 |
|
|
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. These tips will get
you started with basic query language and acquaint you with the full power of this search engine.
| 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.
|
|
|
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 waste but not sewage,
write the following query:
waste AND NOT sewage
|
|
|
Add the OR keyword to find all instances of either one word or another, for
example:
wastewater OR graywater
This query finds all pages that mention wastewater or graywater or both.
|
|
| 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.
|
|
Use Free Text Queries if you want to enter queries using natural language.
Index Server 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. For example, if you type in the following
query:
"How do I remove contaminants in a landfill?"
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.
|
|
|
