CHAPTER 6

Searching in DeskSite
This chapter contains the following information to describe DeskSites vast searching capabilities: WorkSite Search Capability Searching on Profile Information Full-text Searching Performing Searches Search Menu Quick Search Saved Search WorkSite Container Searches
NOTE Express Search is a separate search utility. Refer to the WorkSite Express Search Users Guide for more information.

WorkSite Search Capability

DeskSite can perform fast and powerful searches for workspaces, folders, and documents based on profile information and/or full-text information. You can perform Quick Searches from the toolbar or save a search by creating a search folder and running the search each time you open the search folder.
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Before you learn about how to perform different types of searches in DeskSite, it is important to understand the criteria on which these searches are based.

Searching on Profile Information

When you perform a search based on a documents profile information, you can enter search criteria for certain fields of profile information. DeskSite returns documents whose profile information matches the criteria. This type of search is sometimes called a query-by-form search.The fields of profile information are entered in the Search dialog box.

Search Dialog Box

The Search dialog box is used to enter search criteria for any type of search, including full-text or document profile information.
NOTE The Search dialog box can be customized by your WorkSite Administrator. Figure 97 shows the default appearance of the Search dialog box.

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Figure 97 Search dialog box

At a glance you can see the information your search covers using the Search Helper area. It shows the Search Scope (selections made in the Result Filter and Search Within fields) and the Search Criteria (a summary of the profile information you have entered).

Full-text Searching
Full-text searching locates documents based on the occurrence of search terms or strings in the text of the document. These can be individual words, partial words, phrases, or sequential words. You can search for occurrences of these terms either in the contents of documents or in the text of certain profile fields, such as Comment or Description, and custom fields such as From and To.

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A full-text search can be performed in conjunction with a search on profile information. The search returns documents that meet both the profile search criteria and contain the words or phrases specified by the full-text search criteria.
NOTE By default, full-text searches are not case-sensitive.

You can enter full-text search criteria in the Look For field (at the bottom of the Search dialog box). See Figure 98. You can also select whether to search through the entire body of the document or on certain profile fields by selecting an option from the list adjacent to the Look For field. Figure 98 Search dialog box, full-text information

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Simplified Full-text Search

A Simplified Full-text Search dialog box is available for users who are not familiar with Boolean logic or constructing full-text search commands. See Figure 99. This dialog box enables you to enter key terms or phrases and construct a simple full-text search query automatically. Figure 99 Simplified Full-text Search dialog box

You can access this dialog box, by clicking the Look For field in the Search dialog box.

Lookup button next to the

Use this intuitive dialog box to create simple full-text search queries by entering words or phrases separated by commas into the appropriate fields. In the first field, enter a list of terms which must all appear in the document in order for it to appear in your search results. In the second field, enter a list of terms only one of which must appear in the document for it to appear in your list of search results. In the third field, enter terms that should exclude a document from the search results if they appear in that document.

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The All of these words list at the top of the Simplified Full-text Search dialog box lets you set the proximity with which the terms you enter must appear in the text. The Anywhere in document option returns documents in which the terms appear anywhere in the document, not necessarily in proximity of each other. The Near each other returns documents in which the terms must appear within a defined proximity of each other. The Near field enables you to set the proximity between terms in numeric values.

Search Syntax
A search query is made up of search terms and operators. Terms are individual words, partial words, and phrases that you use to perform full-text searches. Multiple terms can be combined using operators.

Search Operators
Operators enable you to combine search terms to restrict your search. In DeskSite, the operators used in searches on profile information and full-text information are different. Table 41 lists the operators that work only on profile fields. Table 41 Profile Field Operators Search Operator
> (Greater Than)

Description
The greater than sign is used to find documents that contain a value in a particular profile field that is greater than a specified minimum value. The greater than or equal to sign finds documents that contain a value in a particular profile field that is greater than or equal to a specified value.

Example
To select documents with a document number greater that 2500, enter: > 2500 in the Document Number field. To search for documents with a document number greater than or equal to 2800, enter: >= 2800 in the Document Numberfield. To search for documents with a version number less than 3, enter: < 3 in the Version Number field. To search for documents with a version number less than or equal to 3, enter: <= 3 in the Version Number field.

>= (Greater Than or Equal To)

< (Less Than)

The less than sign is used to find documents that contain a value in a particular profile field that is less than a specified maximum limit. Like the greater than or equal to sign, the less than or equal to sign combines the searching power of the less than and equal to signs.

<= (Less Than or Equal To)

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Table 42 lists the search operators supported for full-text searches. All operators must be entered in all UPPERCASE letters. Table 42 Full-text Operators Search Operator

Description
The double quotation marks operator locates documents that contain an exact word or phrase. It is used to perform a literal search. You can use double quotation marks with any of the other operators described in this table. Note: Stopwords are removed from queries using quotes.

