TITLE
    Tech Info Library: Advanced Search Techniques
Article ID:
Created:
Modified: 		58444
9/8/99
7/20/00
TOPIC
DISCUSSION

    Search Tips
    Writing a query is a way to ask a question about a subject. The way you ask questions in the form of queries determines which documents will be returned. The simplest way is to enter words that describe the subject you are interested in. The information below introduces to you how to write queries using the TIL's Web search features, and covers:
    • How to write basic queries
    • How to incorporate operators
    These topics also have sample queries, to help you create queries to find the information you are looking for.

    How to Write Basic Queries

    Basic Queries
    You can write a basic query using words and phrases, separated by commas. If you want to see documents about using text editors to create Web documents, you can start with a single-word query, such as:

    editor

    In this case, your query finds all the documents that include the word "editor." However, this search would include not only documents about text editors, but also documents about other kinds of editors. You do not have to specify the plural form, because a basic search includes stemmed variations, such as "editors." Documents about the Web that did not include the word "editor" would not be retrieved.

    To ask for more specific results, you could enter several words or phrases, separated by commas, that describe the subject more precisely, such as:

    text editor, document, web

    In this case, your query finds documents that contain "text editor", "document", or "Web." Upper or lower case does not matter in queries: a word entered in lower case will match words in upper case, lower case, or mixed case. The most relevant documents, such as those that discuss creating HTML documents for the Web using a text editor, will appear at the top of the results list.

    Word Variants and Stemming
    In the examples above, word variants will be used in the search result. This means that you will get results for all variations of the search term: plurals, -ing, -ion and others. If you do not want the search terms to use word variants, enclose the search term in double quotes. For example look at these two separate searches.

    International

    "International"

    These searches will return two different results. The first will return all articles with the word international and all of its variants, including: internal, national, internationals, and so on. The second search will include only articles with the single word "international" in them. You can combine a search with variants and exact:

    text editor, "document" web

    In this case, document will not use word variants. While the search string:

    text editor, document, web

    Will have similar but different results.

    Search Terms Containing the Minus Sign
    To write a query that includes a search term containing the minus sign (-), you must enclose the search term in double quotes.

    Macintosh, error, "-192"
    error, "-39"


    How to Incorporate Operators

    You can make your queries more specific by combining the words you used for basic queries with operators. Operators are special words that are used to indicate logical relationships between the descriptive terms that make up your query.

    Basic Operators
    Here are basic operators that you can specify as part of queries, please see the examles below for clarification when using these operators.

    Note: AND, OR, and NOT are treated as operators by default when used in the search. If you want to use them as literal words, place them in double quotes. All other operators must be placed within brackets.
    Typing These Operators
    Finds
    and not Documents that do not contain the condition or word following AND NOT
    and Documents that contain both the conditions or words separated by AND
    or Documents that contain either of the conditions or words separated by OR
    , (comma) Same documents as OR, but increases the relevance ranking of a document when the document contains more than one matching condition or word
    @ Documents which contain both of the words that are separated by @, as long as the words are next to each other in the documents. (Do not place spaces between @ and either word.)
    Examples of using the basic operators:
    Typing this text Finds documents that contain
    memory and powerbook and upgrade All three of these words
    memory or powerbook or upgrade At least one of these words
    memory, powerbook, upgrade At least one of these words. Notes gives higher relevance to documents that contain two or three of these words
    powerbook@upgrade powerbook and upgrade next to each other
    (powerbook AND memory) OR upgrade powerbook and memory; upgrade
    powerbook AND (memory OR upgrade) powerbook and memory; powerbook and upgrade
    powerbook AND NOT (memory OR upgrade) powerbook, as long as they don't also contain memory or upgrade

    Searching for words that are close to each other, Proximity Operators
    You can use the Proximity operators to increase the relevance ranking of words that are close to each other. Documents in which the search text has a high relevance ranking appear at the top of the list of search results (when you sort the results by relevance, which is the default). The table below describes the three Proximity operators.
    Proximity Operator
    Description
    near The closer the words are to each other, the higher their relevance ranking when Notes displays the search results.
    sentence Same as the "near" operator, but the words must be in the same sentence.
    paragraph Same as the "near" operator, but the words must be in the same paragraph.

    To use the Proximity operator, type your search text as follows:
    • word 1 near word 2
    • word 1 sentence word 2
    • word 1 paragraph word 2
    Examples of using the Proximity operators:
    Typing this text Results of search
    macintosh near mouse Finds documents that contain both "macintosh" and "mouse." A higher relevance ranking to documents in which these two words are closer to each other.
    macintosh sentence mouse Finds documents in which "macintosh" and "mouse" are in the same sentence, and gives a higher relevance ranking to documents in which these two words are closer to each other.
    macintosh paragraph mouse Finds documents in which "macintosh" and "mouse" are in the same paragraph, and gives a higher relevance ranking to documents in which these two words are closer to each other.

    Searching with wildcard characters
    You can substitute wildcard characters for other characters when you search for text. Use a "?" (question mark) for a single character, and an "*" (asterisk) for multiple characters. Wildcard characters work only in fields that contain text; they do not work in fields that contain dates or numbers.
    Examples of Searching with wildcard characters:
    Typing this text Finds documents that include these words
    ?one bone, cone, done, gone (and any other four-letter words that end with "one")
    *one bone, cone, clone, crone, done, drone, gone, telephone (and any other words of any length that end with "one")

    Searching with Keywords
    You can use keywords to quickly and easily find the information you are looking for in the TIL. For best results, use a keyword and a product name. Here is an example of using a keyword and product name in a search string:

    "SPECSHT AND G3"

    This search string finds the specifications or data sheets about Apple's G3 products, e.g. "Power Macintosh G3 Computers: Technical Specifications."

    The keywords in the following list can help you narrow a search. This list is current as of September 2, 1999:
    Description
    Keyword
    Third Party Info 3pty
    Software or Hardware Configuration cnfg
    Troubleshooting: Hardware hts
    Apple Network Administrator Toolkit kanat
    Apple Software Update Read Me Files kaswu
    At Ease Information katease
    FAQs kfaq
    Final Cut Pro kfcp
    iBook kibook
    iMac kimac
    iMac (Slot Loading) kimacsl
    iMac (Summer 2000) kimacs2k
    Mac OS 8.0 articles kmos80
    Mac OS 8.1 articles kmos81
    Mac OS 8.5 articles kmos85
    Mac OS 8.6 articles kmos86
    Mac OS 9.0 articles kmos90
    Mac OS X Server kmosXserver
    Troubleshooting: Network knts
    PowerBook G3 and PowerBook G3 Series kpbg3
    PowerBook kpbook
    PowerBook (FireWire) kpbfw
    Power Macintosh G3 kpmg3
    Power Mac G4 kpmg4
    PowerPC processors kppc
    Troubleshooting: Software ksts
    Windows/MS-DOS kwindows
    QuickTime 3 kqt3
    QuickTime 4 kqt4
    Specification Sheets specsht
    Support Issues supt
    Mac OS X kmosX

Document Information
Product Area: Apple General Information
Category: Searching the TIL
Sub Category: General Topics

Copyright © 2000 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved.