# Simple Search mistake? (Search returns all synonymized taxon records)

**URL:** <https://speciforum.org/t/simple-search-mistake-search-returns-all-synonymized-taxon-records/2854>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Created:** [September 9, 2025, 9:33pm UTC](https://speciforum.org/t/simple-search-mistake-search-returns-all-synonymized-taxon-records/2854 "2025-09-09T21:33:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 5

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**Author:** ![nfshoobs](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/speciforum.org/nfshoobs/32/3979_2.png) [@nfshoobs](https://speciforum.org/u/nfshoobs)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 4:39pm UTC](https://speciforum.org/t/simple-search-mistake-search-returns-all-synonymized-taxon-records/2854/5 "2025-09-11T16:39:50Z")

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Thanks Grant!  
Is there a way to make it so that Simple Search queries certain tables/fields but only _returns_ results from a single table or subset of tables, rather than the whole set of tables being queried (like how setting a “base table” in the query builder limits results to the base table?)

Based on conversations I’ve had with colleagues and students here over the last few months, a basic problem with querying in Specify is that it exposes far too much complexity to users, who have no context to interpret results without an _a priori_ understanding of the Specify Schema. (e.g. **most users of biodiversity data imagine that when they search a biodiversity database, they are searching a flat table where 1. rows represent specimens or lots, 2. columns are fields 3. there are no duplicate rows.** This is how it works on GBIF, iDigBio, Symbiota, Emu, Arctos, etc. Showing users a bunch of atomized records in tables is confusing.)

IMO this ties back in to a deeper issue with the Specify GUI: it’s very hard to get from the form view of a record in one table to the form view of a related record in another table without using the query builder as an intermediate step.

Tree and picklist tables in Sp7 allow users to query linked records via the [find usages button in the form meta](https://speciforum.org/t/form-meta-menu/844#p-1379-tree-items-and-pick-lists-23), ideally this option would be available in all tables, and it would have some customization options and be an optional xml element on the form outside of the form meta.

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_[View the full topic](https://speciforum.org/t/simple-search-mistake-search-returns-all-synonymized-taxon-records/2854)._