Specialist finders
Specialist finders help users find and navigate large collections of documents.
They’re aimed at specialist or professional audiences who need to find documents among a large collection by filtering for specific criteria.
They’re published using Specialist Publisher.
Use specialist finders for document collections that:
- contain over 100 documents
- have new documents added regularly
- require complex searches on multiple filters, such as ‘Region’ or ‘Category’
Do not use them for:
- complex content with numbered or named chapters or clauses – these are more suited to manuals
- grouping pages that contain different types of content – these are more suited to topic pages
- collections that will have fewer than 100 documents and will not be used or updated regularly - these are more suited to document collections
See a good example of a specialist finder.
Ask for a new specialist finder
If you’re the GOV.UK lead or a managing editor in your organisation, use the GOV.UK support form to ask for a new specialist finder.
After you’ve submitted the form, you’ll be asked more questions to determine whether a specialist finder is suitable for your content.
If a specialist finder is suitable, you’ll then be asked to complete an online form. You’ll need to send over details like the finder’s:
- title
- description
- related links
- search filters (like ‘Region’) and the options for each filter (like ‘North East’ and ‘South West’)
After that, your request will be passed to developers. They’ll contact you to make sure they can do everything you’ve asked for.
New specialist finders can usually be created within 3 months. It can take up to 6 months during busy periods. Any urgent deadlines you have will be taken into account.
If no one in your organisation has access to Specialist Publisher already, you’ll be given it by developers when your new specialist finder is ready.
Ask for changes to an existing specialist finder
You can ask for changes if both:
- you have access to Specialist Publisher
- your organisation is tagged to the specialist finder you want to change
If you can ask for changes, go to Specialist Publisher and choose the specialist finder you want to change. Select ‘Finder setup’.
You can then select ‘Request changes’ next to either ‘Finder details’ or ‘Filters and options’.
Make any edits you want and then select ‘Submit changes’.
Your request will be passed to developers at GDS.
It will usually take developers up to 1 month to make the changes. You can ask for them to be made on a specific day in the request form.
If you expect multiple changes over a period of time, it’ll be easier if you group these together in your request.
If you need access to Specialist Publisher, ask one of your organisation admins. If they cannot give you access themselves, they can submit an account change request.
Writing and formatting requirements for specialist finders
All content should follow the GOV.UK style guide and tone of voice guidance. Read these to find out how to write your title, summary and body copy.
Name the specialist finder with a verb, like ‘Find funding for land or farms’. Specialist finders are used to do a specific task, which is usually to “find” a document related to a specialist interest.
Specialist finders also have a range of filters you can give to users. These can include different topics, like ‘Region’ and ‘Company’, and different selection options, like multiple choice and date ranges. Do user research to find out which filters users will need.