You can broaden or narrow your search with the shortcuts below. Insert any word in place of the letters a, b and c in each example.

• Prioritize your search

  Prioritize any part of your search criteria by enclosing it in parentheses. The search engine will look for the words in the innermost parentheses, then search for the remaining words in order from left to right (much like an algebra problem). There must be at least one space between the search words you choose and the operators "OR" and "AND."

  There are several possible word/operator/parentheses combinations, including:
  

  a AND (b OR c)		Looks for documents that contain a and either b or c.
  		Example: Windows AND (95 OR NT) will produce documents including Windows 95 or Windows NT.
  (a AND (b OR c)) OR d		Looks for documents that contain search words a and either b or c, or that contain d.
  		Example: (Windows AND (95 OR NT)) OR Microsoft will pull up documents mentioning Windows 95, Windows NT or any documents with the word Microsoft.

   

• Define a proximity

  Narrow your search by identifying two words that appear in the document(s) you�re looking for. Hunt for terms that appear within 1,000 words of each other, or qualify the search even more by defining a closer proximity.

  a <NEAR> b		Pulls up documents in which the search words appear within 1,000 words of each other. The closer the search terms are to each other, the higher the document will be ranked on the results page.
  		Example: desktop <NEAR> systems
  a <NEAR/N> b		Searches for documents in which the search words appear within N words of each other. N can be any number you choose between 1 and 1024. The closer the search terms are to each other within the value you�ve defined, the higher the document will be ranked on the results page.
  		Example: desktop <NEAR/10> systems will produce a list of documents containing the words "desktop" and "systems" within 10 words of each other.

   

• Pick a wildcard

  The following wildcards (open-ended search characters) can be placed anywhere in a search string.

  ?		A question mark represents a single letter, number or character.
  		Example: Windows 3.? Will pull up documents containing the phrase "Windows 3.0" and/or "Windows 3.1."
  *		An asterisk represents an unspecified number of alphanumeric characters. Avoid using the asterisk as the first character in a search string. The asterisk is ignored in a set [ ] or an alternative pattern { }.
  		Example: win* will pull up documents with any word beginning with "win" (i.e., win, winner, Windows).
  { }		Braces specify one of each pattern separated by a comma, as in "network{s, ing, ed} which locates documents containing "network," "networks," "networking" and "networked." Braces indicate an implied AND.

  
  

  To search for a keyword or phrase that contains a literal version of any of the symbols listed above: Precede a literal asterisk with two back slashes: "a\\*" Separate literal question marks or other wildcard characters with one back slash: "Checkers\?"

   

• The following literal characters should also be preceded with a back slash (\) or enclosed in back quotes (`):

  Symbol		Example 1	Example 2
  comma (,)		Dear Mary\,	`Dear Mary,`
  left and right parentheses ( )		\(i.e.\)	`(i.e.)`
  double quotation mark (")		\"hello\"	`"hello"`
  back slash (\)		c:\\windows	`c:\windows`
  at sign (@)		\@ noon	`@ noon`
  left curly brace ({)		left \{	`left {`
  left bracket ([)		left \[	`left [`
  less than sign (<)		\<50	`<50`
  back quote (`)		\`	```