Click the Search tab to find word (phrase) in the text of the reference. (Keyboard shortcut: Alt+S)

For example, let's find in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary the word "W" (see figure below):

You can search for words or phrases using wildcard expressions, nested expressions, Boolean operators, similar word matches, the previous results list, or topic titles to refine your search.

1. In the navigation pane, click the Search tab and then type the word or phrase you want to find. Use the right-arrow button to add Boolean operators to your search.

2. Click List Topics button. Your search will return all (or the first 500) hits. If you want to sort the topic list, click Title or Rank. Rank means the degree of relevancy of the topic towards the given searched word.

3. Highlight the topic you want, and then click Display. (Alternatively, you can display any topic by double-clicking it.)

You can refine a basic search by using wildcard expressions, nested expressions, and Boolean operators. You can also search only on the previous results list, request similar word matches, or search only the titles of topics in the table of contents.

• To refine a search to include just the last group of topics you searched, select the Search previous results check box.
• To match similar spellings in a full-text search, select the Match similar words check box. When Match similar words is selected, the viewer matches minor grammatical variations of the word or phrase you entered, as well as the word or phrase itself. For example, if you entered "add" and selected this box, the Library viewer would find "add", "adds", and "added". This option is independent of other options or syntax. If you do a titles-only search variations in titles will be matched.
• To search for words in document titles only, select the Search titles only check box.

The basic rules for formulating queries are as follows:

• Searches are not case-sensitive, so you can type your search in uppercase or lowercase characters.
• You can search for any combination of letters (a–z) and numbers (0–9). You cannot search for single letters (a, b, c, etc.) and a number of reserved words such as: and, but, by, for, it, not, or, the, to, with, you etc.
• Punctuation marks such as the period (.), colon (:), semicolon (;), comma (,), and hyphen (-) are ignored during a search.
• Group the elements of your search using "double quotes" or (parentheses). You cannot search for quotation marks.

Note     If you are searching for a filename with an extension, you should group the entire string in double quotes, ("filename.ext"). Otherwise, the search will treat the period as an OR operator.

You can search for words or phrases and use wildcard: asterisk (*) and question mark (?). The table below describes the results of these different kinds of searches.

Search for	Example	Results
——————————————————————————————————————————————————
A single word	Select	Topics that contain the word "select." (You will also find its grammatical variations, such as "selector" and "selection").
A phrase	"new operator"	Topics that contain the literal phrase "new operator" and all its grammatical variations. Without the quotation marks, the query is equivalent to specifying a new AND operator, which will find topics containing both of the individual words, instead of the phrase.
Wildcard expressions	Esc*	Topics that contain the terms "ESC," "escape," "escalation," and so on. The asterisk cannot be the only character in the words.
	80?86	Topics that contain the terms "80186," "80286," "80386," and so on. The question mark cannot be the only character in the term.
	*86	Topics that contain the terms "386," "486," "x86," "QEMM386," "8086," and so on.

The following table shows how to use each of these operators.

Search for	Example	Symbol	Results
——————————————————————————————————————————————————
Both terms in the same topic	good AND choice	&	Topics containing both the words "good" and "choice".
Either term in a topic	good OR choice	|	Topics containing either the word "good" or the word "choice".
The first term without the second term	good NOT choice	!	Topics containing the word "good," but not the word "choice".
Both terms in the same topic, close together	good NEAR choice		Topics containing the word "good" within eight words of the word "choice".

The basic rules for searching topics using nested expressions are as follows:

• You can use parentheses to nest expressions within a query. The expressions in parentheses are evaluated before the rest of the query.
• If a query does not contain a nested expression, it is evaluated from left to right. For example, "Choice NOT good OR best" finds topics containing the term "Choice" without the term "good", or topics containing the term "Choice" and not "best". (On the other hand, "Choice NOT (good OR best)" finds topics containing the term "Choice" without either of the terms "good" or "best".)
• Nesting allows you to create more complex search expressions. For example, "Choice NEAR ((good OR best) NEAR window)" finds topics containing the term "Choice" along with the terms "good" and "window" close together, or containing "Choice" along with the terms "best" and "window" close together.
• You cannot nest expressions more than five levels deep.