Keyword Search Guide

When doing searches and creating search strings and filters in InfoDesk, you may benefit from using the tips in this guide.  

Guide to download: Keyword Search Guide.

Boolean operator OR 

The Boolean operator OR is commonly used in InfoDesk.

Milk OR Egg will give you all posts containing Milk or Egg keywords. 

Boolean operator AND 

Boolean operator AND is commonly used in InfoDesk. 

Milk AND Egg will give you all posts containing Milk related to Egg (for example, a recipe for crepes) 

Boolean Operator NOT  

You can also use the Boolean operator NOT to avoid some topics or reduce your feed.

Write only: 

NOT(milk)  

More developed:  

NOT(milk OR egg OR flour) 

Or even: 

NOT((milk) AND (Egg)) 

 

Citation Quotes " "

Use citation quotes (" ") to get an expression: 

"Lactose-free milk" OR "Fresh Egg" 

Attention! All citation quotes (" ") must be the straight ones used in WordPad/Notepad. It is best to work in a Notepad program and then copy the work into InfoDesk when creating long search strings.

Parenthesis ( )

We recommend using parentheses when it becomes complex with AND, in the same manner as in a math formula:
 

(("Lactose-free milk" OR water) AND (Egg)) 

Even go wild: 

((("Lactose-free milk" OR water) AND (Egg)) OR ((milk OR water) AND (Flour))) 

Even wilder with two words:

(((milk OR water) AND (Egg)) OR ((Sugar OR Yeast) AND (Flour))) 

Easy to get confused, right? Work in a Notepad program and copy your filter into InfoDesk when creating long search strings. https://notepad-plus-plus.org/ 

Truncations *

Truncation is a very helpful technique that broadens your search to include various word endings and spellings. To use truncation, enter the root of a word and put the truncation symbol at the end. The database will return results that include any ending of that root word.

Truncations only work in the post-direction. You write influen* to get influent, influence, influences, et cetera.  

Truncations are especially useful for specific player names (example: DHL* to get DHLs).

Attention! * Truncations do not work in the pre-direction, for example, *day for today or within an expression "Drug Influen*".

Proximities ~

Proximity is the same as being close to or near. 

Proximities is a useful technique as you can catch words BETWEEN your keywords.

Proximities must be written like "near end"~4 (meaning, in this case, max four words apart).

Example: 

"milk egg"~3 will give you posts with a sentence like Mix now your milk with your egg. 

More developed example: 

(("milk egg"~3) AND (recipe)) will give you posts like Mix now your milk with your egg for this recipe. 

Wide or Narrow Queries

Using the InfoDesk free text search bar, you can select how wide or narrow queries you want to make. Click the search bar to show the "Search in" options.

If you just tick Title, you get a narrow search. You get a broad search by ticking all the choices (title, description, content, comments, and file names).

Save a search string

To save a brilliant search string you created, scroll down to the end of the Filter menu and click Save Search. Select Personal if only you should be able to see your search string. Select Shared if you want other users to be able to use your search string as well.

Field Search

InfoDesk supports searching specific fields in your data. This allows you to narrow your search to particular areas of each post. The available fields in our system are:

• title
• description
• content

To search within a specific field, use the field name followed by a colon (:) and then your search term. For example:

title:"The Right Way"

This will search only within the title field for the exact phrase "The Right Way".

You can combine field searches with other search techniques:

title:"The Right Way" AND content:important

This will find posts with "The Right Way" in the title and "important" in the content.

Important notes:

1. If you don't specify a field, the search will include all fields selected in the "Search in" setting. This allows you to control the breadth of your search.
2. The field specifier only applies to the term or phrase that immediately follows it. For instance:

title:Wide Narrow guide

This will search for "Wide" in the title field, but "Narrow" and "guide" will be searched in all selected fields.

3. You can use field search in combination with other search techniques like Boolean operators, quotation marks for exact phrases, and proximities:

(title:"Field Search" OR description:advanced) AND content:Lucene~5

This complex query demonstrates combining multiple techniques for precise searching.

Remember to use the "Search in" options to further refine which fields are included when you don't specify a field in your query.

Online Reference

Visit this page to learn more about using Search Operators:

User Access: All users can use Search and create searches in InfoDesk.