The search screen can be used to specify what you would like to look for, and what data you would like to consider in your search. The following techniques can be used for entering your search parameters:
Of course, you can still put as many other words as you like into the box. In fact, you should always enter as many words as you can (that are relevant to your interests) into this box. This will result in a good ranking of the items, so the ones you are most interested in will come right to the top of the results list.
AND
OR
NOT
NOT is used before each word you wish to specifically exclude. A NOT can only be used as part of a Boolean query; it cannot be used on its own.
If there is no operator between two words, AND is assumed to be the operator. Round brackets can be inserted around parts of the query to control the order in which the operators are evaluated.
An example of a Boolean query demonstrating the syntax is:
This will return documents containing Homer and Simpson as well as documents containing Marge and Simpson.
will return documents containing just Homer as well as documents containing Marge and Simpson.
will return documents containing Homer and Simpson as well as documents containing Marge and Simpson.
will return documents containing Homer and Simpson as well as documents containing Marge and Simpson, but it will exclude documents containing Bart.
To specify something as a phrase, enclose it in double quotes (for example
"this is a phrase"). If you wish to influence the weight of a phrase, you can add a + or - symbol as a prefix:
To use fuzzy matching, you should use the tilde symbol as a prefix for some words when entering your query text. You can also use fuzzy matching when setting up the query for an agent.
Examples demonstrating the syntax:
~grafical This looks for all terms similar to grafical
If you wish to use fuzzy searching with phrase searching, you can use syntax similar to that shown in the following examples:
~"mikael gorbachov" This is equivalent to ~mikael ~gorbachov
You will only be able to use this feature if your system administrator has enabled it.
To search for all words beginning with car, type in the string
You will only be able to use this feature if your system administrator has enabled it. The system administrator should have set a maximum limit for the number of words returned by a wildcard search (otherwise, too many words would be found and included in the query).
With this technique, you could (for example) have your empower search installed in Dutch, with the default search term entry language in German, and could have a specific search string in English.
Before you enter queries, you should select the current language from a drop-down selection list (this is the language in which the queries are made). This tells the search mechanism to translate terms to the languages other than that specified.
You will only be able to use this feature if your system administrator has enabled it.
Further down the screen, there are optional controls you can use to restrict the results you will get:
To open the thesaurus, click on the thesaurus button, usually located under the text entry box. For further information, see the section about using the thesaurus later in this on-line guide.
You can increase the effectiveness of Top Terms by selecting the check boxes alongside each document in the results list; this will focus the words in the Top Terms list only on those documents chosen.
You can use the Improve feature in conjunction with the Top Terms feature to produce more powerful queries.
Muscat empower will work out which documents have a high incidence of words in the chosen language, and will include them in the search. The only documents in other languages that will be matched to the words in the query are those where words occur with initial capital letters.
Alternatively, you could choose to sort by relevance bands and then date, in which case items with the same relevance will be presented in reverse chronological order; in other words, the most recent comes first. (The date used is the date when the item was written.) Also, you can sort by date and then relevance, where items are listed in reverse chronological order, with items written on the same day presented in order of relevance (in other words, the highest percentage score comes first).
Select the appropriate categories when performing a query - this will restrict the results to those categories.
You will only see this feature in the search screen if your system administrator has enabled it.
If you wish to clear the search settings at any time, you may click on the reset button; this will reset the page back to the state it was in when you loaded it, so you can start again.
~grafical ~disspla This looks for all terms similar to grafical and disspla
"~mikael gorbachov" This searches for a phrase containing the terms '~mikael' and 'gorbachov'
+~mikael This is equivalent to ~mikael with each term returned given large weight
Wildcard searching
You can type in search terms with wildcards - empower supports truncation of words. These wildcards take the form of an asterisk (*) which is always placed at the end of a word used in a query.
Note: If you wish to use a wildcard as well as fuzzy matching, only the fuzzy matching will be performed.
Search term translation
You may, if you wish, enter a query in one language and have all the terms in the query translated into the other languages used within documents in the index.
Thesaurus
If you are unsure of certain words you have used, you can input alternative search terms by using a powerful on-line thesaurus. This feature will only appear if your system administrator has enabled it.
Top Terms
You can refine your search by using key words (known as Top Terms) that appear after you have done your first search. These are significant terms that have been found in the documents returned by the first search. Top Terms are usually displayed in a list (presented in their stemmed form) with check boxes adjacent to them. To include each term in the next search (thus making the search more focused), select the check boxes of terms you feel are most relevant to your interest. This feature will only appear if your administrator has enabled it, and if you have already conducted an initial search.
Improve
This is an optional method of refining a query, by selecting specific document items from the first query for inclusion in a secondary query. Check the check boxes against all items you wish to include in a secondary query. An Improve button will appear after the first query; click this button to start the improved query.
Note that Improve will work even if you have not selected any check boxes. For best results,
it is recommended that you select as many documents as you can that you feel may be relevant.
Language selection
You can specify that the query will look only for document items in a particular language (choose the language from the find information in selection list).
Limitation by date
You can limit your search to items that were added to the index within a number of days specified by you. In the include items modified within the last box, type in a number of days to specify how far back the search should look. Any items outside this date range will be ignored.
Sorting options
You can choose how you would like the results of your query to be displayed. The default setting sorts by percentage score (this is determined by the relevance of each item). Relevance is a rating of how well the contents of each document item match the search terms and conditions you have typed in. Document items which have the same score are then ordered by word proximity - in other words, an item which contains search words close to each other will be ranked more highly than one which contains the same words, but not close to each other.
Relevance cutoff
You can choose to exclude all items which have a relevance below a level you specify. To do this, you can select from a list of relevance ratings in the excluding results less than % relevant drop-down list.
Category filters
If you wish to perform a more exact match, you should use Category filters. These are drop-down selection lists containing different categories of information (these should be defined by your system administrator).
Starting the search
When you have finished setting up your query, click on the search button. When you have run a first search, you can run a more refined secondary search by using the Top Terms and Improve features.