Here's a quick overview of our Search Help.
Just click on the links to jump to these sections.
The Basics
The search service helps you find documents on our Web site. Here's
how it works: You tell the search service what you're looking for
by typing in keywords, phrases, or questions in the search box.
The search service responds by giving you a list of all the Web
pages in our index relating to those topics. The most relevant content
will appear at the top of your results.
How To Use:
- Type your keywords in the search box.
- Press the Search button to start your search.
Here's an example:
- Type canada passport information in the search
box.
- Press
the Search button or press the Enter
key.
- The
Results page will show you numerous pages on the Web about passport
information.
Tip:
Don't
worry if you find a large number of results. In fact, use more than
a couple of words when searching. Even though the number of results
will be large, the most relevant content will always appear at the
top of the result pages.
What is an "Index"?
Webster's
dictionary describes an "index" as "a sequential
arrangement of material." Our index is a large, growing, organized
collection of web pages from our web site. The 'index' becomes larger
as new web pages are added. We also have technology that crawls
our web site looking for links to new web pages. When you use our
search service, you search the entire collection using keywords
or phrases.
What
is a word?
When
searching, think of a word as a combination of letters and numbers.
The search service needs to know how to separate words and numbers
to find exactly what you want on the Internet. You can separate
words using white space and tabs.
What is a
phrase?
You
can link words and numbers together into phrases if you want specific
words or numbers to appear together in your result pages. If you
want to find an exact phrase, use "double quotation marks"
around the phrase when you enter words in the search box.
Example
1: To find youth employment strategy, type "youth
employment strategy" in the search box.
You
can also create phrases using punctuation or special characters
such as dashes, underscore lines, commas, slashes, or dots.
Example
2: Try searching for 1 800 667-3355
instead of 1-800-667-3355. The dashes link the
numbers together as a phrase.
Simple
Tips for More Exact Searches
Viewing
your search results in your language:
Using the Language pull-down menu in the search box, you can find
all the documents on the Web Sites about a given topic, originally
written in a specific language. This type of search excludes web
pages written in other languages so that you can make your search
even more exact.
Example:
If you select the French pull-down option when
searching for passport, you will see result pages
including the word passport written on French
Web pages. When in doubt, use lowercase text in your searches.
When
you use lowercase text, the search service finds both upper and
lowercase results. When you use upper case text, the search service
finds only upper case.
Example:
When you search for ottawa, you'll find Ottawa,
ottawa, and OTTAWA in your result pages.
However, when you search for Ottawa, you'll only
see Ottawa in the result pages.
Including
or excluding words:
To make sure that a specific word is always included in
your search topic, place the plus (+) symbol before the key 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 keyword
in the search box.
Example:
To find rail and ship transportation excluding air in Canada,
try rails +ship +canadian -air.
Expand
your search using wildcards (*):
By typing an * at the end of a keyword, you can
search for the word with multiple endings.
Example: Try tax*, to find taxes,
taxable and taxation.
Features
for Typical Searches
The
Search engine searches more than just text. Here are all of the
other ways you can search on the net:
Keyword
|
Function
|
anchor:text
|
Finds
pages that contain the specified word or phrase in the text
of a hyperlink.
|
applet:class
|
Finds
pages that contain a specified Java applet. Use applet:morph
to find pages using applets called morph.
|
image:filename
|
Finds
pages with images having a specific filename. Use image:canada
to find pages with images called canada.
|
text:text
|
Finds
pages that contain the specified text in any part of the page
other than an image tag, link, or URL. The search text:cow9
would find all pages with the term cow9 in them.
|
title:text
|
Finds
pages that contain the specified word or phrase in the page
title (which appears in the title bar of most browsers). The
search title:Initiative would find pages
with Initiative in the title.
|
|