Guide To Navigation—Search Tool

The Search Tool will find all pages at this site that contain key words you designate. This method of searching is sometimes called content searching.

• Visit the Search Tool Page: click here.

How to use electricka's search tool—Summary

Here is a brief description on how to use Electricka's Search Tool. For more information on searching with Electricka's Search Tool, read the material that follows this section.

• Electricka's Search Tool finds pages that contain keywords you specify.
• Electricka's Search Tool opens in a new window.
• Type the keyword or keywords that express your area of interest.
• Search for an exact phrase by surrounding the phrase in quotation marks, as in "Central America".
• For Boolean searching:
  • To perform a Boolean OR search, select "any search words."
  • To perform a Boolean AND search, select "all search words."
  • To perform a Boolean NOT search, which will exclude pages that contain a keyword from your search, precede a keyword by a "-" character (minus or hyphen).
  • Other Boolean operations are not supported.
• For Wild Card searching:
  • Include a question mark or marks to indicate that any character(s) in the designated keyword position(s) will do, as in 'Muse of ??' when any muse name will do or as in 'Arthur???' when 'Arthurian' will do.
  • Add one or more asterisks in any keyword positions(s) to indicate that any number of any characters will do in any of the marked positions. For example, if you search for *ick*, the Search Tool will find pages that contain the word 'Electricka' or the word 'trick.'
• To limit the scope of searching, select one or more Categories.
  • Only pages that belong to categories you check are searched.
  • You may choose (check) multiple categories for searching.
  • The default All produces a search of the entire web site.
• To begin searching, click the SUBMIT button.
• The results of a search appear in the Search Tool browser window. You can print the results page.
• Search results take the form of a list of pages at Electricka's web site that contain the keyword or keywords you searched for.
• Each item on the list contains:
  • The name of the page that contains the keyword.
  • The keyword or keywords you searched for that appear on the page. The keyword(s) are highlighted so you can identify them.
  • The text on the page you searched for that immediately surrounds the keyword. This text provides context.
• Read the text that immediately surrounds a keyword to get an idea of the content and subject matter of the page.
• If you decide to visit a page, click the title of the page. The page will open in the Search Tool window.

—tip— getting the most from Electricka's search tool Electricka offers a list of tips for getting the most from your searches: Scan Electricka's list of search tips now: click here.

About content searching

Use the Search Tool to find pages you want to see based on their content. Content searches are different from searches that use menus, tables-of-contents, and other navigation techniques.

More

—tip— Search Tool Many pages at this site are not included in the menus or tables of contents, which contain references to "high level" pages only. Use the Search Tool to find any page at this site that contains key words you designate.

How to search using the search tool

A keyword is a word consisting of a string of characters. A phrase is a sequence of one or more key words in a specific order; together, the words express an idea. Keywords and phrases describe the text and ideas contained in pages that you might want to visit.

When searching, the Search Tool looks for a match between a keyword or phrase contained in a page and the keyword or phrase you specify in the Search for box. If it finds a match, it presents you with a citation consisting of a few of the words in the page that surround the matching keyword or phrase. The citation also contains a hyperlink to the page. Click the hyperlink to see the page.

how to conduct a search

Here are the basic steps you take to conduct a search. Steps you can take to refine and improve searching are explained later on this page:

• Visit the Search Tool page.
• Think of one or more important and meaningful words (keywords) that convey the central idea, subject, or topic you want to explore.
• Type the keyword or keywords in the box on the page that follows the words Search for.
• Check the Match option of your choice:
  • Check any search words if you want to find any page that contains any or all of the key words you typed.
  • Check all search words if you only want to find pages that contain all of the key words you typed. (All is the default).
• Select the category or categories of your choice. If you do not select a category, the search defaults to ALL.
• Click SUBMIT or press ENTER on your keyboard and the search will begin.

about search results

After you click the Submit button, the search will run. Results are presented on the Search Tool page:

• Primary search results consist of a list of citations, one citation for each of the pages that matched the keywords you typed into the Search for box and the other search criteria you selected.
• Secondary search results consist of information about the search.

