Searching Hints

Search through the ODA Committee site Search the WWW

Search Rules

Our search engine will help you find documents on the ODA Committee Website or the World Wide Web.

Here's how it works: You tell the search engine what you're looking for by typing words or phrases in the search box.

The search engine responds by giving you a list of all the Web pages in our index relating to the subject. The most relevant content will appear at the top of your results.

How To Use:

1. Type the required word/s in the search box.
2. Click on the Search button to start your search.

Here's an example:

1. Type the word London in the search box.
2. Click on the Search button or press the Enter key.
3. The Results page will show you the pages on our site that with the word London.

The Basics - An Overview

Here's a quick overview of the rest of our Basic Help. Just click on the links to jump to these sections.

What is an 'Index'?
What is a word?
What is a phrase?
Simple Tips for More Exact Searches
Fancy Features for Typical Searches

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What is an Index? An index is a sequential arrangement of material. Our index is a large, growing organised collection of Web pages and discussion group pages from around the world. The index becomes larger as we develop our site. When you use our search engine, you search our entire collection using words or phrases.

What is a word? When searching, think of a word as a combination of letters and numbers. The search engine needs to know how to separate words and numbers to find exactly what you want to find on our site. You separate words using your space bar or tab key.

What is a phrase? When searching, think of a phrase as a series of words, numbers or words and numbers, read in the order in which they appear. If you want to find an exact phrase, use "double quotation marks" around the words when you enter them in the search box. For example, to find information about the ODA Blueprint type "ODA Blueprint" in the search box. Top of Page

Simple Tips for More Exact Searches All searches are case insensitive and accent insensitive. Searching for "Fur" will match the lowercase "fur", uppercase "FUR", and German "für".   Including or excluding words: To make sure that a specific word is always included in your search topic, place the plus (+) symbol before the word in the search box. To make sure that a specific word is always excluded from your search topic, place a minus (-) sign before the word in the search box. For example: To find information about the disability discrimination but not the Act type +disability +discrimination -act. Note there is no space between the plus (+) or minus (-) sign and the search word.   Expand your search using wildcards (*): By typing an * at the end of a keyword, you can search for the word with multiple endings. For example: Try disab*, to find disable, disabled, disability, disabilities, disabling or disablement. Top of Page

 

Website maintained by Barbara Anello

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Last updated June 4, 2003

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