What Should I Type to Search with Text ?

Basic Site Search at the top of each page:

Tips for searching with text:

More Searches page text search:

Picture of the Search for these words text entry box on the More Searches page.

and Type the word and or a space between words to require the search to use all the words you enter. For example:

parks map bicycle returns the same results as parks and map and bicycle . View an example

The pictures below show how the search results can change when you continue to narrow a search by adding search words. In this case, let's begin with a search for City parks, and then search for parks and bicycles.

A search with the word parks displays these links at the top of the list:
Picture of a search results list displaying links to pages related to the search word parks.

When you add the word map to the search, the search returns a Parks Maps page to the top of the list:
Picture of a search results list showing the Park Maps page ranked number one in the list.

When you add the word bicycle to the search, the search returns a Bicycles page that refers to maps, and the Parks Maps page again, now referring to a bike map, to the top of the list:
Picture of a search results list returned after a search using the three words parks and map and bicycle.

Your search words may not display in the text accompanying a link because the relationship of the page to your search word may be established, for example, as a "keyword" for a page and not be visible. For more details about keywords, see information included in How Does Search Work?

or Type your search terms separated by commas or the word or . This allows the search to find items with just one (or more) of the search words. For example:

rental, housing, development gives the same result as rental or housing or development .

not Include the word not in your search string to eliminate items that contain or are related to a word. View an example

For example, a search with dogs or cats finds (in Jan., 2008) some 876 results, including a link to the Spay and Neuter Clinic that deals with both dogs and cats.
Picture of a search results list showing links to two pages identified with the search phrase dogs or cats.
A search with dogs not cats however, finds only 447 results, and does not return the Clinic Information link, because that page is identified with cats .

near To find words that appear close to each other in a found item, include the word near and a number. For example:

wetlands <near/10> heron finds documents where the word heron appears within 10 words of the word wetlands:

Picture of a search results list showing links to two documents that contain the words wetlands and heron in close proximity to each other.

not case sensitive The search is not uppercase or lowercase sensitive. In other words, typing eugene wetlands produces the same search results as typing Eugene Wetlands .

Other Search Notes

Currently (Feb., 2008), some search situations may result in a list that displays links to Eugene Web pages lower than links to documents, even though the program generally gives pages a higher ranking than documents displayed in PDF or Microsoft Word format.

When this occurs, to avoid scrolling through a long list to look for page links, or retyping search words and searching again, a fairly simple method you could use to display a list of links to pages found with your initial search is to change the Sort by value to Object Type. After the page refreshes, click the Community Pages link to view a list of page links:

See more about sorting your search results in the "Sort by" section of the Help topic, What Can I Do with the Search Results?

Situations when page links may display below document links in the search results include:

Search could list site destinations that are related to variations of the search words you type. This can result in the search program assigning a lower ranking to some items when your search words don't exactly match keywords assigned to pages. View an example of this. For information about keywords and result rankings, see How Does Search Work?

For example, currently (Feb., 2008) when you search with the word recycle, the search ranks one page high at the top of the list:

Other pages display lower in the list:

However, if you search with the word recycling, search ranks three pages at the top of the list:

Both searches find similar words, such as recycled and recycles.
The order in which you type words in a search phrase can affect the ranking assigned to found items. For example, a search with rental housing produces (in Feb., 2008) links to four pages at the top of the results list:

However, if you reverse the phrase order and type housing rental, only one page displays at the top of the list. Other page links are found lower in the results list:
Picture of a search results list with a link to just one page after reversing the search words to housing rental.

Multiple search words – See the information at the beginning of this topic about using and in your search phrase for an example of when the search must use all words you enter.
Quotation marks – Although you can type double quotation marks around a search phrase (for example, "rental housing") to narrow your search, the results may be narrower than you'd wish. That's because using quotes limits the search to the exact phrase between the quotes. Additionally, the search program may not assign a high ranking to a page found in the search, and might list the link to an appropriate page far down the list of results.

For example, a search with Police Department employment , with no quotation marks, returns (in Feb., 2008), a link to the Police Employment page:
Picture of a search results list displaying items simply identified with the three words Police and Department and employment.

However, if you include quotation marks – "Police Department employment" – the search program finds no exact match of that phrase:
Picture from the Search Results page indicating the program found no results when it searched for an exact match of "Police Department employment."

In this search situation, a search that doesn't look for an exact match (in other words, does not include quotation marks), gives the best result.

See the Help topics listed just below for more information about the basic Site Search available on the Eugene Web site:

This topic describes a page where you can further refine your search, and find links to many different search pages:

More Searches – Add Search Criteria, Use Links to Other Eugene Searches