More About Citations

When the search is competed, a list of page citations will appear. Citations are references to and about the pages that contain the keyword or keywords you typed. A citation does not contain the pages themselves.

Each citation displays:

• The keywords you typed, highlighted in yellow.
• About 150 words of the text that appears on the cited page in the vicinity of the highlighted keyword you entered in the Search for box. Read this text to learn more about what the page contains.
• A hyperlink to the page itself. If you want to visit the page, click the hyperlink and the page will open.
• A citation will show links to off-site pages—pages not at Electricka's site—if they fall within the 150 words that surround the highlighted keyword on the cited page. You will see the links in the citation, but clicking will not open them.
• When you click the name of a cited page, it will open.

Searching By category

A category is the generic name given to a subject, section, or portion of Electricka's web site for the purposes of searching. A given category contains pages that belong (are about) to that category.

All pages in a given category have something in common. For example, there's a category for each muse that contains pages that belong to (are about) that muse or are sponsored by that muse—that's what the pages in the category have in common with each other. Each such group comprises a search category. In the case of muses, the search category is named after the the muse. For instance, The Muse Of Literature search category contains a group of pages that are about (or are sponsored by) The Muse Of Literature.

Other categories denote other kinds of groups of pages, for example pages that are about Electricka's products. These groups of pages belong to the search category named Products & Downloads. This group of pages is labeled Products & Downloads because it contains pages about software that a visitor can download at no cost as well as pages about Electricka's products.

Purpose

The Search Tool only searches the categories you check. When you search by category, you restrict your search to the pages at Electricka's web site that contain keywords the keywords you are looking for. For example, if you search by a muse name, you restrict your search to pages that belong to that muse and to no other. The list of page citations resulting from your search will consist only of pages that belong to that muse that match the keywords you entered in the Search for box; pages belonging to other muses will not be represented in the list.

When you narrow your search by using a category, you save time and effort because you reduce the number of pages you might otherwise see on the list of page citations that are returned after the search, thereby decreasing the number of pages you have to examine. You also increase the chances of finding pages you want to see.

How to search using categories

Electricka's Search Tool categories are displayed as a list under the Search for and MATCH boxes on the Search Tool page. Look for them there:

The Search Tool will only search for pages that belong to categories you select:

• Select as many categories as you want.
• You may choose not to limit a search by category. In that case, select no categories. The Search Tool will search the entire web site.

To search using categories:

• Start a search as described above on this page.
• To limit the scope of searching, check (select) one or more category boxes in the list of categories.

  To search a single category, check the category box named after the category you want to search.

  • To search multiple categories, check each and every category box named after the category you want to search.
  • To search the entire web site, check the All box or do not check any boxes.
• Click the SEARCH button.

—tip— don't overlook pages you want to search—how the ALL box works When you select one or more category boxes other than the ALL search box, you run a risk that the Search Tool will not search pages that belong to boxes you leave unchecked. To avoid overlooking pages that you want to search, make sure you check every box for every category you want to search. If you select the ALL box, the Search Tool will search all categories. If you select the ALL box and any additional boxes, the Search Tool will search all categories. If you select no categories, the Search Tool will automatically check the ALL box and will search all categories.

boolean searching

Boolean searching allows you to conduct searches in which multiple keywords are logically combined into a single keyword. A boolean search places logical constraints on what keywords must be present on a page before the page is considered relevant to your search.

For example:

• If two or more keywords are combined by a so-called OR operation, any one or more of the keywords must be present on a page before the page is treated as relevant to your search.
• If two or more keywords are combined by a so-called AND operation, all the keywords must be present on a page before the page is treated as relevant to your search.

Notice the distinction between any and all in the above bullets.

