Search Engine Help

Below is a short explanation of the advanced options the search engine provides. These options are used to refine a search on the site. They can be useful when you know exactly what you are looking for and want a quick search and few matches.

Hint: If you are just performing a random search, don't choose any of the options, or use only one, as it may prevent a correct match from appearing in the results.

Search Strings

You can use "and" (default) and "or" with search terms.
Write umlauts like Ä as Ae, ...

Examples:
- "cat and mouse" - or simply "cat mouse"
     This will search for a document with both cat and mouse in it

- "(cat or mouse) and not dog"
     This will search for a document with cat or mouse in it's content

- "cat or mouse"
     This will search for a document with cat or mouse, but not dog.

Thesaurus

This option will search for the word(s) you input for a search and any other words that have the same meaning.

For example, the search for "doctor" would return all documents containing doctor and documents that contain words such as "physician" or "general practitioner".

Substring Matching

This search will extend the search to include words that include the word you used to search. For example, the word "mail" will return all documents that contain mail and documents that have mail as a substring, eg, "e-mail"

Search Based on Age of Documents

If you are a regular visitor to this site, or are after only recent information, then you can use the option to return documents that are only a given amount of days old.

Area Restricted Search

If you are only interested in one area of the site, then you can restrict your search to that area. For example, you may only want to search for information on recent developments in the area of health, just select Health from the drop-down list.