Searching in the information center

To search topics in the information center, enter a query in the Search field, and click Go. The Search Results view displays the top 500 ranked results. Select a search result to display that topic. The words from your query are highlighted in the displayed topic. The result page will scroll automatically to make the first occurrence visible.

To switch on and off the highlight effect on the query word, click Highlight Switch (Highlight Switch ).

Exception: When you use the quick search method to search only a single topic, the search highlighting is always on and you cannot use the Highlight Switch to switch on and off the highlighting.

To toggle between the Contents view and the Search Results view, click the Contents tab (Contents) or the Search Results tab (Search  results).

Searches are not case-sensitive.

The Search Results view displays topics that meet the search query regardless of any filters that you might have set.

Searching for exact words or phrases

You can identify a search phrase as an exact string by enclosing it in double quotation marks. For example, "log file" searches for the string log file, not the separate words log and file. Without the quotation marks, the search term is interpreted to find instances of both the word log and the word file in the topics.

In English and German only, the search engine "stems" other forms of a single search word. For example, a search for the word challenge, will also find the word challenging. Surround the terms that you enter in the search field with double quotation marks when you do not want your search results to include such variations of the terms.

Searching with wildcards

You can use the following wildcard characters:
  • * Asterisk - for multiple unknown or variable characters in the term. For example, the search term par* returns partly, participate, partial, and other words beginning with par.
  • ? Question mark - for a single unknown or variable character. For example, the search term par? returns part but not partial or partly.

Restriction: Wildcards can only be used in the middle or end of search strings. They are not supported when they appear at the beginning of a search string, such as *XXXX or ?XXXX.

Searching with Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT)

You can insert the binary operators: AND, OR, and NOT in your search term. For example:
database AND "log file"
Narrows the search to include topics that must contain both the term database and the phrase log file anywhere in the document.
database OR "log file"
Widens the search to include topics that contain either the term database or the phrase log file anywhere in the document.
database NOT "log file"
Searches for topics that contain database and that do not contain the phrase log file anywhere in the document.
database OR "data base" NOT "log file"
Searches for documents that contain either the term database or the phrase data base and that do not contain the phrase log file anywhere in the document.

Narrowing your search scope

By default, all topics shown in the Contents view are searched. However, you can narrow your searches to a particular set of topics, called a search list, and save search lists to use again later.

To create a search list:
  1. Click Search scope next to the Search field. The Select Search Scope window opens.
  2. Select Search only the following topics and click New. The New Search List window opens.
  3. In the List name field, provide a name for your new search list.
  4. In the Topics to search list, select the branches of the Contents view that you want to include in your search. You can expand to select subcategories at the second heading level.
  5. Click OK. Your new search list now appears in the Search only the following topics list. By default, it is automatically selected. You can click OK to apply this search list for your subsequent searches.
Restriction: In some browsers (for example Konqueror and Safari), the functionality to save search lists is not provided.

The search list that is currently active is always shown at the top of the browser, next to the Search scope link. The search list that you last used persists each time that you use the system.

Display search results grouped by some criteria

If the topics in the documentation set have been tagged with criteria, you can display the search results by platform, product name, or version. Click Group Type on the top of the Search Results view, and the search results are listed according to the selected criteria. If you click the group type None, the search results are ungrouped.

Viewing detailed information

Click Show/Hide detail to change between showing or hiding detailed information of the topics in the search results.

Doing a quick search

Use the Quick search choices of the Quick menu in the Contents view to do a quick search on one or more topics:

  1. To open the Quick menu, hold your cursor over a topic in the Contents view. The icon (Open Quick Menu) for the Quick menu appears. Click the icon.
  2. To use the quick search choices:
    • If you want to search only in the topic on which you opened the Quick menu, click Search this topic. The search dialog opens.
    • If you want to search through the topic and all of its subtopics, click Search this topic and subtopics. The search dialog opens.
  3. In the search dialog, enter the query in the Search field and click Go to begin the search.

If you search only in the topic and your search terms are matched, the topic will be displayed automatically. If there are no matches in the topic, a dialog displays Nothing found, which you can dismiss using its OK button.

If you search a topic and its subtopics and there are matches to your query, the Search Results view displays the top 500 ranked results. You can select a search result to display that topic. The words from your query are highlighted in the displayed topic.

Important:

  1. The Search this topic dialog window will be closed automatically regardless of the search results.
  2. When using the Search this topic choice, the topic will always have the query words highlighted regardless of the highlight switch status.
  3. If the topic heading in the navigation tree has no topic associated with it, the Search this topic choice will be disabled because there is no topic content for that heading to be searched.

 

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