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This search engine functions best when queries are entered as
Natural Language questions. Simply type in your question as you would ask
it when speaking to another person and you will receive better results than a
typical Keyword or Boolean query would return. Being able to use Natural
Language also means that your questions can be specific, which can lead to
more accurate and concise results.
For example, if you’re looking for information about security measures
that were established after September 11, 2001, you are better off typing into the search box
"Have new security measures been put in place at airports since September,11, 2001?" than
typing in "security measures". The longer query will return just a
concise list of highly relevant results, while the shorter, more general query
will deliver a longer list of results that you will have to sort through.
Therefore, it's more effective to use Natural Language.
This search engine is equipped with a spell checker that will automatically
verify the spelling of all the words in your queries. When a mispelled word is
found, it will appear at the top of a drop-down menu on your search results
page. Simply select the correct alternative from the drop-down menu and select
"Resubmit" to run the search again using the correct spelling.
Please be advised that using the following advanced options without proper
knowledge of their use could lead to poorer results
than had you simply entered your query in Natural Language. In most
circumstances, the best search results will be returned when you
type Natural Language questions into the search box.
If you want to use Advanced Query Options, such as Boolean operators, simply
CAPITALISE the operators in the search box. If they are not CAPITALISED, they
will be treated as Natural Language. Therefore, when using
Boolean, type your query terms with the appropriate operators in between the
terms, ensuring that the operators are CAPITALISED in the Search Box, and select
"Go". UniFind supports the Boolean AND, OR, NOT and NEAR operators. In addition,
you can use quotation marks to ensure that all your search results
will contain a particular phrase, exactly the way that you entered that phrase.
The following is an example of a search query that contains many of these
options: airport OR aviation AND "security measures".
On the Advanced Search Page, you can choose to limit your list of results to a
particular mode of transportation. For example if you’re interested in registering
your boat, you can enter the word "registering" and select Marine from
the list of Mode options, and then select "Go". A list of results that
only relate to marine registration, will be produced.
You may also choose to display your list of results in a variety of ways. For
example, to display more or less results per page, simply input
your desired number of results per page into the appropriate field and select
"Apply".
The following three options are also given:
- to display the best matching part of
each document that is returned in the list of results (i.e., the part of each
document that best matches your particular query);
- to display each document’s URL; and
- to display the date of each document that is returned.
You can select or de-select any of these three options, in any combination, simply
by selecting the box next to each and then selecting "Apply".
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