Simple Search returns articles that contain all the words in your query.
Options to search using "Any Words" instead of "All Words" and to change
the scope of your searches in other ways are available by using Advanced
Search.
Check spelling
Make sure your search terms are spelled correctly. With
Sound-Alike Matching turned on (in Advanced Search), the search engine
will attempt to find words that sound similar
to your search terms, but it's always best to try to spell the search terms
correctly.
Use multiple words
Using multiple words will return more refined results
than a single word. For
example, typing
our free product will return more relevant results
than typing just
product. (Keep in mind that relevant results are
returned even if they don't contain all query terms.)
Example:
our free product
Use
similar words
The more similar words you use in a search, the more
relevant your results
will be.
Example:
safe secure privacy security
Use appropriate capitalization
Capitalize proper nouns, and remember that lower-case
words will match any
case. For example, typing
search will return all documents containing
the words
search, Search, and
SEARCH. Typing
Search,
however, will instruct the search engine to look only for the capitalized word.
Example:
Search Template Reference
Use quotation marks
Use quotation marks to find words which must appear
adjacent to each other,
for example,
"our pledge to you." Otherwise, the search results
will include the word
our,
pledge,
to,
and the word
you, but not necessarily in that order. The words
may appear anywhere, and in any order, within the document.
Example:
"our pledge to you"
Use plus (+) or minus (-)
Use a plus sign when your search term or phrase must
appear in the search results.
Use a minus sign to indicate undesirable term(s). The plus sign tells the search
engine that a certain word or phrase is required in the search results, and
a minus sign indicates that a word or phrase must be absent
in the search results.
Note: A phrase must be contained
within quotation
marks. Leave no spaces between
the plus or minus sign and the term.
Example:
+"Windows 2000" -XP
Use field searches
Field searches allow you to create specific searches for
words that appear
in a specific part of a document. A field search can be performed on body text
(body:), title text (title:), alt text (alt:), meta description (desc:), meta
key words (keys:), URL (url:) or meta target key words (target:). The field
name should be in lower-case and immediately followed by a colon. There should
be no spaces between the colon and the search term.
Note: The field searches can only be
followed by a
word or phrase. Phrases
must be contained within quotation marks.
Note: if you are using the Advanced
Search Form with a
list box for the field
name, then field names can only be entered before a word or phrase when the
"any" option is selected. Specific field names are ignored if any other Advanced
Search Form field is selected in the list box.
Examples:
title:about
desc:"Our Team"
keys:login
body:security
alt:"join now"
url:help
target:AtomzWildcard searches can expand the number of matches for a
particular request.
The
* character is used as the wildcard character.
For instance, searching for
wh* will find
the words
what,
why,
when,
whether, and any other word
that starts with
wh.
Searching for
*her*
will find the words
here,
whether,
together,
gathering, and any other word that contains
her anywhere in the word.
Wildcards may be combined with
the standard plus (+) and
minus (-) modifiers,
quotes for phrases, as well as the field search specifiers.
+wh* -se*ch will find all pages which have a word that starts
with
wh and which does not contain a word that starts with
se
and ends with
ch.
"wh* are" will find the phrases
where are,
what are,
why are, etc.
Example:
Examples:
wh*
"wh* are"
415-*-*
