ARCHIVED: How do I compose an effective Knowledge Base search?

Whenever you're seeking computing support, whether it's from the Knowledge Base, a computing consultant, or via the telephone, the first step is to define your question as specifically as you can; general statements don't give enough information to solve the problem. Information that will help you narrow your question includes:

• What kind of computer you're using
• What software programs you're having trouble with
• What specific task you are trying to accomplish with that software
• What error messages you see, or what specific symptoms of the problem your computer is exhibiting

Once you've defined the problem, choose two or three of the significant, specific words to form your Knowledge Base search. For example, if your question is "How do I create a mailing list in Pine?" then you might search on:

If you don't find a text that addresses your question, try a different combination of your search terms, such as either of the following:

If you're trying to find the meaning of an error message, search on significant words from that error message. For example, to find information on the error "Kerberos error: Time is out of bounds", search the Knowledge Base on:

Searching on only one word will often result in your search return containing too many documents to be helpful. Putting too many words in the same search might make you miss the document that answers your question. Good searches usually have several search terms. Remember that when you search on two words (e.g., install telix), you'll get all the documents that contain both install and telix, not just one or the other.

Here are some tips, tricks, and rules about searching the Knowledge Base:

• Remember that, in general, the more words there are in your search, the fewer documents there will be in your search results. Therefore, if your initial search does not return a document relevant to your question, try removing one or more words to get a wider range of documents.
  
  
• Separate your search criteria with spaces.
  
  
• Single-character (or number) searches are ignored, except for  c  and  x .
  
  
• Searches are not case sensitive, unless you enclose your search terms in quotation marks.
  
  
• To search for a phrase that contains spaces, enclose the phrase in quotation marks (e.g., "Microsoft Word").
  
  
• Most punctuation marks are treated as spaces. If you must find a term with a punctuation mark, try enclosing it in quotes.
  
  
• Partial word searches do not work (e.g., a search on major will not return Majordomo).
  
  
• Plurals are the exception to the above rule. For example, a search on file will return all texts containing the word files as well, and vice versa. However, this applies only for plurals formed with suffixes, such as -es or -s . In other words, a search for mice will not return mouse.
  
  
• Certain frequently occurring words (e.g., a, an, the, if, of, is, but, should, do) are ignored by the Knowledge Base's search engine; you should not include these words in your search. If you do include such terms, they will have no effect on your search results. However, if you do want to include such terms in your search, enclose them in double quotes. For a complete list of ignored words, see the Knowledge Base document In Knowledge Base searches, what words are ignored?
  
  
• Try to avoid question words (e.g., how, why, what). Suppose the information you are looking for is presented in a document entitled "Why does this happen?"; if you then search using the word how, this document may not turn up. Sometimes, however, judicious use of question words can help narrow a search that would otherwise find more documents than you care to sift through.
  
  
• Avoid broad or vague terms, especially in single-word searches. Searching on mail will return hundreds of texts, and it will be hard to find the one that you really need.
  
  
• If your search fails, first check your spelling. Then try searching on synonyms of your search words (e.g., if searching on setup doesn't return the texts you need, try searching on set up, configure, install, or initialize).

Some words present particular problems when searching the Knowledge Base:

• e-mail vs. email vs. mail: Since hyphens (and other punctuation) are treated as spaces, and single characters are ignored, searching on e-mail is the same as searching on mail. Knowledge Base staff make every attempt to ensure that all texts about email contain the word mail as well as email, so it shouldn't matter which you use in your search. However, if you don't find the text you're looking for, try using another term.
  
  
• Mac and Macintosh: Again, the Knowledge Base staff try to make sure that all texts that contain the word Mac also contain Macintosh, and vice versa. But if you don't see the text you need, try using the other term.
  
  
•  C  and  X : Most single-character searches are ignored, except for the names of these common computing terms. Searching on  C  or  X  should return the texts about those topics.
  
  
• NeXT: How can you search for NeXT without getting every text that contains the word "next"? Search on "NeXT" (including the quotation marks) to preserve capitalization.

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