See
the Search examples
section of this topic for examples of simple and advanced searches.The quickest and most effective way to find information in the Help is to use the Search tab. With full-text searching, you can search through every word in the Help system. A basic search consists of the word or phrase you want to find. When searching for an exact phrase, placing the text in quotation marks provides more accurate search results. Advanced searches can incorporate Boolean operators, wildcard expressions, nested expressions, similar word matches, a previous results list, or topic titles to further define a search.
Complete the following steps to run a search.
See
the Search examples
section of this topic for examples of simple and advanced searches.
Open the Help.
Click the Search tab.
Type the word or phrase you want to find. The basic rules for formulating search queries are as follows.
Searches are not case-sensitive, so you can type your search in uppercase or lowercase characters.
You can search for any combination of letters (a-z) and numbers (0-9).
Punctuation marks such as the period, colon, semicolon, comma, and hyphen are ignored during a search.
Group the elements of your search using double quotes or parentheses to set apart each element. You cannot search for quotation marks.
If
you need to perform a more advanced
search, you can incorporate Boolean operators, wildcard expressions,
nested expressions, similar word matches, a previous results list, or
topic titles to further define a search.
Press ENTER or click List Topics.
To view a found topic, double-click it or select the topic and click Display.
Boolean operators: You can include Boolean operators in your search. To insert a Boolean operator in your search, click the arrow next to the search text box and select AND, OR, NOT, or NEAR.
Advanced search options: Use the check boxes at the bottom of the Search tab to select the advanced search options Search previous results, Match similar words, and Search titles only.
The following table lists the advanced search features and their functions.
|
Option |
Description |
|
Boolean operators |
The AND, OR, NOT, and NEAR operators enable you to precisely define your search by creating a relationship between search terms. If no operator is specified, AND is used. For example, the query "spacing border printing" is equivalent to "spacing AND border AND printing."
|
|
Wildcard expressions |
Wildcard expressions allow you to search for one or more characters using a question mark or asterisk. |
|
Nested expressions |
Nested expressions allow you to create complex searches for information. You can use parentheses to nest expressions within a query. The expressions in parentheses are evaluated before the rest of the query. You cannot nest expressions more than five levels deep. |
|
Search previous results |
This option searches only the last group of topics you searched. This feature enables you to narrow a search that results in too many topics found. You can limit your search to your results list from previous searches by using this option.
|
|
Match similar words |
This option finds words similar to your search term. This feature enables you to include minor grammatical variations for the phrase you search. For example, a search on the word "add" will find "add," "adds," and "added." This feature only locates variations of the word with common suffixes. For example, a search on the word "add" will find "added," but it will not find "additive." |
|
Search titles only |
This option searches for words in the titles of all HTML help files. |
The following table provides examples that demonstrate both the simple and advanced search capabilities found in HTML Help.
|
Search for |
Example |
Results |
|
A single word |
select |
Topics that contain the word "select." (You will also find its grammatical variations, such as "selector" and "selection.") |
|
A phrase |
"new operator" or new operator |
Topics that contain the literal phrase "new operator" and all its grammatical variations. Without the quotation marks, the query is equivalent to specifying "new AND operator," which will find topics containing both of the individual words, instead of the phrase. |
|
Both terms in the same topic |
dib AND palette |
Topics containing both the words "dib" and "palette." |
|
Either term in a topic |
raster OR vector |
Topics containing either the word "raster" or the word "vector" or both. |
|
The first term without the second term |
ole NOT dde |
Topics containing the word "OLE," but not the word "DDE." |
|
Both terms in the same topic, close together |
user NEAR kernel |
Topics containing the word "user" within eight words of the word "kernel." |
|
Wildcard expressions |
esc* |
Topics that contain the terms "ESC," "escape," "escalation," and so on. The asterisk cannot be the only character in the term. |
|
80?86 |
Topics that contain the terms "80186," "80286," "80386," and so on. The question mark cannot be the only character in the term. | |
|
Nested expressions |
control NOT (active OR dde) |
Topics containing the word "control" without either of the words "active" or "dde." |
