If you enter a single word as your search criterion, the search engine will try to find exact matches for the word.

If you enter several words as your search criteria, by default the search engine will first try to find exact matches for all of the words. If that fails, it will then try to find matches for any of the words.

There are several ways to modify the default search behavior:

• Phrase Search. There are three types of phrase search:
  
  
  • To match an exact phrase, use quotes around the words:
    
    "the beautiful cat" will only match instances of:
    the beautiful cat.
    
    
  • To match a near (within a couple of words) phrase, use square brackets around the words:
    
    [the beautiful cat] will match phrases like:
    the very beautiful Persian cat
    
    
  • To match a far (within several words) phrase, use braces around the words:
    
    {the beautiful cat} will match phrases like:
    the beautiful blue eyes of the Siamese cat
    
    
• + and - qualifiers:
  
  
  • If you prepend a word with + that word must be present in the page or resource searched:
    
    +beautiful Siamese cat will not match:
    the Siamese cat
    
    
  • If you prepend a word with - that word must not be present in the page or resource searched:
    
    -beautiful Siamese cat will not match:
    the beautiful Siamese cat
    
    
• * wildcard:
  
  
  • If you follow a string of characters with *, then all words beginning with that string will be matched:
    
    cat* will match:
    cats, catalog, catastrophe, cattle, etc.
    
    
• ? wildcard:
  
  
  • If a search word contains a ?, it will match any character in that position:
    
    p?n will match:
    pan, pen, pin, pun, etc.
    
    
• Boolean search:
  
  
  • You can use AND, OR, NOT (in capital letters) in your search criteria.
    
    Abbott AND Costello will match only if both words are present.
    
    
    Abbott OR Costello will match if either or both words are present.
    
    
    Abbott AND NOT Costello will match only if Abbott is present and Costello is not present.
    
    

All of these techniques can be combined in the criteria.