Search Help

Regardless of the search option selected, designate a phrase by surrounding the words of the phrase with quotation marks. When typing multiple, individual words to be searched (not as a phrase), you must separate the individual words with a space. The search engine is not “case-sensitive”; capitalization does not matter. The search will return any form of the word, whether capitalized or not.

Above the text-entry box, there is a “search options” selection box, which can be used if you have typed multiple words or a phrase. Click on the small drop-down list selector pointer (triangle to the right of the box) to view the three available options:

• any of the words –This is the default option. If you use multiple words, this search will find every document that contains any or all of the words. For a multiple-word search, this option will return the most number of pages, which can sometimes be more than you wanted to search. To prevent this, try to make the words as specific and as closely related to each other as possible. Also, use the fewest possible words to reduce the number of returned pages.
  
  
• all the words –This search will only retrieve those pages that contain all of the words. This type of search can be the best for narrowing the focus of your search. However, it is common for this search option to return no applicable pages, since a page must contain all the words to fully meet the search criteria. If you are not sure what words might be together on a page, it is better to use the default option (above).
  
  
• Boolean operators –The Boolean terms and, or, or not can also be used:
  • and requires the connected words to always be used in the search.
  • or allows either of the connected words to be used.
  • not excludes a specific word (or phrase) from being used in the search.