# How to Search

Full-text searching supports a number of options, listed below. You can combine these to specify your search more precisely.

search for these words | For basic searching of one or more words anywhere in the texts, just type them separated by spaces. All words longer than two characters are used.
+search +for these words | The previous example would also match "information" because it contains "for". To force exact matching of a word, use the plus sign.
+search -engine | Use the minus sign if there are particular exact words you don't want included in the search.
"search engine" | To search for a particular phrase, use double quotes around it.
user:Kim | To search for texts by a particular user, prefix a word from their name with "user:".
userid:6 | If you know the user id of a particular user, you can search for them like this.
subject:assessment | To search for a word within the subject or title of a text only, prefix the word with "subject:".

For advanced searching, press the search button without typing anything in the words field - you will see a complete form that makes it easier to do advanced searches.