This is a common wish for us, and I see that this is has been requested multiple times. We see that we could build something of the sort using a stateless form with results shown on an HTML page.
Yet...
MUCH more powerful would be to support it in the
native reports UI . This way, the user may have more flexible ad-hoc options in the search, and most importantly: when results are delivered, the user has all the controls of the standard UI vs. html list. NOTE that the Global search is not sufficient for this, due to its limitations.
WITHIN A COLUMN
We'd use this mostly to get better "contains" text searches. But others may have similar needs for other searches.
- dog OR cat OR bird
- dog AND cat
- dog NOT cat
- dog OR bird OR (cat NOT mouse)
ACROSS COLUMNS
Also helpful, but a UI challenge, would be allow user searches to bypass the hard implied "AND" logic between columns.
- Column1 contains "bird" OR Column2 contains "bird".
BEST: CRITERIA BUILDER :-)
We can imagine ways to allow such logic via the Search interface, but the Criteria builder used by the admin for the report Criteria and Custom Filters, already has the ability for all this.
So it seems the ideal long-term solution could be to to allow Users the power of the Criteria builder for their ad-hoc searching (and therefore also saved searches).
While at it, pleeeeease also allow users access to control column order for their ad-hoc and saved searches. ("Available Columns" remains in the control of the Admin, but within that subset, the user, who can already control their hide/show, can also control the order.)