Search Tips
prefix, word forms, keywords
When you enter a word or phrase,
you are asking the computer to
search the actual text of the pages in
the Web site. The term you are
looking for may not appear in the
title or description, but as long as it
appears in the content of the page,
that page will come up in your
search results.
At its simplest, a search can be just
a word or a phrase that you put in
quotation marks. For instance, if you
type "elementary school" in the
search field, the search engine will
look for the complete phrase
elementary school. But if you type
the same phrase without the
quotation marks, it will search all
documents for the words elementary
and school.
With the tips on this page, you can
expand the focus of your search to
give you more complete results.

USEFUL KEYWORDS

AND
Search with the keyword AND for
words on the same page. For
example, kindergarten AND
activities will look for the words
kindergarten and activities on the
same page, but they might be far
away from each other and therefore
not closely related.

AND NOT
Refine your search with the AND
NOT keywords to exclude certain
text from your search. For example, if
you want to find all instances of
teaching but not college, in the
search field type: teaching AND
NOT college.

NEAR
Search with the keyword NEAR, for
words close to each other on the
same page. For example,
kindergarten NEAR activities will
look for the words kindergarten and
activities on the same page, and rank
them in order of proximity: The
closer together the words are, the
higher the rank of that page.

OR
Add the OR keyword to find all
instances of either one word or
another, for example: reading OR
phonics. This query finds all pages
that mention reading or phonics or
both. For example, in the search field, type
teach* to find teach, teaches,
teacher, and so on.

SEARCH FOR ALL FORMS OF A
WORD
For example, in the search field type
teach** to find teach, teaching, and
taught.