Search Methods
WebSTAR Search supports a number of different methods for performing
searches. For a multi-word search, the default is similar to a boolean
operation using implicit "or" operators. To use other operators,
see the table below.
Description Search
Simply describe the information that you want. For example, "Web
server performance enhancements."
Question Search
Ask a question that you want answered. For example, "How do
I increase the performance of my Web server?"
Keyword Search
List important keywords relevant to your search topic. For example,
"enhance improve performance server web"
Boolean Keyword Search
Refine a keyword search using boolean operators.
| Symbol |
Meaning |
Action |
| & |
AND |
Finds only documents containing all of the specific words or phrases. For
example, "performance & server" finds documents with
both the word "performance" and the word "server". |
| | |
OR |
Finds documents containing at least one of the specified words or phrases.
For example, "performance | server" finds documents containing
either "performance" or "server". The found documents
could contain both, but do not have to. |
| ! |
AND NOT |
Excludes documents containing the specific word or phrase. For example,
"performance ! server" finds documents containing "performance"
but not containing "server". As with the & and | operators,
! must appear between two terms. |
| [ ] |
Grouping |
Used to group portions of boolean queries together for more complicated
queries. For example, "performance & [improve | increase] !
Microsoft" finds documents containing "performance"
and either "improve" or "increase but not "Microsoft". |
Similar Document Search
After you perform an initial search, every matching document description
will contain a "More like this" link that allows you to
automatically search for similar documents.