Boolean searching with Electricka's Search Tool:

• To perform a Boolean OR search, select the button labeled "any search words."
• To perform a Boolean AND search, select the button labeled "all search words."
• To perform a Boolean NOT search, which will exclude pages that contain a keyword from your search, precede a keyword by a "-" character (minus or hyphen).
• Other Boolean operations are not supported.

searching for exact phrases

Two or more keywords arranged in a specific order make up an exact phrase. For example, living trust is an exact phrase. Living trust has a unique meaning that differs from living alone or trust alone.

The phrase living trust is not the same as the two separate keywords living and trust, and will not find the same pages. Typing living trust in the Search for box will only find pages that contain the phrase living trust; it will not find pages that contain the words living and/or trust unless they are both placed next to each other on the page in order. The keyword living will not find a page that only contains the phrase living trust; the keyword trust will not find a page that only contains trust.

To search for keywords in a specific order, surround the keywords with double quotation marks. For example, typing ""living trust"" in the Search for box will yield pages that contain the phrase living trust.

about class searches

A class search is a type of search that uses the Search Tool to find all pages belonging to a particular class or group of features. When you conduct a class search, you are asking to see all the pages that are members of that class, regardless of muse membership or other consideration.

Another way to think of a class search is to visualize the images you see at the right side of many of Electricka's pages. Each different image represents a particular class or group of pages. Note that some pages may belong to more than one class. A page that belongs to more than one class will bear more than one image.

Types of class search

Electricka has defined three such search classes, each denoted by one of the three different kinds of images:

1. ByLine feature, denoted by:
    

   ByLine

   About ByLines

   bylineimage

   Pages belonging to the ByLine class have one thing in common: they are all ByLine features.

    

2. Arts Information Feature, denoted by:
    

   Arts Information About Arts Information artsinfoimage

   Pages belonging to the Arts Information class have one thing in common: they are all Arts Information features.

    

3. ETAF-Amazon Association, denoted by:

   ETAF-Amazon

   Search For Amazon Products About The Collection

    

   Pages belonging to the ETAF-Amazon class have one thing in common: they all contain references to books, CDs, DVDs, videos, or other arts-related items that are members of the ETAF-Amazon Collection.

    

—tip— class searches are powerful When you conduct a class search, in effect you are searching for all pages that contain the image that represents the class. The result will show you every page at Electricka's web site that belongs to that class. For example: To find every page that contains references to books, CDs, DVDs, or other arts-related items that are members of the ETAF-Amazon Collection, conduct a class search for the ETAF-Amazon Association.

• For more information on each of the three different kinds of classes, click the appropriate text at the bottom of the corresponding image, above (i.e., About ByLines, About Arts Information, About The Collection).
• For more information on how to navigate for each of the three different kinds of classes, click the name of the class in the To Do list at the right side of this page.

Conducting a class search

Search for all the pages that belong to a class the same way you would search for any keyword:

• Follow the procedures outlined above on this page in the section called, How To Search Using the Search Tool:
• In the Category dropdown list, select ALL if not already selected (required).
• Type one and only one of the following keywords into the Search for box:
  • To find citations for all ByLine pages, type the keyword bylineimage.
  • To find citations for all Arts Information pages, type the keyword artsinfoimage.
  • To find citations for all pages bearing references to books, DVDs, CDs, and other items that belong to the ETAF-Amazon Collection, type the keyword collectionimage.

Type no other keywords into the Search for box other than these character strings.

NOTE: The search will produce a list of citations for the pages that belong to the class you selected. Examine the names of pages in the citation to decide which page or pages to visit. The content description in the citation will not be useful.

Finding items and pages in the ETAF-Amazon Collection

An item is a member of the Collection if it is cited on a page that bears the ETAF-Amazon image (see above or at the right) in a section at or near the bottom of the page entitled ETAF Recommends:

• Look for the subtitle ETAF Recommends at the bottom of the page.

How can you find pages that bear the ETAF-Amazon image?

