Tips for Searching
At its simplest, a query can be just a word or a phrase. But with the tips
on this page, you can expand the focus of your query to give you more
complete results. These tips will get you started with basic query language
and acquaint you with the full power of Microsoft Index Server.
- Look for words with the same prefix. For example, in your query
form type key* to find key, keying,
keyhole, keyboard, and so on.
- Search for all forms of a word. For example, in the form type
sink** to find sink, sinking, sank,
and sunk.
- Search with the keyword NEAR, rather than AND, for
words close to each other. For example, both of these queries, system
and manager and system near manager, look for the words
system and manager on the same page. But with
NEAR, the returned pages are ranked in order of proximity:
The closer together the words are, the higher the rank of that page.
- Refine your queries with the AND NOT keywords to exclude
certain text from your search. For example, if you want to find all
instances of surfing but not the Net, write the
following query:
surfing AND NOT the Net
- Add the OR keyword to find all instances of either one word
or another, for example:
Abbott OR Costello
This query finds all pages that mention Abbott or Costello or both.
- Put quotation marks around keywords if you want Index Server to
take them literally. For instance, if you type the following query:
"system near manager"
Index Server will literally look for the complete phrase
system near manager. But if you type the same query without
the quotation marks:
system near manager
Index Server searches all documents for the words system
and manager.