Search Help

At its simplest, a search query can be just a word. But with the tips on this page, you can refine your search to give you more complete results. Look for a phrase by typing the whole phrase.

Example - type bus driver to find the exact phrase bus driver. Since the search is not case-sensitive, this is equivalent to Bus Driver.

Look for two or more words at once by using the AND operator.

Example - type bus AND driver to find documents that have both the word bus and the word driver anywhere.

Look for words that are close to each other by using the NEAR operator instead of the AND operator. When you use NEAR, the closer together the words are, the higher the rank of the page, so the higher it appears in the list of search results.

Example - type bus NEAR driver to match documents where the word bus is within 50 words of the word driver.

Look for synonyms or similar words by using the OR operator. Note that if you don't use the OR operator and search using multiple words, the words are treated as a phrase. Example - type buses OR coaches to find the word buses or the word coaches, but not necessarily both. Limit your search by using the AND NOT operator to exclude words.

Example - type bus AND NOT operator information to find all instances of bus, as long as bus is not followed by the phrase operator information. Use AND, OR, NOT, or NEAR literally by using double quotes. Example - type "bus near operator" to find documents with the phrase bus near operator. Without the double quotes, this query would use the NEAR operator instead of the phrase. Look for words that begin with the same letters by using a single asterisk (*).

Example - type coach* to find coach, coaches, coaching, coached, and so on. Look for all forms of a word by using a double asterisk (**). Example - type drive** to match drive, drives, driver, and driving.