Search Tips
Check spelling
Make sure your search terms are spelled correctly.
Use multiple words
Using multiple words will return more refined results than a single word. For example, typing
our free product
will return more relevant results than typing justproduct
. (Keep in mind that relevant results are returned even if they don't contain all query terms.)Example:
our free product
Use similar words
The more similar words you use in a search, the more relevant your results will be.
Example:
safe secure privacy security
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 wordssearch, Search,
andSEARCH
. TypingSearch
, however, will instruct the search engine to look only for the capitalized word.Example:
Search Template Reference
Use quotation marks
Use quotation marks to find words which must appear adjacent to each other, for example,
"our pledge to you."
Otherwise, the search results will include the wordour
,pledge
,to
, and the wordyou
, 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:
"our pledge to you"
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:
+"template language"
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:about
desc:"Our Team"
keys:membership
body:security
alt:"join now"
url:help
target:AtomzUse 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 wordswhat
,why
,when
,whether
, and any other word that starts withwh
.
Searching for*her*
will find the wordshere
,whether
,together
,gathering
, and any other word that containsher
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 withwh
and which does not contain a word that starts withse
and ends withch
.
"wh* are"
will find the phraseswhere are
,what are
,why are
, etc.Example:
wh*
"wh* are"
415-*-*
ICC, P.O.Box 15078, Washington, DC 20003