same search results.

When searching for names which contain spaces, always use the surname, given name format, or the advanced search form.

Advanced Search

In the advanced search form, you have the option of selecting a search field from the "Field Box" and selecting matching criteria from the "Match Box".

Field Box

The available options are:

• Surname, Given name (default)
• Surname
• Given name
• Telephone Number
• Title
• Organization
• Role

The advanced search form allows you to search for people, titles, roles, and organizations listings. You can search on surname, given name, telephone number, title, organization or role. Different types of matches can be used: begins with, contains, ends with, or exact. The search will be executed within the currently selected organization, which appears in bold at the top of the search form.

With these options, you can type in either a complete or partial search value. Capitalization is ignored when searching, but accents and non-alphabetic characters are taken into account.

Important: In the sections below, whenever "all entries" is mentioned it should be understood that this is up to a maximum of 1,000 search results.

Surname, Given name (default)

With this option, you can type in either a complete or partial search value. The directory returns all entries up to a maximum of 1,000 search results which match. You do not need to enter capitals, accented characters, or non-alphabetic characters in your search. If both a surname and given name are specified, a comma must be used to separate them and the surname must appear first.

Tip: Specify as much of the name as possible, this will produce fewer and more precise results, and reduce the time required to complete the search.

Some examples of valid searching using the "begins with" matching criterion are:

Surname, Given name

• cote, j will return all entries with a surname of Cote, Coté, Côté, and a given name beginning with J
• cote, (with a comma) will return all entries with a surname of Cote, with or without accented characters
• cote (without a comma) will return all entries with a surname beginning with Cote, with or without accented characters, including hyphenated surnames such as Côté-Lambert

Surname

• cote will return all entries with a surname beginning with "Cote"; entries with accents are excluded
• côté will return all entries with a surname beginning with "Côté"; accented characters are taken into account exactly, so entries beginning with Coté would not be returned

Given name

• therese will return all entries with a given name beginning with "Therese"
• thérèse will return all entries with a given name beginning with "Thérèse"
• jean- will return all entries with a given name beginning with "Jean-" such as Jean-Claude, Jean-Luc, etc.

Telephone Number

If you are unsure of the area code, you can enter in the seven digit number and use the "ends with" matching criterion. Any brackets, hyphens, and spaces entered in the search value will be ignored.

A telephone number search checks in the telephone number, secure telephone number, alternate phone number, and TTY fields and returns any matching results.

Tip: When searching for toll free numbers, do not include "1"

Tip: International telephone numbers begin with "011"

Some examples of valid searches using the "begins with" search criterion are:

• 866 will return all toll free entries with the 866 area code
• 819956 will return all entries beginning with the area code 819 followed by 956
• 011 will return all entries beginning with 011 (international phone numbers)
• 800-622-6232 will return all entries with this number

Title

• director general will return all entries with a title beginning with Director General

Organization

• technical support will return all organizational entries which begin with the words "Technical Support", including Technical Support Branch, Technical Support Centre, and Technical Support Services

Role

• help desk will return all entries with a role beginning with "Help Desk"

Match Box

In the advanced search form, you have the option of selecting a matching criterion from the drop-down list, called the "Match Box".

The available options are:

• Begins with (default)
• Contains
• Ends with
• Exact

Begins with or Ends with

The "begins with" and "ends with" searches work in a similar way. These search types are relatively fast, but are only useful if you know exactly how the search value you are looking for begins or ends.

Contains

This is a broader search which can take a long time. The search is checking for any matches which either begin, contain, or end with the search value you are looking for.

Exact

This selection will return all entries within a given search field which exactly match the search value specified.

Accents and non-alphabetic characters are taken into account when using this search criteria.

Search Results

When there is only one search result, the entry will automatically appear once the search is completed.

When there is more than one search result, the search result page will list employees alphabetically by surname. A maximum of 1,000 search results will be listed. The search results list will list: surname, given name; telephone number; department acronym; title; organization acronym. Clicking on the department or organization acronym will display the complete details of the person's department or organization.

If you are getting too many search results, and you know which department or agency the person you are looking for is in, you can narrow your search by browsing to that department before beginning your search.

For example, to search for an employee of Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), click on the letter "P" at the top of the page to scroll down the list of departments and agencies beginning with the letter P. Click on "Public Works and Government Services Canada". The list of organizations immediately below "Public Works and Government Services Canada" will be displayed, and the search form will show the following text above the value box "Search in: Public Works and Government Services Canada". Enter the text you want to search for in the value box, and any matches to your search will come only from listings in PWGSC.

Accessibility Help

Accessibility Features Statement

In order to make this site more accessible, GEDS has employed templates which:

• are XHTML 1.0 Strict conformant, to improve compatibility with adaptive technologies, handheld devices, browsers and search engines;
• have been successfully tested on a wide range of adaptive technologies and browser/platform combinations to ensure that Canadians can access Web pages regardless of the technology used;
• include major components, such as the common menu bar, side menu, and content area that are properly marked up with headings to simplify navigation with a screen reader;
• employ table-less layout and design to simplify screen reader navigation by reducing the structural complexity of Web pages;
• improve accessibility by allowing visitors to configure visual elements to meet their accessibility needs;
• use scalable fonts and text-based navigational elements to improve accessibility and simplify navigation using adaptive technologies;
• provide printer-friendly functionality in the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to render pages more compatible with printers and to prevent printing unnecessary page elements;
• separate visual presentation from the document structure;
• avoid truncated and overlapped elements at very large font sizes;
• display the title value when a link gains keyboard focus; and
• employ skip navigation links at the beginning of the page for quickly moving to the content or the institutional links. These skip navigation links become visible when a mouse pointer hovers over top or when selected using a keyboard or other alternate input device.