Search tips
Video
Watch this short demonstration of NEPAccess search features
NEPAccess Search-Word Modifiers
Use these keyboard symbols within the search box to narrow or expand your search.
| Search modifier | What it does | For example: |
|---|---|---|
" " |
Multiple words placed within double quotes show results only with that exact phrase. The Find within dropdown menu in the search box does the same thing, with additional options to choose how close the words must be to each other. |
"Landscape restoration" → these two words, in that order. |
AND |
This is the default search: AND or a word space are read as the same thing. |
Recreation culture → must contain both of these words. |
NOT- |
Exclude a word or phrase from a search. |
Mining NOT copper → mining but not copper |
* |
The * symbol placed after a word is a multi-character wild card—it will find all words or phrases that include the other letters of your search word. |
Land* → landscape, landlord, landfill, landmark, land bridge, L*nd → land, legend, Lakeland. |
? |
The ? symbol placed after or within a word is a single-character wild card—it looks for other words that match that search-word with the single character replaced. |
te?t → text and test. tes? → test, TESP. |
OR||| |
This will find results related to either search word or to both. This will expand your search results and find multiple words that express the same idea. |
tribe OR tribes → singular and plural highways OR viaducts OR feeways → any or all words. |
~ |
Use the ~ (tilde) symbol at the end of a phrase to do a proximity search, finding words that are within a specific distance from each other in the text. |
"mine Tribe"~20 → mine and Tribe within 20 words. |
( ) |
Use parentheses to group search terms, specify the order of operations, and apply different modifiers to different phrases. |
("copper mining" ~10) AND ("desert tortoise" OR "desert toad") → copper and mining within 10 words and |
| Search modifier | What it does |
|---|---|
" " |
Multiple words placed within double quotes show results only with that exact phrase. |
AND |
This is the default search: AND or a word space are read as the same thing. |
NOT- |
Exclude a word or phrase from a search. |
* |
The * symbol placed after a word is a multi-character wild card—it will find all words or phrases that include the other letters of your search word. |
? |
The ? symbol placed after or within a word is a single-character wild card—it looks for other words that match that search-word with the single character replaced. |
OR||| |
This will find results related to either search word or to both. This will expand your search results and find multiple words that express the same idea. |
~ |
Use the ~ (tilde) symbol at the end of a phrase to do a proximity search, finding words that are within a specific distance from each other in the text. |
( ) |
Use parentheses to group search terms, specify the order of operations, and apply different modifiers to different phrases. |
See Apache Lucene Query Syntax for more search tips.
The search box
- Our intelligent search box looks for your search words both within the title and the full text of the document.
- It will also search metadata tags we’ve attached to the files to categorize them
- Leave the search box empty to return everything in the database. Tip: then use the filters to narrow that search.
Text snippets
- The search results show a snippet of document text showing your search words in context on the page.
- Your search words are shown in a bold font.
- A checkbox above the search results turns the text snippets on or off.
Words the search engine ignores
The words AND, NOT, and OR ( in all caps) are read as search term modifiers, not search terms.
For more precision, the search system ignores extremely common words, like articles, pronouns, and prepositions. These words won’t influence search results.
For example, the search query, “to be or not to be” will not return any results.
