Search and Site Map

A query can be just a word or a phrase, but you can expand the focus of your query to give you more complete results. These tips will get you started with basic query language.

• Look for words with the same prefix. For example, in the query field type "key*" to find key, keying, keyhole, keyboard, and so on.

• Search for all tenses of a word. For example, in the query field 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 surfing the Net, type "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 the search feature to take them literally. For instance, if you type "system NEAR manager," the search feature will literally look for the complete phrase system near manager. But if you type the same query without the quotation marks, system near manager, the search feature will search all documents for the words system and manager.