Search Help

Search Tips and Examples to achieve better search results. In general, try and use discriminating terms that are likely to be found only in the documents you seek. The more words you give, the better results you'll get. Here are some examples:

1. Search by typing words and phrases:

weather and climate data

The search engine will find documents containing as many of these words and phrases as possible, ranked so that the documents most relevant to your query are presented first. In this example, returned results will include pages containing all or parts of the phrase weather and climate data, such as:

• any page containing the phrase climate data; or
• any page containing the words climate and data - (the words do not have to appear adjacent to each other); or
• any page containing the word weather; etc.
2. Identify phrases with quotation marks, separate with commas:

"Web services", "open source"

Enter a phrase using double quotation marks, and the search engine will find only matches to those specific words in that exact order. Separate multiple phrases or proper names with a comma. In this example, returned results will include:

• pages containing only the phrase Web services or open source (or both).
3. Use UPPER case to indicate exact match:

GIS in Weather, Climate and Impacts Workshop

Search terms in lowercase will match words in any case, otherwise, an exact case match is used. For example:

• climate will find matches for climate and Climate
• whereas a query for Climate will only match Climate.