Exact phrase searches

Add double quotes (" ") around specific phrases to focus your search on the exact phrase. A phrase search can greatly reduce the number of results. For example, you could enter:

This query returns only pages that have the exact phrase "Mission" in them.

Including and excluding words

To help limit your results to specific information you can include special modifiers that require certain words be included or excluded. Do not leave any space between the sign and the word, but leave a space between search words.

+ (plus sign)
Use a + sign at the beginning of a word to require that the word appear in all pages in the results. For example, you could enter:

The results must contain pages with the words 'ntc' and 'mission'.

- (minus sign)
Use a - sign at the beginning of a word to exclude all pages with that word. For example, you could enter:

The results contain pages with the words 'ntc' and 'mission' but not the word 'radio'.

Expanding your search with a wildcard

Look for words that begin with the same letters by using an * (asterisk) as a wildcard. A wildcard search is useful for finding pages with words that have multiple endings. For example, you could enter:

The results contain pages with words that have the prefix comput, such as compute, computer, computing, computation, and computational.

Asterisks can be used only at the end of a word or word fragment.