The Dynatext(tm) and Dynaweb(tm) software used to present the mini-editions allows users to construct powerful searches or to use a series of built-in search forms.The mini-editions can be searched using the full range of standard search tools--wildcards, proximity searching and Boolean searching. You should be in a mini-edition table of contents when you begin a search. To start a search, either fill in the blank search line or click on the search-form icon in the button bar. (Both are circled below.) To start a new search, return to the table of contents. These help screens are modeled on those of the California Heritage Project. |
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| This search... | Retrieves... |
|---|---|
| the constitution | constitution Constitution CONSTITUTION |
A question mark (?) will match any single character and an asterisk (*) will match 0 or more characters. An asterisk used by itself stands for an entire word.
| This search... | Retrieves... |
|---|---|
| govern* | govern governing government |
| first * congress | First Congress First Federal Congress |
| wom?n | woman women |
| wom?n* | woman women woman's women's |
The following words are keywords which can be used to construct searches. If you want to search for phrases containing these words, place the keyword or the whole phrase inside double quotes.
| after | not |
| and | null |
| before | of |
| cont | or |
| containing | with |
| directly | within |
| in | word |
| inside | words |
| "Stanton and Anthony" | or |
Stanton "and" Anthony |
| "bill of rights" | or |
bill "of" rights |
| "peace with honor" | or |
peace "with" honor |
| "in other words" | or |
"in" other "words" |
| "before her time" | or |
"before" her time |
| "within the bounds of love" | or |
"within" the bounds of love" |
When keywords are used in a search, the keyword is replaced by an * which will match any single word.
This search... |
Retrieves... |
| "Stanton and Anthony" looks for "Stanton * Anthony" |
Stanton-Anthony Stanton and Anthony Stanton or Anthony Stanton thought Anthony Stanton told Anthony |
Very common words like the, is, for, when, and so forth, are placed on a "stop list" which prevents them from being indexed. You can use these words in a search, but each of the "stop list" words will be replaced by an * which will match any word. (Look at the example above in the keyword section.)
The keywords after, before, of, within, word, or words can be used to limit your search words that are near each other. A proximity search is a good strategy for retrieving personal names.
| This search... | Retrieves... |
|---|---|
| elizabeth within 3 words of stanton | Elizabeth Stanton Elizabeth Cady Stanton Stanton, Elizebeth |
| bill within 3 words before rights | Bill of Rights bill of rights |
| rights within 3 words after bill | Bill of Rights bill of rights |
The keywords and, or and not allow you to further restrict the scope of your searches. And looks for occurrences of words or phrases within 20 words of one another. Or is used to construct lists of multiple keywords or phrases while not is useful for screening out unwanted search results.
| This search... | Retrieves... |
|---|---|
| madison and hamilton | |
| constitution or bill of rights | Constitution bill of rights |
| laurens within 3 words of (henry or john or james) | Henry Laurens John Laurens James Laurens |
| congaree not within 3 words of river | Camp at Congaree... (Does not retrieve Congaree River) |
For an in-depth treatment of the Dynatext(tm) query language and search engine, refer to chapters 4, 5, and 6 of the Dynaweb Client Users Guide