diff --git a/client/src/components/Panels/utilities.test.js b/client/src/components/Panels/utilities.test.js
index 33970938dfed..40e9386dac34 100644
--- a/client/src/components/Panels/utilities.test.js
+++ b/client/src/components/Panels/utilities.test.js
@@ -166,6 +166,7 @@ describe("test helpers in tool searching utilities", () => {
     it("test tool fuzzy search", async () => {
         const expectedResults = ["__FILTER_FAILED_DATASETS__", "__FILTER_EMPTY_DATASETS__"];
         const keys = { description: 1, name: 2, combined: 0 };
+        // Testing if just names work with DL search
         const filterQueries = ["Fillter", "FILYER", " Fitler", " filtr"];
         filterQueries.forEach((q) => {
             const { results, closestTerm } = searchToolsByKeys(
@@ -178,7 +179,20 @@ describe("test helpers in tool searching utilities", () => {
             expect(results).toEqual(expectedResults);
             expect(closestTerm).toEqual("filter");
         });
-        const queries = ["datases from a collection", "from a colleection"];
+        // Testing if names and description function with DL search
+        let queries = ["datases from a collection", "from a colleection", "from a colleection"];
+        queries.forEach((q) => {
+            const { results } = searchToolsByKeys(
+                Object.values(toolsList.tools),
+                keys,
+                q,
+                "default",
+                toolsListInPanel.default
+            );
+            expect(results).toEqual(expectedResults);
+        });
+        // Testing if different length queries correctly trigger changes in max DL distance
+        queries = ["datae", "ppasetsfrom", "datass from a cppollection"];
         queries.forEach((q) => {
             const { results } = searchToolsByKeys(
                 Object.values(toolsList.tools),
diff --git a/client/src/components/Panels/utilities.ts b/client/src/components/Panels/utilities.ts
index 77c22820eb87..6c2c4713d296 100644
--- a/client/src/components/Panels/utilities.ts
+++ b/client/src/components/Panels/utilities.ts
@@ -443,22 +443,25 @@ function getPanelSectionsForTool(tool: Tool, panelView: string) {
  * @returns substring with smallest DL distance, or null
  */
 function closestSubstring(query: string, actualStr: string) {
+    // Create max distance
     // Max distance a query and substring can be apart
-    const maxDistance = 1;
+    const maxDistance = Math.floor(query.length / 5);
     // Create an array of all actualStr substrings that are query length, query length -1, and query length + 1
-    const substrings = Array.from({ length: actualStr.length - query.length + 1 }, (_, i) =>
+    const substrings = Array.from({ length: actualStr.length - query.length + maxDistance }, (_, i) =>
         actualStr.substr(i, query.length)
     );
     if (query.length > 1) {
         substrings.push(
-            ...Array.from({ length: actualStr.length - query.length + 2 }, (_, i) =>
-                actualStr.substr(i, query.length - 1)
+            ...Array.from({ length: actualStr.length - query.length + maxDistance + 1 }, (_, i) =>
+                actualStr.substr(i, query.length - maxDistance)
             )
         );
     }
     if (actualStr.length > query.length) {
         substrings.push(
-            ...Array.from({ length: actualStr.length - query.length }, (_, i) => actualStr.substr(i, query.length + 1))
+            ...Array.from({ length: actualStr.length - query.length }, (_, i) =>
+                actualStr.substr(i, query.length + maxDistance)
+            )
         );
     }
     // check to see if any substrings have a levenshtein distance less than the max distance