CiviCRM is a great open-source customer relationship management (CRM) system that integrates with your Drupal, Wordpress, or Joomla content management system (CMS). CiviCRM has a number of diverse features ranging from contact management, membership management, event registration, and bulk emails. The only problem is that it can be somewhat difficult to remember where to find the settings that you are looking for.

Behold the Quick Search CiviCRM Menu extension. If you are a CiviCRM admin, then you know that there are several nested menu items in the Administer parent menu. This can lead to looking in a few different second tier menus to find the feature you need. This can be frustrating to new users that are not yet familiar with the system. Once the quick search extension is installed, menu items can be found much quicker. CiviCRM permissions are also considered. For example, if a user does not have permissions to the administration section of CiviCRM then those menu items do not appear in the list.

To install the extension, go to Administer > System Settings > Extensions in the CiviCRM menu. Click the Add New tab. Find the extension in the list and click the download link. The extension will be downloaded and set up for use in your system. Remember, its best practice to install any new extension on a test copy of your site first and verify that it functions as expected. To use the feature, simply enter a keyword in the top menu bar and a modal window will appear filtering the menu items defined in the search criteria. Then just click on the link in the popup window and you are taken directly to the page. It's that easy! With this feature, a tech-savvy CiviCRM user can feel empowered to find and change settings without contacting a developer or beating their head against the wall.

UPDATE: This feature will be in CiviCRM core and has been updated to display the results inline rather than a pop-up window.