Chapter 5 Searching for Information in the AnswerBook2 System

The AnswerBook2 search mechanism allows you to search through all documents in the AnswerBook2 library for information about a specific word or group of words. For more information, see the following topics:

• "Search Tips"

• "Search Rules"

• "Interpreting Search Results"

Search Tips

The AnswerBook2 library on any specific documentation server can contain from one to several hundred document collections, each of which can include from one to several books and man pages. To specify that a search apply only to a specific subset of the library, select Personal Library, Man Pages by Keyword, This Book, or AnswerBook2 Help from the pop-up menu in the Search box.

If you get too many matches when you search, try the following:

• Define a subset of the library (a Personal Library) and confine the search to that subset. For information about defining a Personal Library, see "Customizing AnswerBook2 Information".

• Confine the search to a specific book by going into that book, then selecting This Book from the pop-up menu in the Search box.

• Search for man (manual) page information by entering a command, utility, or keyword in the Search field and selecting Man Pages by Keyword from the pop-up menu in the Search box. The man page search includes all SGML-based man pages on the server.

• Use logical operators (AND, OR) or wildcards (*). For more information about search syntax options, see "Search Rules".

If your search results in too few matches, try the following:

• Use fewer words or use "OR" between these words (rather than "AND" which is the default).

• To increase the number of documents that are searched, select a larger search "scope" (for example, select Personal Library instead of This Book or Complete Library instead of Personal Library) . To continue to search a subset of the library, redefine your Personal Library to include additional collections.

• Use a wildcard to find variations of a word. For example, instead of looking for installation, try install*. This matches anything that begins with install, such as installing, installed, installation, and so on.

• Try synonyms of the word for which you are looking. For example, instead of boot, try start or startup.

Search Rules

To specify that a search apply only to a specific subset of the library, select Personal Library, Man Pages by Keyword, This Book, or AnswerBook2 Help from the pop-up menu in the Search box. Use the following rules to enter search information in the Search field:

Interpreting Search Results

After you enter search criteria and submit your search, AnswerBook2 returns a page that looks similar to a library listing (if you searched the Complete or Personal Library) or a book table of contents (if you searched a specific book). The search results list, however, only includes those items that contain information that matched the search criteria you entered.

The search results window displays a special icon to the left of each item listed. This icon indicates how closely the particular section matches your search criteria. The more filled the icon, the closer the match. For example, this icon indicates an almost certain match to your search criteria whereas this icon indicates about a 50% chance that the section contains a match to your search criteria.

For AnswerBook1 documents, the icons poorly indicate the probability of match. They tend to be either completely filled or completely empty.

If your search produced no matching results, the search results page displays a message indicating that no matches were found in this book or library. In this case, you can try a different book, expand your search to include more collections or the entire library, or change your search criteria.

If you choose to return to the Table of Contents (by clicking the icon), your search is cleared.