Advanced Searching Tips

At its simplest, a search query can be just a word. But with the tips on this page, you can refine your search to give you more complete results.

• Look for a phrase by typing the whole phrase.
  Example - type trade development to find the exact phrase trade development . Since the search is not case-sensitive, this is equivalent to TRADE DEVELOPMENT. 

• Look for two or more words at once by using the AND operator.
  Example - type trade AND development to find documents that have both the word trade and the word development anywhere. 

• Look for words that are close to each other by using the NEAR operator instead of the AND operator. When you use NEAR, the closer together the words are, the higher the rank of the page, so the higher it appears in the list of search results.
  Example - type trade NEAR development to match documents where the word trade is within 50 words of the word development.

• Look for synonyms or similar words by using the OR operator. Note that if you don't use the OR operator and search using multiple words, the words are treated as a phrase.
  Example - type workshop OR seminar to find the word workshop or the word seminar but not necessarily both.

• Limit your search by using the AND NOT operator to exclude words.
  Example - type technical AND NOT cooperation tools to find all instances of technical as long as technical is not followed by the phrase cooperation tools.

• Use AND, OR, NOT, or NEAR literally by using double quotes.
  Example - type "technical cooperation tools" to find documents with the phrase technical cooperation tools.

• Look for words that begin with the same letters by using a single asterisk (*).
  Example - type key* to find key, keying, keyhole, keyboard, and so on.

• Look for all forms of a word by using a double asterisk (**).
  Example - type fly** to match fly, flew, flown, and flying.

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