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| To make your search effective, click the Search by drop-down menu and select... |
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Phrases |
Type a short phrase or question describing what you want to know. Multi-word phrases will produce better search results as will searches containing more uncommon words. Very common words and phrases are ignored by the search engine. You may also require (+) or exclude (-) words described below.
| Example: To ask the question, How can I learn more about forest wildfires, type either forest wildfires or the entire sentence. |
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Similar Phrases |
Use this technique if you do not know the exact spelling of a word or phrase or to check for synonyms or similarly spelled words. You may also require (+) or exclude words (-) described below.
| Example: A search for What do I do when my hous is on fyre will find documents containing similar words or phrases such as house or abode, flame or fire. |
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Exact Phrase |
Use this technique to find documents that match the same pattern of words entered in the text box. Very common words and phrases are ignored by the search engine. This search type does not support the use of require (+) or exclude (-) words.
| Example: A search for birds of prey, will find documents that contain birds prey or bird prey but not prey birds or birds capturing prey. |
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Starts with... |
This technique allows you to search a broader set of word extensions than word stemming (see below). Type an asterisk (*) after the initial letters of the word to cover all possible extensions. You may also require (+) or exclude (-) words as described below.
| Example: A search for forest wild* will find documents that contain forest wildlife or forest wildfires. |
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| In general... |
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Narrow your search |
Select topics and categories from the drop-down menus to narrow your search. |
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To require words |
Use a plus (+) symbol in front of words to find only documents that contain those words.
| Example: Type +wildlife +bear to find documents that contain both words, wildlife and bear. |
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To exclude words |
Use a minus (-) symbol in front of words to exclude documents that contain those words.
| Example: Type wildlife -moose to find documents that contain the word wildlife but not moose. |
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Use uncommon words |
Use uncommon words to retrieve documents with more focused results. |
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| For your information... |
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Word stemming |
All search techniques search for different word forms such as singular, plural, or different verb tenses.
| Example: Search for reflect to find documents that contain reflection, reflections, reflected, reflecting or reflects. |
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