Advanced search

Search Help

Enter phrases or words in the Search Term(s) box (the search is not case sensitive). Normally the results returned will contain all of the words entered, but this can be changed using the Method box. You can customise the search through selecting the following from the Method box:

• Contains all search terms – returns pages that contain all the words entered.
• Contains any search terms – returns pages that contain any of the words entered.
• Boolean query – See below.

The order in which the results are returned can also be changed. Use the Sort By box to select one of the following options:

• Relevancy – the number of words matched (greatest to smallest)
• Date (newest first) – Descending order of date and time
• Title – Alphabetical order of title
• Date (oldest first) – Ascending order of date and time
• Reverse Title – Reverse alphabetical order of title

Boolean queries

Select Boolean query in the Method box to use the following.

Boolean queries allow you to further improve the selection of documents returned as it allows you to use the following commands in your search words or phrases:

• and
• or
• not

These command words can be embedded in your search query in the following manner:

• cat or dog – returns documents that contain cat or dog
• cat and dog – returns documents that contain cat and dog
• not dog – returns documents that do not containing dog
• cat and not dog - returns an error as this is not a valid boolean search.

More complicated nesting of these commands is possible.