At its simplest, a search can be just a word or a phrase. But by using the tips below you specify exactly what you want to search for, excluding terms you do not want to search for and adding terms that you do wish to search for.

Search 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 for words close to each other
Use 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.

Exclude certain text from your search
Refine your queries with the AND NOT keywords to exclude text from your search. For example, if you want to find all instances of surfing but not the Net, write surfing AND NOT the Net.

Search for all instances of either one word or another
Add the OR keyword to find all instances of either one word or another, for example, Manager OR GM finds all pages that mention Manager or GM or both.

Search for a complete phrase
Put quotation marks around keywords if you want the search to be literal. For instance, if you type "general near manager" the search will literally look for the complete phrase general near manager. But if you type the same query without the quotation marks, ie general near manager, the search will find all documents with the words general and manager.

Search using natural language (Free Text)
Use Free Text Queries if you want to enter queries using natural language. The search engine will examine your query, extract nouns and noun phrases and construct a query for you. With free text queries you can enter any text you want, from a proper question, to a string of words and phrases, without worrying about the query language. For example, if you type "How do I get a new computer account?" the search engine will create a query for you automatically and begin the search. Note that when you are using free text queries, the regular query language features are disabled and keywords such as AND, OR, and NEAR are interpreted as normal words and not as keywords.

Please note
If you type in patient report, the search engine will look for documents containing the words patient report together on a page. If you type patient AND report, the search engine will look for pages containing both patient and also report, but not necessarily together on the page.