Searching for information

After the Search Service is set up, you can use the Research task pane in your Office application to search for information.

  1. Use the Office application help to determine how to display the Research pane. For example, in Outlook, you might select some text in an e-mail, right-click and select Look Up, or hold down the Alt key and click on the text, to display the Research pane.
  2. If you selected text in a document or e-mail, that text displays in the "Search for" field. You can also manually enter text into the "Search for" field. You can search for one word, multiple words, phrases, or Boolean combinations of words:
    • If you enter multiple words, the search looks for each word separately. For example, entering mountain bicycle returns these results: Configurable Mountain Bicycle, Bicycle with Mountain Tires, and even Bicycle with Hybrid Tires. Results might not contain the words in the same order or even use all the specified words; however, results with more matching words in the correct order are more relevant and display near the top of the result set.
    • If you enter single or multiple words, the search tries to match the meaning of the text, rather than exact letters. For example, race bike also returns Configurable Racing Bicycle.
    • If you enter a phrase surrounded by double quotation marks, the search looks for the combined phrase. For example, entering "mountain bicycle" returns Configurable Mountain Bicycle but not the other two results listed in the previous example. Phrases are also useful when your search text includes a special character such as a hyphen. For example, if you specify FA-10000, the search ignores the hyphen and finds results for both FA and 10000, including results such as FA-12035 and FC-10000. To retrieve only matches for FA-10000, specify it as a phrase: "FA-10000".
    • If you combine words by using Boolean operators (OR, AND, and AND NOT), then the exact letters are searched for. For example, bicycle AND blue will find results that contain both the word bicycle and the word blue. Bicycle AND NOT Tires returns Configurable Mountain Bicycle, but not Bicycle with Mountain Tires or Bicycle with Hybrid Tires. Place Boolean operators between single words or phrases. For example:
      • Not Correct: Bicycle AND NOT mountain tires
      • Correct: Bicycle AND NOT "mountain tires"