Search Tips

Use this form to search for documents on this site containing specific words or combinations of words. The search engine will display a list of matching documents. Each item has a link to a matching document; if the document has a title it will be shown, otherwise only the document's file name is displayed.

Rules for formulating queries:

• Multiple consecutive words are treated as a phrase; they must appear in the same order within a matching document.
• Queries are case-insensitive, so you can type your query in uppercase or lowercase.
• You can search for any word except for those in the exception list (for English, this includes a, an, and, as, and other common words), which are ignored during a search.
• Words in the exception list are treated as placeholders in phrase and proximity queries. For example, if you searched for "Word for Windows", the results could give you "Word for Windows" and "Word and Windows", because for is a noise word and appears in the exception list.
• Punctuation marks such as the period (.), colon (:), semicolon (;), and comma (,) are ignored during a search.
• To use specially treated characters such as &, |, ^, #, @, $, (, ), in a query, enclose your query in quotation marks (").
• To search for a word or phrase containing quotation marks, enclose the entire phrase in quotation marks and then double the quotation marks around the word or words you want to surround with quotes. For example, "World-Wide Web or ""Web""" searches for World-Wide Web or "Web".
• You can use Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT) and the proximity operator (NEAR) to specify additional search information.
• The wildcard character (*) can match words with a given prefix. The query esc* matches the terms "ESC," "escape," and so on.

Boolean and Proximity Operators

Boolean and proximity operators can create a more precise query.

To Search For	Example	Results
Both terms in the same page	access and basic --Or-- access & basic	Pages with both the words "access" and "basic"
Either term in a page	cgi or isapi --Or-- cgi | isapi	Pages with the words "cgi" or "isapi"
The first term without the second term	access and not basic --Or-- access & ! basic	Pages with the word "access" but not "basic"
Both terms in the same page, close together	excel near project --Or-- excel ~ project	Pages with the word "excel" near the word "project"

Wildcards

Wildcard operators help you find pages containing words similar to a given word.

To Search For	Example	Results
Words with the same prefix	comput*	Pages with words that have the prefix "comput," such as "computer," "computing," and so on
Words based on the same stem word	fly**	Pages with words based on the same stem as "fly," such as "flying," "flown," "flew," and so on

Material above is an excerpt from the Microsoft Index Server Guide. Portions Copyright 1997, Microsoft Corp.