Searching
Displaying Search Results
Troubleshooting

Searching

It's easy to find the information you want!

1. Type a word or phrase. See examples below.
2. If you see a Word Wheel button, you can click it to select words from a list. (Your browser must support Java™ and JavaScript.)
3. Click Go Get It.
4. Documents that meet your criteria are displayed in a list. You can scroll through the list, reformat the display by selecting options from the droplist at the top of the page, or click on links to get detailed information.
5. To return to the search page, use the browser's Back button.

Finding words and phrases

Type the word you want to find (computer) or type a phrase (blue harvest moon) to find those words, in that order. To find variations based on word stems, type an asterisk at the end of one or more words (comput* tech*). Use the symbols & / ! between words or phrases to represent Boolean AND, OR, NOT. Be sure to include a space before and after the symbol. Use w# (within) and p# (preceding) to find words near each other. See examples below.

NOTE: Words joined by & / ! are evaluated in left-to-right order: red & white / blue finds items that are red and white, or items that are blue. Use parentheses to control evaluation order: red & (white / blue) finds items that are red and white or red and blue.

Using a Word Wheel

To select words from a list, click a Word Wheel button. (Not all search pages include Word Wheel buttons. If you don't see a button, just ignore this topic.) The Word Wheel is a dialog that shows information about documents on this web site. For example, if you are searching a "Classic Movies" site, you would see a list of movie titles. By pasting an item ("Gone with the Wind") into a box, you can search for it. This eliminates trial-and-error searching, to produce more accurate results. For more information, click the Help button in the Word Wheel dialog.

The Word Wheel is a Java (tm) applet. To use it, you need a browser that supports Java and JavaScript, such as version 3.0 or later of Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Case and Punctuation

Case in query criteria is generally ignored (a search for joe smith finds Joe Smith). Punctuation is also ignored, except for the and-or-not symbols (& / !) and the colon used for range searches (:). If you want these characters to be interpreted literally, use quotation marks ("Smith & Wesson") or replace the punctuation with a space (Smith Wesson).

Submitting a Query

To start your search, click the Go Get It button.

Displaying Search Results

A successful search finds one or more documents, which are displayed in your Web browser as a list. Use the browser controls as you normally would to view and print HTML pages. Use the procedures described below to perform special operations.

Viewing Multiple Documents

When you do a search, the browser displays a list of documents that were found. While the list is displayed, you can:

• Change the appearance or sort order - Scroll to the top of the page, open the droplist, select an option, and click the Change Form button. Note: If your browser does not support table display, do not select "Sort by Date" or "Sort by Title."
• Jump to the original document - Click the URL or document title.
• Display additional pages - If your search found more than 20 documents, scroll to the top of the page and click the Next # Records and Previous # Records buttons to see subsequent pages. Each page shows a maximum of 20 documents.
• See more information about one document at a time - Click the "More info" link.
• Return to the search page - Click the browser’s Back button or choose the appropriate URL from the browser’s Address list.

Viewing One Document at a Time

To see one document at a time, click the "More info" link on the list that appeared right after your search. From the single-document display, you can:

• Jump to the original document - Click the URL.
• Display additional documents, one at a time - Click the Next and Previous buttons at the top of the page (you may need to scroll to the top of the page).
• Return to the multiple-document display - Click the browser’s Back button.
• Return to the search page - Click the browser’s Back button or choose the appropriate URL from the browser’s Address list.

Troubleshooting: Searches

Having trouble with a search? Some of the most common problems are listed below.

I got the message "Unable to recognize as a correctly formed query."

The program cannot understand the criteria you typed in the search page. Possible problems include:

- Typographical errors
- Mismatched quotes or parentheses
- Extra Boolean search symbols (e.g., you should have typed car / auto instead of car / auto / )

If you cannot determine what caused the error, try a couple of simpler searches (e.g., just a word in a box) to see if they work, or use theWord Wheel buttons to reconstruct the query.

If even simple searches don't work, contact the webmaster for the site, tell them you received this message, and describe what you typed in the box. The search page may need to be corrected.

I found too many records.

If you used an asterisk, omit it and try an exact search instead (search for computer technology instead of comp*).

Try using a Boolean symbol (& / !) between words to construct more precise queries. For example, to find articles about mythology, not cartoons, search for hercules ! cartoon.

If the text you're searching for includes punctuation that might be interpreted as a Boolean symbol (& / !), use quotation marks or substitute spaces for punctuation. For example, to find documents about a certain retail chain, search for "Ann & Hope". Without the quotes, this search would find any documents that contain the names Ann and Hope.

I didn't find any records.

Try using / instead of & between words. Using / means either word can be present (john / paul finds John OR Paul). Using & means both words must be present (john & paul will not find just "John" or just "Paul").

If your search includes Boolean symbols to represent AND, OR, NOT (& / !), put spaces around the symbols.

Do not use words (and, or, not) for Boolean operators. You must use symbols (& / !).

If you are not sure of the spelling, use an asterisk after the first few characters (mand*) or separate several possible spellings with a forward slash (search for mandarin / manderin).

If you did a complex search, try simplifying it. Or use the Word Wheel button to view and paste words to search for (this eliminates guess-work).

When I try to display records or change forms, I get the message, "Your current query has expired. Perform the search again."

Too much time has passed since the query was first performed, or too many users are searching at the same time. Try performing the action again. If this message occurs frequently, contact the webmaster for the site.

The Lycos® Site Spider has spidered this site and built a searchable catalog of information about documents. The Lycos Site Spider is a free spidering product jointly developed by Lycos, Inc. and Inmagic, Inc.