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Using Search Operators to Refine a Search

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You’re likely familiar with search fields and using them to refine a search for a particular subject or file. This article discusses different search operators you can use to help with more complex queries.

AND (+)

Using AND in the search field will return files that contain all keywords listed. It is important to not overuse the AND operator as searches that are too specific can overlook relevant results.

OR

Use OR to locate files that have at least one of the listed keywords.

NOT (-)

NOT will eliminate files that contain the specified word. It is important to be aware that using this search operator risks eliminating relevant documents. It might also eliminate words within words during a search (i.e. eliminating “book” could remove files containing the word “cookbook” as well).

NEAR

Using NEAR will provide files that contain the keywords within ten words of each other.

Knowing which operators are available to you and how to use them for specific searches is just another way that Copernic’s Desktop & Cloud Search as well as Copernic’s Server Search will help you to find exactly what you are looking for quicker than you thought possible. See all operators used in Copernic as well as helpful hints here.