Fossil Hominids: Search Tips

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To get more specific search results, try using the following tips:

Check spelling

Use multiple words
Example: our free service

Use similar words
Example: safe secure privacy security

Use appropriate capitalization
Example: Search Template Reference

Use quotation marks to find adjacent words
Example: "our pledge to you"

Use plus (+) or minus (-)
Example: +"template language"

Use field searches

Example: title:about desc:"Our Team" keys:membership body:security alt:"join now" url:help

Use wildcards

Example: wh* "wh* are" 415-*-*

Check spelling
Make sure your search terms are spelled correctly. If Sound-Alike Matching is turned on, the search engine will attempt to find words that sound similar to your search terms, but it is always best to try to spell the search terms correctly.

Sound-Alike Matching is turned on in this example:

Use multiple words
Use multiple words when performing your search. The search results will return more refined results from several words than from a single word. For example, typing our free service will return more relevant results than typing only service. (Keep in mind, relevant results are returned even if they don't contain all query terms.)

Example:

Use similar words
The more similar words you use in a search, the more relevant results you will get back.

Example:

Use appropriate capitalization
Capitalize proper nouns. Lowercase words will match any case. For example, typing search will return all documents containing the words search, Search, and SEARCH. However, typing Search will only search for pages about the Atomz.com Search service.

Example:

Use quotation marks
Use quotation marks to find words which must appear adjacent to each other, for example, "our pledge to you." Otherwise, the search results will include the word our, pledge, to, and the word you, but not necessarily in that order. The words may appear anywhere, and in any order, within the document.

Note: if you are using the Advanced Search Form with radio buttons for "any," "all," and "phrase," then quotes can only be used when the "any" radio button is selected. Quotes are ignored if the Advanced Search Form "all" or "phrase" radio button is selected.

Example:

Use plus (+) or minus (-)
Use a plus sign when your search term or phrase must appear in the search results. Use a minus sign to indicate undesirable term(s). The plus sign tells the search engine that a certain word or phrase is required in the search results, and a minus sign indicates that a word or phrase must be absent in the search results.

Note: A phrase must be contained within quotation marks. Leave no spaces between the plus or minus sign and the term.

Note: if you are using the Advanced Search Form with radio buttons for "any," "all," and "phrase," then plus and minus can only be used when the "any" radio button is selected. Plus and minus are ignored if the Advanced Search Form "all" or "phrase" radio button is selected.

Example:

Use field searches
Field searches allow you to create specific searches for words that appear in a specific part of a document. A field search can be performed on body text (body:), title text (title:), alt text (alt:), meta description (desc:), meta key words (keys:) or URL (url:). The field name should be in lowercase and immediately followed by a colon. There should be no spaces between the colon and the search term.

Note: The field searches can only be followed by a word or phrase. Phrases must be contained within quotation marks.

Note: if you are using the Advanced Search Form with a list box for the field name, then field names can only be entered before a word or phrase when the "any" option is selected. Specific field names are ignored if any other Advanced Search Form field is selected in the list box.

Example:

Use wildcards
Wildcard searches can expand the number of matches for a particular request. The * character is used as the wildcard character.
For instance, searching for wh* will find the words what, why, when, whether, and any other word that starts with wh.
Searching for *her* will find the words here, whether, together, gathering, and any other word that contains her anywhere in the word.

Wildcards may be combined with the standard plus (+) and minus (-) modifiers, quotes for phrases, as well as the field search specifiers.
+wh* -se*ch will find all pages which have a word that starts with wh and which does not contain a word that starts with se and ends with ch.
"wh* are" will find the phrases where are, what are, why are, etc.

Example:

This page is part of the Fossil Hominids FAQ at the talk.origins Archive.