Search Hints
How to type your query
| What you
type: |
Documents
will be listed if they contain: |
netscape browser
netscape
and browser
netscape <and> browser |
The two words netscape and
browser. Those two words (regardless of capitalization) must occur
somewhere in the document but not necessarily together or in any order. (Words
separated by spaces are treated as if the space was an implied <and>
operator.) |
| "netscape browser" |
The words netscape browser together in
that order anywhere in the document, regardless of capitalization. (Multiple
words enclosed by quotation marks are treated as a single search phrase.) |
netscape or browser
netscape <or>
browser |
Either the word netscape or the word
browser anywhere in the document, including together, regardless of
capitalization. |
| "netscape browser" compass |
Documents containing both the phrase
netscape browser and the word compass. |
Words separated by spaces (AND operator)
If you enter financial report, documents that contain
both the word financial and the word report at any place in the
document, in any order, will be found. Only those documents that contain
both words somewhere will be listed. For example, both "March
Financial Report Summary" and "Financial Report for March" will be found.
Words enclosed by quotation marks (search
phrases)
When you enclose multiple words between quotation marks, you
create a search phrase. A document will only be found if all of
those words in that exact sequence are contained somewhere within it.
For example, if you enter the phrase "City of Toronto" as your search
criteria, you may find "Child Care in the City of Toronto" but not "Toronto
District School Board".
Words separated by commas (AND< operator)
When you enter words separated by commas (or commas plus
spaces), a document will only be found if all of the words you specified
are contained somewhere within it. (In technical terms, commas are
treated as Boolean AND operators.)
AND operator
When you enter words separated by the word "AND", a document
will only be found if all of the words you specified are contained
somewhere within it. For example, if you enter Algoma and District
and Board as your search criteria, you may find "Algoma District School
Board", "District Board Projects Approved in Algoma", and "District School
Boards and School Authorities ".
OR operator
If you enter financial or report, documents that
contain either the word financial or the word report at any place
in the entry, in any order, using any capitalization, will be found. For
example, "March Financial Report Summary", "Financial Report for March", "March
Education Events", and "Report of the Royal Commission" will be found.
Exact searches
Anything enclosed within quotation marks is searched for
exactly as-is. For example, if you enter "Toronto, Ottawa, and Sudbury
Services" as your search criteria, only documents that contain that exact
string of letters and punctuation will be listed. In other words, the commas
and the word and are treated as elements to search for rather than as
operators.
Boolean operators
In technical terminology, the search engine used on this
website, Netscape Compass Server, uses standard Boolean operators such as
<and>, <or>, and <not>.
Plural forms
When searching, don't enter plural forms such as news
releases because the server will only find documents with releases
(plural) in the title or keywords. If you enter release (singular), the
server will list entries with both release and releases.
Adjusting your search
Your search will often return either too many or too few
documents. When this happens, you need to either widen the scope of your search
to return more documents, or narrow its scope to return a smaller list.
For example, searching for the word report might result
in hundreds of documents. If what you really want are quarterly inventory
reports, you can narrow the scope of your search by adding the word
financial, and quotation marks, so that the search criteria becomes a
phrase reading: "financial report".
Keep in mind, however, that if you make your search too narrow,
you may not locate what you're looking for. For example, if you search for
"Financial Report for March", documents containing other combinations of
related words, such as "March Financial Report" or "Report on Finances,
January-March", will not be found.
Adapted from material © Copyright by Netscape
Communications Corporation.
