![exfiles.gif (2806 bytes)]()
Simple Searching
Broaden or
Narrow | Phrases |
Dates |
Fields |
Truncating
| Proximity |
If you are looking for a story from 1997 to the
present, you can search on the EZ Search screen.
In the search box, type search words and phrases that should be
included in the articles that you are seeking. Searches are
not case-sensitive. Click the search button or hit
enter.
EX-Files will retrieve a list of headlines with publication
dates, days, bylines, sections, and page numbers.
To view the full-text of an article, click on the
headline.
|
|
Boolean Operators - Narrowing or Broadening Your
Search |
Too many articles? Try narrowing your search with
"and."
For example:
- Schools and uniforms - Restaurants and
smoking - Peak and Spurs
Too few articles? Expand your search with "or." Separate your
terms with parentheses to prevent ambiguity.
For example:
- (Gun or rifle or weapon or handgun) and (children
or teens or adolescents) - Tobacco and (signs
or billboards)
|
|
Searching for phrases |
If you want two or more words to
appear next to each other, enter those words in the search box.
Single quotations are needed.
For example:
- 'Tower of the Americas' and celebration -
'River walk' and accident |
|
Searching by date |
From EZ Search, you can narrow your search to a
certain date or date range from 1997 to the present.
(Note: To search before 1997, you need to
search from the Power Search screen.) For date searches, always use
the format yyyymmdd. With this format, January 3, 1999 would be
19990103.
For example:
- Spurs and
19980328:date - Smoking and date > 19980101 and date <
19980301
|
|
Searching by bylines, headlines and lead
paragraphs |
A reporter's byline (by) can be included in your
search.
For example:
- flood and (Chris
Williams):by - Cisneros and Casey:by
Restricting your search words to the headline (head) and/or first
paragraph (lead) can help narrow your search. For
example:
- Buyout program to start
Monday:head - city hall:lead
|
|
Truncation and wild cards |
You can search for plural or multiple word endings.
* will find any number of ending characters.
For
example:
- Pollut* will find
pollution, polluter, polluters, polluting or polluted
You
can also search for single characters by using a ?.
For example:
- Wom?n will find woman or women - medic??? will
find medicine or medicaid or medicate
|
|
Proximity connectors |
Use w/n to search for words within a certain
number (n) of words of each other, in any order. This is
particularly useful when you are searching for a person and you
don't know if the reporter used the person's middle name or middle
initial.
For example:
- Truck
w/4 safety will find truck within 4 words of
safety - Hillary w/2 Clinton will find Hillary
Clinton or Hillary R. Clinton or Hillary Rodham Clinton |
|
Advanced Search
Tips |