Using the Search bar, you can locate topics in the Help using Boolean keywords such as not, and, or or. For example, the search string not dogs or cats and fish locates all topics with the words cats and fish but all topics with the word dogs are omitted.
Punctuation marks can also be used in place of Boolean keywords, as shown in the following table:
| Symbol | Boolean keyword | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| | | or |
cats | fish cats or fish |
| + | and |
dogs + cats dogs and cats |
| & | and |
cats & kittens cats and kittens |
| ! | not |
!fish not fish |
| ^ | and not |
dogs ^ cats dogs and not cats |
You can group search strings with parentheses. For example, the search string cats and (dogs or fish) finds topics with the words cats and dogs, cats and fish, or all three words.
Parentheses can be nested too, as in cats and (not dogs (fish or kittens)). When parentheses are nested, the innermost set of parentheses is evaluated first, followed by the next set, and so on. In the previous example, the search results include topics with the words cats and fish or cats and kittens. Topics with the words fish or kittens do not include the word dogs; however, dogs might appear in topics where only the word cats was used.
You can place a search string in quotation marks to find the exact string you enter. For example, the search string big scaly fish finds only topics with that text. Including common words, such as, a, the, an, to, be, of, that, for, and you causes the search to fail. For example, the search string the big scaly fish that Uncle Ned caught for supper Tuesday night fails because of the common words included in the search string.
You cannot search for a single quotation mark because the search engine uses the symbol as a delimiter.