Search
Tips
Searches
produce a list of files that contain the word or phrase no matter where
they appear in the text.
This
list gives the rules for formulating queries:
- Consecutive
words are treated as a phrase; they must appear in the same order within
a matching document.
- Queries
are case-insensitive, so you can type your query in uppercase or lowercase.
- You
can search for any word except for those in the exception list (for
English, this includes a, an, and, as, and other common words), which
are ignored during a search.
- Words
in the exception list are treated as placeholders in phrase and proximity
queries. For example, if you searched for “Word for Windows”, the results
could give you “Word for Windows” and “Word and Windows”, because "for"
is a noise word and appears in the exception list.
- Punctuation
marks such as the period (.), colon (:), semicolon (;), and comma (,)
are ignored during a search.
- To
use specially treated characters such as &, |, ^, #, @, $, (, ), in
a query, enclose your query in quotation marks (“).
- To
search for a word or phrase containing quotation marks, enclose the
entire phrase in quotation marks and then double the quotation marks
around the word or words you want to surround with quotes. For example,
“World-Wide Web or ““Web””” searches for World-Wide Web or “Web”.
- You
can insert Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT) and the proximity operator
(NEAR) to specify additional search information.
- The
wildcard character (*) can match words with a given prefix. The query
"esc*" matches the terms “ESC,” “escape,” and so on.
- Free-text
queries can be specified without regard to query syntax.
Wildcards
Wildcard operators help you find pages containing words similar to a given
word.
| To
Search For |
Search
Example |
Results |
| Words
with the same prefix |
comput* |
Pages
with words that have the prefix “comput,” such as “computer,” “computing,”
and so on |
| Words
based on the same stem word |
fly**
|
Pages
with words based on the same stem as “fly,” such as “flying,” “flown,”
“flew,” and so on |
Free-Text
Queries
The
query engine finds pages that best match the words and phrases in a free-text
query. This is done by automatically finding pages that match the meaning,
not the exact wording, of the query. Boolean, proximity, and wildcard
operators are ignored within a free-text query. Free-text queries are
prefixed with $contents.
| To
Search For |
Search
Example |
Results |
| Files
that match free-text |
$contents
how do I print in Microsoft Excel? |
Pages that mention printing and Microsoft Excel. |
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