Please note that a search request is evaluated from left to right.
Here's a list of operators you can use in AppleSearch:
* The and operator
This searches for articles that contain both search words separated by the operator "and".
* The or operator
This searches for articles that contain either one or combinations of the search words. The "or" operator is the default operator between search words.
* The not operator
This searches for articles that contain the search words preceding, "not". It ignores articles containing the search words following "not".
* The "*" (wild string) operator
Wild string searching allows you to generate other possible search words by substituting the "*" with 0 or more text characters in order to form new words. You can insert the "*" anywhere in the search word to find articles that contain variations of the word with the "*". Example: Searching on Victor* will find words such as victor, victorian, victoria and victory.
* The "?" character
Use the question mark to search for words that can be formed by substituting the question mark (?) with a letter. Example: Poe?s finds poets or poems.
* Proximity (or adjacency) operators
Proximity searching allows you to find important search terms when they are next to each other. You can use any of these operators: (-), (.), (,), ('), (adj). The "adj" operator requires spaces between the words.
For example, the search string:
AppleTalk adj Remote adj Access
will give you all occurrences of AppleTalk Remote Access and won't return articles that contain only "appletalk" or "remote" or "access".
You can further adjust the proximity of the search by specifying how close the search terms need to be to each other. To adjust the proximity of your search, use the W/n Boolean operator, where W means within and n equals the number of terms that exist between your search words. For example, the search string:
Apple w/3 router
finds a good selection of AppleTalk Internet Router articles.
* The "!" (word expansion) operator
Word expansion allows you to search for words that frequently occur with your search word. By inserting the exclamation mark (!) after your search word, you instruct AppleSearch to find articles that contain the words that occur most often with the search word (the word preceding the exclamation mark). For example, the search:
SCSI!
will find articles containing words like device, SC, Small Computer Systems Interface, and so on.
* The () operator
Enclosing a phrase in parentheses instructs AppleSearch to process the enclosed search words before evaluating those outside parentheses. It designates the precedence of searching as the phrase is evaluated from left to right.