searchTips.html

<div class="panel panel-default collapse" id="searchTips">
    <div class="panel-body">
        <h3 class="panel-title">Search Tips</h3>
        <p>For best results, users are recommended to use the <a href="search.html">advanced search</a> functions.
            Search results can also be improved by the use of the the following Boolean search characters:</p>
        <h4>Wildcard Characters:</h4>
        <p>Given the prevalence of variant spellings in names, using Wildcard Characters may help.</p>
        <p>
            <strong>"?"</strong> can be inserted as a variant for any single character.</p>
        <div class="indent">
            <p>Thus a search for:
                <div class="btn-group code-grp" role="group" style="width:100%;">
                    <span class="btn code">G?wargis</span>
                    <a href="/search.html?q=G?wargis" type="button" class="btn btn-primary">
                        <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-search"/> 
                    </a>
                </div>
                returns results which contain either "Gewargis" or "Giwargis".</p>
            <p>Similarly a search for:
                <div class="btn-group code-grp" role="group" style="width:100%;">
                    <span class="btn code">M?r</span>
                    <a href="/search.html?q=M?r" type="button" class="btn btn-primary">
                        <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-search"/> 
                    </a>
                </div>
                returns results which contain either "Mar" or "Mor".</p>
        </div>
        <p>
            <strong>"*"</strong> can be inserted as a variant for multiple characters or a truncated word.</p>
        <div class="indent">
            <p>Thus a search for:
                <div class="btn-group code-grp" role="group" style="width:100%;">
                    <span class="btn code">Dayr*</span>
                    <a href="/search.html?q=Dayr*" type="button" class="btn btn-primary">
                        <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-search"/> 
                    </a>
                </div> 
                returns results for "Dayr" and "Dayro" and more.</p>
            <p>Similarly a search for
                <div class="btn-group code-grp" role="group" style="width:100%;">
                    <span class="btn code">Ab*</span>
                    <a href="/search.html?q=Ab*" type="button" class="btn btn-primary">
                        <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-search"/> 
                    </a>
                </div>
                returns results for "ʿAbdishoʿ" and "ʿAbda" and more.</p>
        </div>
        <p class="bg-info" style="padding:.5em;">
            <small>Note: Because the sources we quote use a variety of transliteration formats, Syriaca.org ignores diacritics and punctuation in searching; for example, use of "ʿ" is not required to find results with this diacritical mark.</small>
        </p>
        <h4>Fuzzy Search Character</h4>
        <p>Appending the character <strong>"~"</strong> after a word returns results for words that are close but not exact matches.</p>
        <div class="indent">
            <p>Thus a search for 
                <div class="btn-group code-grp" role="group" style="width:100%;">
                    <span class="btn code">Aba~</span>
                    <a href="/search.html?q=Aba~" type="button" class="btn btn-primary">
                        <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-search"/> 
                    </a>
                </div>
                returns results which contain "Aba" but also "Abi", "Saba", "Aha", and other words that are "fuzzy" matches for "Aba".</p>
        </div>
        <h4>Exact Phrase Searches</h4>
        <p>To find an exact phrase, it should be enclosed in double quotes.</p>
        <div class="indent">
            <p>Thus 
                <div class="btn-group code-grp" role="group" style="width:100%;">
                    <span class="btn code">"ʿAbdishoʿ I"</span>
                    <a href="/search.html?q=&#34;ʿAbdishoʿ I&#34;" type="button" class="btn btn-primary">
                        <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-search"/> 
                    </a>
                </div>
                returns only one result with that exact phrase, while several results are found for the words "ʿAbdishoʿ" and "I".</p>
        </div>
        <h4>Proximity Characters</h4>
        <p>To find two or more words which occur within a specified range of each other, one can append the character "~" 
            followed by a number to an "Exact Phrase" search. This allows one to search for two or more words that occur within a 
            specified distance of each other as defined by number of words.</p>
        <p>Thus 
            <div class="btn-group code-grp" role="group" style="width:100%;">
                <span class="btn code">"Jacob+Bishop"~2</span>
                <a href="/search.html?q=&#34;Jacob+Bishop&#34;~2" type="button" class="btn btn-primary">
                    <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-search"/> 
                </a>
            </div>
            finds three results in which the words "Jacob" and "Bishop" occur within two words of each other: "Jacob , 
            bishop of Nisibin", "Jacob, bishop of Phesilta", and "Jacob , bishop of ‛Ānah" while a 
            simple search for "Jacob Bishop" returns many more results.</p>
    </div>
</div>