About Advanced Full-Text Search

Advanced full-text search allows you to search using Boolean, wildcard, and nested expressions. You can also limit the search to previous results, match similar words, or search topic titles only.

Click the following links to learn more about full-text search:

Searching for Help Topics

Finding Information Using Advanced Full-Text Search

Searching for Words or Phrases

Defining Search Terms

Using Nested Expressions When Searching

Searching for Help Topics

A basic search consists of the word or phrase you want to find. You can use wildcard expressions, nested expressions, Boolean operators, similar word matches, a previous results list, or topic titles to further define your search.

The basic rules for formulating queries are as follows:

Searches are not case-sensitive, so you can type your search in uppercase or lowercase characters.
You can search for any combination of letters (a-z) and numbers (0-9).
Punctuation marks such as the period, colon, semicolon, comma, and hyphen are ignored during a search.
Group the elements of your search using double quotes or parentheses to set apart each element. You cannot search for quotation marks.
Note If you are searching for a file name with an extension, you should group the entire string in double quotes, like so: "filename.ext". Otherwise, the period will break the file name into two separate terms. The default operation between terms is AND, so omitting the quotes will search for the logical equivalent of "filename AND ext."

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Finding Information Using Advanced Full-Text Search

Click the Search tab, and then type the word or phrase you want to find.
Click the arrow button to add a Boolean operator (AND, OR, NEAR, NOT) to your search.
Click List Topics and then double-click the topic you want to view, or select the desired topic and click Display.
To sort the topic list, click the Title, Location, or Rank column heading.

Notes

You can precisely define a search by using wildcard expressions, nested expressions, and Boolean operators.
You can request similar word matches, search only the topic titles, or search the results of a previous search.

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Searching for Words or Phrases

You can search for words or phrases and use wildcard expressions. These expressions allow you to search for one or more characters by using a question mark (?) or asterisk (*). The following table describes the results of different kinds of searches.

Search	Example	Results
For a single word	select	Topics that contain the word "select." (You will also find grammatical variations, such as "selector" and "selection.")
For a phrase	"new operator" -or- new operator	Topics that contain the literal phrase "new operator" and all its grammatical variations. Without the quotation marks, the query is equivalent to specifying "new AND operator," which will find topics containing both of the individual words, instead of the designated phrase.
Using wildcard expressions	esc* -or- 80?86	Topics that contain the terms "ESC," "escape," "escalation," and so on. The asterisk cannot be the only character in the term. Topics that contain the terms "80186," "80286," "80386," and so on. The question mark cannot be the only character in the term.

Note Select the Match similar words check box at the bottom of the pane to return minor grammatical variations of a phrase.

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Defining Search Terms

The AND, OR, NOT, and NEAR operators enable you to precisely define your search by creating a relationship between search terms. The following table shows how you can use each of these operators. If no operator is specified, AND is used. For example, the query "spacing border printing" (typed without quotes) is equivalent to "spacing AND border AND printing."

Search for	Example	Results
Both terms in the same topic	dib AND palette	Topics containing both the words "dib" and "palette."
Either term in a topic	raster OR vector	Topics containing either the word "raster" or the word "vector" or both.
The first term without the second term	ole NOT dde	Topics containing the term "OLE," but not the term "DDE."
Both terms in the same topic, close together	user NEAR kernel	Topics containing the word "user" within eight words of the word "kernel."

Note The |, &, and ! characters don't work as Boolean operators. You must use OR, AND, and NOT.

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Using Nested Expressions When Searching

Nested expressions allow you to create complex searches for information. For example, "control AND ((active OR dde) NEAR window)" finds topics containing the word "control" along with the words "active" and "window" close together, or containing "control" along with the terms "DDE" and "window" close together.

The basic rules for searching help topics using nested expressions are as follows:

You can use parentheses to nest expressions within a query. The expressions in parentheses are evaluated before the rest of the query.
If a query does not contain a nested expression, it is evaluated from left to right. For example, "control NOT active OR dde" finds topics containing the word "control" without the word "active," or finds topics containing the term "DDE." On the other hand, "control NOT (active OR dde)" finds topics containing the word "control" without either of the terms "active" or "DDE."
You cannot nest expressions more than five levels deep.

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