Example
To find documents that contain the phrase new york, enter: new york If you do not use quotation marks, your results will include matches for new and york.

AND

The AND operator locates documents containing both the terms on either side of it. Note: This is the default operator.

To find documents that contain the words England and North, enter: England AND North To find documents with one or both of the words red and green, enter: red OR green

OR

The OR operator finds documents that contain at least one of the terms to which it is applied. It enlarges the search scope and is normally used to look for terms that have similar meaning or refer to similar subjects. The NOT modifier is used with the AND and OR operators to exclude documents that contain a given term. Note: For the NOT modifier to work, you must first enter a positive search criteria.

NOT

To find documents that contain the words mushrooms and olives but not the word anchovies, enter: mushrooms AND olives AND NOT anchovies The following example query would not return any results: NOT anchovies

Adding a tilde before a search term returns results that match the case of the search term.

To find documents that contain the word President, enter: ~President Occurrences of the words president or PRESIDENT are ignored.

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Table 42 Full-text Operators Search Operator

?

Description
The question mark (?) replaces any single alphanumeric character. Note: You can use more than one question mark within a term. Note: If you want a wildcard character to be interpreted as text and not as a wildcard, precede the character with a backslash (\).

Example
b?rn would match the words born, barn, or burn. sh??e would match the words shore and shade.

The asterisk (*) is used as a wildcard operator to represent any number of alphanumeric characters (including none). Note: When using the asterisk wildcard, try to narrow the potential scope of the wildcard entry as much as possible. Note: If you want a wildcard character to be interpreted as text and not as a wildcard, precede the character with a backslash (\).

To find documents about automobiles, enter: auto* Matching documents include words such as auto, automobile, and automotive, but also include autobiography, autocracy, and autograph. A more specific query would be: auto OR automo* Searching for *vert* would return matches for the words convertible, inverted, vertigo, and covert.

A fuzzy search allows for some degree of imprecision or uncertainty (or fuzziness). Fuzzy search returns results even when the terms used in your query do not appear precisely anywhere in the documents returned as matches. Among other things, fuzzy search ensures you will not miss an important document or e-mail just because of a spelling or typographical error in your search query or in the document you are seeking. () Parentheses enable you to group terms to define a precedence.

To perform a fuzzy search, insert the ~ (tilde) symbol after the term.

document AND (cluster OR redundancy) would return documents which contain document and either cluster or redundancy.

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Table 42 Full-text Operators Search Operator

BEFORE

Description
The specified term or expression must appear before another term or expression in the search results. The specified term or expression must appear after another term or expression in the search results. Only one of the terms is permitted to appear in the document. If both terms appear in the document, it is not returned in the search results.

Example
red BEFORE green would return only those documents in which the term red appears before the term green. red AFTER green would return only those documents in which the term red appears after the term green. To find documents that contain either cat or dog, enter: cat EOR dog cat XOR dog Documents that contain both cat and dog are not returned.

AFTER

EOR XOR

NEARn

Only returns documents in which the second term is within n words of the first term, that is, the terms are n or fewer words apart. Note: If you do not specify n, it defaults to 5.

To find documents with the words red and green within 7 words of each other, enter: red NEAR7 green

DNEARn

Only returns documents in which the second term is within n words of the first term, in the specified order. Note: If you do not specify n, it defaults to 5.

To find documents in which the term green follows the term red, and is no more than 2 words away from the term red. red DNEAR2 green

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Table 42 Full-text Operators Search Operator

WNEARn

Description
The Weighted NEAR operator promotes relevance when terms are less than the specified n words distance. The closer together the words are in the document, the higher the relevance of the document. Note: If you do not specify n, it defaults to 5. Documents in which the terms do not occur within n words of each other are returned with normal relevance.

Example
In this query, extra relevance is given to documents in which the terms dog and cat appear 7 or fewer words apart. dog WNEAR7 cat

YNEARn

The YNEAR operator is similar to the WNEAR operator, except that only documents which include both terms will be returned. YNEAR promotes relevance when terms are less than the specified n words distance. The closer together the words are in the document, the higher the relevance of the document. If you do not specify n, it defaults to 5. Documents in which the terms do not occur within n words of each other are returned with normal relevance. Note: This is the default operator.

In this query, extra relevance is given to documents in which the terms dog and cat appear 7 or fewer words apart. dog YNEAR7 cat Only documents which contain both dog and cat will be returned.

XNEARn

Only returns documents in which the second term is exactly n words from the first term.

This query only returns documents in which the term dogs follows the term cats and is exactly two words away from the term cats. This means that documents which contain cats and dogs are returned, while documents that contain dogs and cats or cats, dogs are not returned. cats XNEAR2 dogs

Searching for Word Variations with Stemming

When a full-text search is performed, WorkSite stems the search terms, and finds words that have the same stem. For example, a search for the word lovely is stemmed to the word love; and returns results such as lovely, love, loved, and so on.

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