Searching in the information center

To search topics in the information center, enter a query in the Search field and click Go. The Search Results view in the left hand side of the interface displays the top 500 ranked results. Select a search result to display that topic in the right hand side of the help system. The words from your query are highlighted in the displayed topic.

To toggle between the navigation tree and the search results list, click the Contents tab (Contents) or the Search Results tab (Search  results) at the bottom of the left hand side of the interface.

Searches are not case-sensitive.

Searching for exact words or phrases

You can identify a search phrase as an exact string by enclosing it in double quotation marks. For example, "log file" searches for the string log file, not the separate words log and file. Without the quotation marks, the search term is interpreted to find instances of both the word log and the word file in the topics.

In English and German only, the search engine "stems" other forms of a single search word. For example, a search for the word challenge, will also find the word challenging. Surround the terms you enter in the search field with double quotation marks when you do not want your search results to include such variations of the terms.

Searching with wildcards

You can use the following wildcard characters:
  • * Asterisk - for multiple unknown or variable characters in the term. For example, the search term par* returns partly, participate, partial, and other words beginning with par.
  • ? Question mark - for a single unknown or variable character. For example, the search term par? returns part but not partial or partly.

Searching with Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT)

You can insert the binary operators: AND, OR, and NOT in your search term. For example:
database AND "log file"
Narrows the search to include topics that must contain both of the terms database and "log file" anywhere in the document.
database OR "log file"
Widens the search to include topics that contain either the term database or the phrase log file anywhere the document.
database NOT "log file"
Searches for topics that contain database and which do not contain the phrase log file anywhere the document.
database OR "data base" NOT "log file"
Searches for documents that contain the term database or the phrase data base and which do not contain the phrase log file anywhere the document.

Narrowing your search scope

By default, all topics shown in the Contents view are searched. However, you can narrow your searches to a particular set of topics, called a search list and save search lists to use again later.

To create a search list:
  1. Click the Search scope link next to the Search field. The Select Search Scope window opens.
  2. Select the Search only the following topics radio button and click the New push button. The New Search List window opens.
  3. In the Topics to search list, select the navigation categories that you want to include in your search. You can expand categories to select only certain subcategories.
Note: In some browsers (for example Konqueror and Safari), the functionality to save search lists is not provided.

The search list that is currently active is always shown at the top of the help browser, next to the Search scope link. The search list that you last used persists across sessions that you use the system.


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 Last updated: June 26, 2005 9:51:02 AM EST

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