Boolean search operations

Defining search terms

The AND, OR, NOT, and NEAR operators enable you to precisely define your search by creating a relationship between search terms. The following table shows how you can use each of these operators. If no operator is specified, AND is used. For example, the query "spacing border printing" is equivalent to "spacing AND border AND printing."

Use AND to search for both words in the same topic. For example, "dib AND palette" will find topics containing both the words "dib" and "palette."

Use OR to search for either word in a topic. For example, "raster OR vector" will find topics containing either the word "raster" or the word "vector" or both.

Use NOT to find the first term without the second term. For example, "ole NOT dde" will find topics containing the word "OLE," but not the word "DDE."

Use NEAR to find both terms in the same topic, close together. For example, "user NEAR kernel" will find topics containing the word "user" within eight words of the word "kernel."

Note:

The |, &, and ! characters don't work as boolean operators (you must use OR, AND, and NOT).

See also Searching for help topics, Wildcard and phrase searches, Nested expressions when searching