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Scope searches every course you’ve opened at once, so you don’t have to remember which course, module, or folder something lives in. Type a few words, such as lecture 7 or hw4, and open the result. Searching happens on your computer, so it works the same in every course and doesn’t depend on your school’s own search settings.

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Before you begin

Scope needs to find your courses first. Open your Canvas or Brightspace site once and wait for the first pass to finish. See Connect your courses. You can search from a course page or from the Scope icon. Both search the same courses.
The search bar opens only on Canvas and Brightspace pages at addresses Scope recognizes. On other sites, including a school site you added in Settings, click the Scope icon instead.

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Search from a course page

1

Open the search bar

On a Canvas or Brightspace page, press ⌘+K or Ctrl+K. The Scope search bar opens over the page.
2

Type what you're looking for

Type a few words. Results update as you type.
3

Open a result

Use the arrow keys to highlight a result, then press Enter. You can also click it. The result opens in the current tab.
To close the search bar, press Esc or click outside it. Before you type anything, the search bar shows what you opened recently. If you haven’t opened anything yet, it shows Search your courses, or start with what’s due this week. and your work due in the next seven days.

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Search from the Scope popup

1

Open the popup

Click the Scope icon in your toolbar.
2

Type in the search box

The box says Search or type a command. Results replace the due-date list as you type. The line above the results shows how many results there are and which courses they come from.
3

Open a result

Click a result, or highlight it with the arrow keys and press Enter. To open it in a new background tab instead, hold ⌘ or Ctrl while you click.
Your recent searches appear as Recent searches under the results. Click one to run it again. As you type, Scope also suggests searches you’ve run before that match.

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What you can find

Scope finds the things your instructors post in Canvas and Brightspace:
  • Assignments, quizzes, and discussions, with their due dates
  • Pages, the syllabus, and announcements
  • Files and folders, including PDFs, slides, and documents
  • Videos and external links in your modules
  • Documents your instructor links from the syllabus, such as Google Docs
  • Your own notes and to-dos that you add in Scope. See Grades, notes, and focus tools.
Scope searches titles, course and module names, and the text inside pages, assignment instructions, the syllabus, and PDFs. For scanned PDFs that have no text, Scope reads the scanned pages on your computer while you’re away from it, so they become searchable over time. Each result shows a label for its type, such as assignment, pdf, or page, plus its course.

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Search tips

Scope understands how students actually type.
To see example searches in action, open the Scope popup and go to Settings > Help & shortcuts. Under Try a search, click an example to run it.

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Pin items you use often

Pinning keeps an item one click away at the top of the popup.
  • To pin a result, click the pin icon on its row, or highlight it and press Shift+Enter.
  • Pinned items appear in a row above the due-date list. To see only pinned work on your agenda, click the Pinned tab.
  • To unpin an item, click the pin icon again.

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Limit search to one course

If a search finds nothing, and you’re on a course page, the popup offers Try this course only. Click it to limit both search and the due-date list to that course. While the limit is on, a pill with the course name and the word “only” appears above the list, for example BIO 1A only. To show every course again, click the × on the pill (Show all courses).

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Browse everything Scope found

To see every item Scope has found, grouped by type:
1

Open the list

In the Scope popup, click the item count in the bottom-right corner, such as 214 items.
2

Pick a type

In Everything Scope Found, click a tab, such as Assignments, Pages, PDFs, or Videos. Each tab shows how many items it has.

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If you don’t find what you’re looking for

  • No matches yet means nothing matched your words. Try fewer or different words. In the popup, click Show due items to go back to your agenda, or Browse everything Scope found.
  • If a file is new, Scope may not have found it yet. Open the course and choose Refresh sync. See Check for new material now.
  • If the text inside a PDF doesn’t match, Scope may still be reading it. Large courses can take a few minutes.
  • If you see Nothing here yet. Open Canvas once and your courses show up., Scope hasn’t found any courses. Click Open Canvas (or Find My Courses in the search bar).
To ask a question about your courses instead of searching for a file, type the question in the search bar. See Ask Scope. The search bar on course pages also runs commands. Type / to see them all, or type a command’s name, such as gpa, plan, or polya. For example, typing polya on a Canvas course page shows Study in Polya, which sends that course to Polya, Scope’s course tutor. See Send a course to Polya and the full list in Commands. By default, Scope learns from the results you open so that the things you use most rank higher. You can turn this off or fine-tune ranking in Settings > Search & AI. See Settings.

Track what's due

See overdue, today, and this week’s work across all your courses.

Keyboard shortcuts

Every key Scope responds to.