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Help on Advanced Search |
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The Help on Advanced Search page provides information on how to conduct very specific searches on the Canada Site.
When should you use Advanced Search?
Advanced Search is for very specific searches that exceed the specifications possible in a general search.
What is the difference between the Simple Search and the Advanced Search?
Words and phrases work the same in both Simple Search and Advanced Search. The include (+) or exclude (-) features are not available in Advanced Search. Instead, you can use the more powerful Boolean commands to customize your search. Another difference is that in Advanced Search, you can choose to rank results with specific words higher on your results page.
What are Boolean operators?
You can create specific relationships among keywords or phrases using Boolean Operators like or, not, and not, near.
| Keyword | Symbol | Action |
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| and | & |
Finds only documents containing all of the specified words or phrases.
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| or | | |
Finds documents containing at least one of the specified words or phrases.
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| and not | ! |
Excludes documents containing the specified word or phrase.
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| near | ~ |
Finds documents containing both specified words or phrases within 10 words of each other.
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How to use the Boolean operators
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Optional: You can choose to see results over a specific date range by filling in the Range of Dates section.
What do you mean by the term "ranking"?
Usually, the search service sorts or "ranks" the contents of your search according to relevance. The higher the ranking, the more relevant the content. However, in Advanced Search you can adjust the ranking of results by using Boolean operators or the "Rank documents with these word(s) higher" feature.
Searching within a defined time period
Using the Range of dates section, you can practice "Web Archeology". Try using the example below to find documents created during the early years of the Internet. In general, if you forget to include the month or year, the search service will use the current month and year.
Example: From: 21/03/2000
To: 21/03/2002
Note: The Range of dates section is very helpful when you want to search for Internet documents from a specific period of time.