Text Search Rules

When you search for text, you generally can type the text you are looking for (the search string). However, there are a few things you should be aware of:

Search strings are case-insensitive; that is, uppercase A is the same as lowercase a.
Type a list of terms, separated by spaces, to find documents containing all of these terms. This is the same as using AND.
Type a list of terms, separated by commas, to find documents containing one or more of these terms. This is the same as using OR.
Use quotation marks (") around several words to search for an exact phrase.
You can use the common Internet search operators plus (+) and minus (-). Put a plus in front of any term that must be included in the results and a minus in front of any term that must be excluded from results. Do not include a space after the plus or minus.

Note: Do not use these Internet search operators in the same search with the operators described in the table.

In addition, the following table describes a number of operators you can use to modify your search strings:

Operator/Description	Example Search Text	Example Search Results
Wildcards are symbols that represent any character, allowing you to search for partial terms. The asterisk () represents any number of characters. Note:* You must include at least three characters if you are doing a substring search (wildcards on each end of the string).	sub*	subdirectory, subject, subjective
AND finds objects containing all of the specified terms.	holiday AND schedule	Holiday Schedule
OR finds objects containing at least one of the specified terms. Note: This is the same as entering a list of terms, separated by commas (,) or vertical bars (\|).	holiday OR vacation	Holiday Schedule, Christmas Holiday Party, Scheduling Vacation
NOT excludes objects containing the specified term.	holiday NOT vacation	Holiday Schedule, Christmas Holiday Party
NEAR finds terms within a specified proximity of each other. For example, <NEAR/10> finds objects within 10 words of each other.	early <NEAR/10> retirement	Plan early for your retirement.