Searching Answers

Table of Contents

Simple Searching

Type your search into the search box at the top right of the screen:

As you start to enter words into the box, Answers will match pages and attachments that have those words in the title and show you an abbreviated list of the pages found. The list displayed is not all pages that are relevant to your search. The pop-up list displays the first 6 pages, the first two attachments, and the first three matching names. At the bottom of the list is an option to search Answers and generate a complete list (you can also press Enter when you are done typing terms to perform a full site search and get a list of all the pages that include your search terms).

The screenshot below shows the first three results from a full search for "MySlice errors" (retrieved by pressing Enter after entering the keywords in the search box) :

Searching for Attachments

When searching for attachments by name, the file extension is considered part of the last word in the name. So, entering answerstest will not bring up answerstest.docx because answerstest is not the full string. To retrieve this attachment, you must use answerstest.docx or the wildcard character (so a partial string matches): answerstest*

Advanced Searching

Exact Phrase

Use double quotes around the phrase.

Ex: '"cell phone"' will search for pages containing that exact phrase instead of the words, "cell" and "phone" anywhere in the document.

Using OR

Searches for pages that contain either of the words.

Ex: "apple OR mac" will search for pages that contain either the word, "apple" or the word, "mac."

Using AND

Searches for pages that contain both of the search terms.

Ex: "OSX AND 10.7" will return only pages that have both the word, "OSX" and the number, "10.7."

Using NOT

Searches for pages that contain the first term but not the term that appears after word NOT.

Ex: "media NOT social" will find pages that have the word, "media" but not the word, "social."

Title Searches

To search for pages that only have the term in the page title.

Ex: "title: Wireless" will find pages that have the word, "wireless" in the page title.

Wildcard Searches

Single Character

To search for a word with any character at a single position within the word, use a question mark: ?

Ex: si?e will find pages with "site," "size," "side," or any other character at the 3rd position.

Multi Character

To search for word that begin with the same string, use an asterisk: *

Ex: "print*" will find pages containing the words, "printer," "printing," and any other word that begins with "print."

NOTE

You can't use the wildcards at the beginning of a word! However, you can use them in the middle or at the end of a word:
*systems - invalid
system* - valid
iP*d - valid

Combined Searches

You can combine different search operators together:

(Vista OR 7) AND Windows

"Outlook 2010" AND SUmail

Search Help

From the search results screen, you can get help by selecting the question mark next to the search box.

Search Filters

If your search returns a large number of results, you may want to use one of the search filters available on the search results screen. You can filter by author, space, when the page/attachment was last modified, or content type. A filter becomes effective as soon as you select it.