Search Syntax

The searches below are affected by the Search previous results, Match similar words and Search titles only check boxes, as described in the Search Help topic.

Search Syntax

Search phrases should be formatted, as follows:

Searches are not case-sensitive, so you can enter your search in upper case or lower case characters.
You can search for any combination of letters (a-z), and numbers (0-9). You cannot search for single letters (a, b, c, etc.), and the following reserved words: an, and, as, at, be, but, by, do, for, from, have, he, in, it, not, of, on, or, she, that, the, there, they, this, to, we, which, with and you.
Punctuation marks are ignored during a search.
Group the elements of your search using double quotes or (parentheses). You cannot search for quotation marks. Note if you are searching for a filename with an extension, you should group the entire string in double quotes ("filename.ext"). Otherwise, the search will treat the period as an or operator.

Search Phrases

You can search for words or phrases and use wildcard expressions, as follows:

Single Word (e.g. "dialog"): Returns topics that contain the word 'dialog'.
Phrase (e.g. " 'address dialog' "): Returns topics that contain the phrase 'address dialog'. Note that without the quotation marks, the phrase returns topics containing both of the individual words.
Wildcard expressions (e.g. "add*"): Returns topics containing any words that start with 'add'. This would include 'Add Client', 'Address Dialog' and 'About Address Data'.

Operators

The AND, OR, NOT, and NEAR operators allow you to refine your search, as follows:

AND - Both terms in the same topic (e.g. 'address AND data'): Returns topics containing both the words 'address' and 'data'.
OR - Either term in a topic (e.g. 'address OR data'): Returns topics containing either the words 'address' and 'data'.
NOT - The first term without the second term (e.g. 'address NOT data'): Returns topics that contain 'address' and do not contain 'data'.
NEAR - Both terms in the same topic within eight words of each other (e.g. 'address NEAR data'): Returns topics that contain 'address' and 'data' within eight words of each other.
NESTING - You can use parentheses to nest combinations of the above (e.g. '(address NEAR data) not dialog)': Returns topics that contain 'address' and 'data' within eight words of each other and do not contain 'dialog'.; Note that you cannot nest expressions more than five levels deep.