Refining Your Search
When you search for a word in the iFIX electronic books, you obtain a list of all topics in which that word appears. If you enter more than one word, every topic that includes all of the search words appears in the topics list. There are several ways to refine your search:
Using Quotes to Define a Phrase
Enclosing multiple words in quotes generates a list of topics in which that phrase appears.
For example, if you enter the search string:
database blocks
in the Search tab, the topics list includes all topics in which both words appear. The words can appear in any order anywhere in the topic text.
If you enter:
"database blocks"
enclosed in quotes, the topics list only includes those topics in which the exact phrase (or slight variations, such as database block) appears in the topic text.
NOTE: Be aware that if the text you search for contains the words AND, OR, NOT, or NEAR, you must surround the search phrase with quotes, or quotes surrounded by parentheses. Otherwise, these words will be treated as search operators, and the expected topic(s) will not be found in the search. For example, both of the following search strings should find the appropriate topics:
"items not supported"
("items not supported")
Searching with Wildcard Expressions
You can use the * symbol to search for multiple unknown characters in a word or phrase. You can also use the ? symbol for a single unknown character in a search. For example, the entry iW* would display iWebServer and iWebCast. The entry ?DO would display topics for both ADO and RDO.
Defining Search Terms
The AND, OR, NOT, and NEAR operators enable you to precisely define your search by creating a relationship between search terms.
Using Nested Expressions
Nested expressions allow you to create complex searches for information. For example, "control AND ((active OR opc) NEAR window)" finds topics containing the word "control" along with the words "active" and "window" close together, or containing "control" along with the words "opc" and "window" close together.
The basic rules for searching Help 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: "Control NOT active OR opc" finds topics containing the word "control" without the word "active," or topics containing the word "opc." On the other hand, "control NOT (active OR opc)" finds topics containing the word "control" without either of the words "active" or "opc."
- You cannot nest expressions more than five levels deep.
Using Other Searching Methods
There are three other options available for searches at the bottom of the search window that you can click. These options are as follows:
- Search titles only: Allows you to search for words in the titles of HTML files.
- Match similar words: Enables you to include minor grammatical variations for the phrase you search. For example, a search on the word "add" will find "add," "adds," and "added." This feature only locates variations of the word with common suffixes. For example, a search on the word "add" will find "added," but it will not find "additive."
- Search previous results: Enables you to narrow a search that results in too many topics found. You can search through your results list from a previous search by using this option. If you want to search through all of the files in a Help system, this check box must be cleared.
