|
Tips for Searching
At its simplest, a query can be just a word or a phrase. But
with the tips on this page, you can expand the focus of your query to
give you more complete results.
-
Look for words with the same prefix. For example, in your
query form type key* to find key, keying,
keyhole, keyboard, and so on.
-
Search for all forms of a word. For example, in the form
type sink** to find sink, sinking,
sank, and sunk.
-
Search with the keyword NEAR, rather
than AND, for words close to each other. For example,
both of these queries, system and manager and system
near manager, look for the words system and manager
on the same page. But with NEAR, the returned pages
are ranked in order of proximity: The closer together the words are,
the higher the rank of that page.
-
Refine your queries with the AND NOT
keywords to exclude certain text from your search. For example, if
you want to find all instances of surfing but not the
Net, write the following query:
surfing AND NOT the Net
- Add the OR keyword to find all instances of either
one word or another, for example:
Abbott OR Costello
This query finds all pages that mention Abbott or Costello or both.
-
Put quotation marks around keywords if you want to search
for phrases. For instance, if you type the following query:
"system near manager"
The search engine will look for the complete phrase system near
manager. But if you type the same query without the quotation
marks:
system near manager
The search engine looks for all documents for the words system
and manager.
-
Use Free Text Queries if
you want to enter queries using natural language. The search engine
will examine your query, extract nouns and noun phrases and construct
a query for you. With free text queries you can enter any text you
want, from a proper question, to a string of words and phrases, without
worrying about the query language. The search engine will create a
query for you automatically and begin the search. Note that when you're
using free text queries, the regular query language features are disabled
and keywords such as AND, OR, and
NEAR are interpreted as normal words.
These hints will get you started, but for more complex
queries and more examples, see the Query Language
page.
|
|