Search Procedure Help

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Search Methods

WebSTAR Search supports a number of different methods for performing searches. Although it is possible to perform a keyword search using this search engine it is better geared towards performing description or question searches. Thus, if a keyword search doesn't give you what you want you might try entering a short sentence or question concerning your interest. After the search is complete you will receive a number of web page links. To complete the search go to a web page and use the BROWSER find function to find the information you require in situ.

Description Search

Simply describe the information that you want. For example, "Web server performance enhancements."

Question Search

Ask a question that you want answered. For example, "How do I increase the performance of my Web server?"

Keyword Search

List important keywords relevant to your search topic. For example, "enhance improve performance server web"

Boolean Keyword Search

Refine a keyword search using boolean operators.

Symbol

Meaning

Action

& AND Finds only documents containing all of the specific words or phrases. For example, "performance & server" finds documents with both the word "performance" and the word "server".
| OR Finds documents containing at least one of the specified words or phrases. For example, "performance | server" finds documents containing either "performance" or "server". The found documents could contain both, but do not have to.
! AND NOT Excludes documents containing the specific word or phrase. For example, "performance ! server" finds documents containing "performance" but not containing "server". As with the & and | operators, ! must appear between two terms.
[ ] Grouping Used to group portions of boolean queries together for more complicated queries. For example, "performance & [improve | increase] ! Microsoft" finds documents containing "performance" and either "improve" or "increase but not "Microsoft".

Similar Document Search

After you perform an initial search, every matching document description will contain a "More like this" link that allows you to automatically search for similar documents.

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