Check spelling   Use multiple words Example: video card Use similar words Example: computer pc desktop tower system package Use appropriate capitalization Example: Search Canon HP Use quotation marks Example: "discount savings voucher" Use plus (+) or minus (-) Example: +"floppy drive" -"disk"

Use field searches Examples:  title:software  desc:"for new computers"  keys:OEM  body:microsoft  alt:"MS Office"  url:software  target:BOIC Use wildcards Examples:  BJC*  "SO* cartridge"  13*HC

Make sure your search terms are spelled correctly. If Sound-Alike Matching is turned on, 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.

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Use multiple words

Using multiple words will return more refined results than a single word. For example, typing video card will return more relevant results than typing just card. (Keep in mind that relevant results are returned even if they don't contain all query terms.)

Example: video card

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Use similar words

The more similar words you use in a search, the more relevant your results will be.

Example: computer pc desktop tower system package

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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 Canon HP

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Use quotation marks

Use quotation marks to find words which must appear adjacent to each other, for example, "discount savings voucher." Otherwise, the search results will include the word discount, savings, and the word voucher, but not necessarily in that order. The words may appear anywhere, and in any order, within the document.

Note: if you are using the Advanced Search Form with radio buttons for "any," "all," and "phrase," then quotes can only be used when the "any" radio button is selected. Quotes are ignored if the "all" or "phrase" radio buttons are selected.

Example: "discount savings voucher"

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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.

Note: if you are using the Advanced Search Form with radio buttons for "any," "all," and "phrase," then plus and minus can only be used when the "any" radio button is selected. Plus and minus are ignored if the "all" or "phrase" radio buttons are selected.

Example: Example: +"floppy drive" -"disk"

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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:software
 desc:"for new computers"
 keys:OEM
 body:microsoft
 alt:"MS Office"
 url:software
 target:BOIC

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Use wildcards

Wildcard 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.

Examples:
 BJC*
 "SO* cartridge"
 13*HC