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Why can't I find entries in the Encyclopaedia?
(Posted on Wednesday, 3 October 2001 by Dragon)
Searching can be a bit of an art, and it may take more than one try to get the results you want. Because of the complexities of sifting through so much information for something very specific, you may not get what you're looking for on the first try, though it is there. It's possible that you entered a query the Encyclopaedia had trouble understanding. If the search returned more entries than you want to read through, you may be able to use some options to narrow your search.
Try starting with a simple search on one word
Let's say you want to find documents about Tenchi, and you're pretty sure there are documents out there. Try searching on just "tenchi" first. Capitalisation doesn't affect the search, so "tenchi", "Tenchi" and "TENCHI" all return ths same results.. If there are too many returns, try adding "actor" separated by the operator AND. This finds documents with all those words in it.
Be specific
Use words you think are only in the documents you want. Searching for "Siamese" gives you fewer results than "cats," and they'll be closer to what you want.
Search Phrase
The if you do not use the operators "AND" and "OR", then the Encyclopaedia will use the full phrase to search. Only entries that match that phrase EXACTLY will be listed.
"Fuzzy search"
The Encyclopaedia uses a fuzzy search technique to match words that are similar. This may occasionly give strange results when words have different endings or when searching for an entry that is listed in Japanese.
Use different words with the same meaning
Try "creator OR inventor OR builder". The OR operator finds documents containing any of these.
Keep an eye on the number of results you get back
In the upper left corner of the search bar Notes shows the number of results. If you have too many or too few results, try reformulating your search. If there are too many results, try using AND. If there are too few results, try OR.
cats OR dogs Returns documents with one or the other (returns more results)
cats AND dogs Returns documents with both (returns fewer results)
People and Characters
Names in the Encyclopaedia are entered as "Lastname, Firstname". If you try searching for "Firstname Lastname" then the search may not find the entry that you require. Try using just one or the other, or use the AND operator to combine the name. ie. Masami AND Okui.
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