—tip— finding Items and pages in the eTAF-amazon collection It's easy to find all pages containing a reference to the ETAF-Amazon Association and all pages that cite items in the ETAF-Amazon Collection. Just visit Electricka's Search Tool page and search for the keyword collectionimage. Limit your searches by adding the keyword collectionimage to other keywords that describe the subject matter of interest. For instructions on how to do this, visit the Guide To Navigation - Search Tool page and read the section called, About Class Searches: click here. Visit Electricka's Search Tool page and try it now: click here.

how to combine key words for searching

As already noted above, when searching the Search Tool finds a page if contains the key words or phrases that you specify in the Search for box. When deciding if there is a match between the keyword or phrase you specify and the words or phrases in a page, it obeys the following rules:

• If any search words is checked and you enter more than one key word in the Search for box, it finds all pages that contain at least one of the key words, regardless of word order.
• If all search words is checked and you enter more than one key word in the Search for box, it finds all pages that contain all the key words, regardless of word order.
• If you specify a phrase or phrases (by placing place double quotation marks around more than one keyword) in the Search for box and any search words is checked, it finds all pages that contain at least one of the key words, regardless of phrase order.
• If you specify a phrase or phrases (by placing place double quotation marks around more than one keyword) in the Search for box and all search words is checked, it finds all pages that all of the keywords and/or phrases, regardless of keyword or phrase order.
• Combinations of keywords and phrases in the Search for box follow the same rules.

When examining a page for a word or phrase match, the Search Tool must decide where each word or phrase in the page begins and ends. To avoid search mistakes, it is necessary that you enter keywords or phrases in the Search for box in the same way that the Search Tool will look for them when it examines the contents of pages. This means that you must specify the start and end of words the way the Search Tool does.

The Search Tool identifies the start and end of a word the way you or I might, by looking for a space before and after. Thus, if it sees two adjacent words, heaven and sent, it recognizes them as the two words heaven and sent.

The way the Search Tool recognizes compound words is more complex. The Search Tool identifies multiple adjacent words in pages as:

• One word—if a word in a page is joined to another by an underscore. Thus, heaven_sent is considered to be one word. If you enter heaven and/or sent in the Search for box, the Search Tool will not find a page if it contains heaven_sent.
• Different words—if the adjacent words in a page are connected by dots, hyphens, apostrophes, hash sign, dollar sign, or comma. Thus, if the Search Tool finds words joined as follows: heaven sent, heaven.sent, heaven...sent, heaven-sent, heaven'sent, heaven#sent, heaven$sent, or heaven,sent in a page, it will identify the these words as two different words, namely heaven and sent. If you enter heaven or sent in the Search for box, the Search Tool will find a page if it contains either one of these two words embedded in the combination.
• One phrase—if 1) the adjacent words in a page are separated by any of these connectors: spaces, dots, hyphens, apostrophes, hash signs, dollar signs, or commas, and 2) the keywords in the Search for box are enclosed in double quotation marks ("" ""). Thus, if you enter ""heaven sent"" in the Search for box, the Search Tool will find a page if it contains the two words, heaven and sent in that order, if they are separated by a space. It will not find the page if you enter ""heaven-sent"" or if the two words heaven and sent are connected by any other symbol listed above.

Please make sure you anticipate the rules for recognizing compound words that are followed by the Search Tool when you create key words and phrases for searching.

searching with Wildcards

The meaningful word you enter when you search Electricka's pages may be a keyword or a wildcard.

You create a wildcard from a keyword by choosing a keyword and then modifying it before you enter it in the search for box below on this page. Your modification causes the Search Tool to ignore certain characters in the keyword according to established rules.

About conducting wildcard Searches

When the Search Tool searches for keywords or wildcards, it looks for occurrences of the keywords or wildcards you have specified in Electricka's pages. When it finds a word on a page that matches a keyword or wildcard, it decides that the page is relevant to your interests and reports it as as such:

• When searching for a keyword, the Search Tool looks for an exact, character-by-character match between a word on a page and the keyword you specified.
• When searching for a wildcard, the Search Tool looks for an approximate match between a word on a page and the keyword.
• The Search Tool knows the rules that you used to change the keyword into a wildcard. This knowledge allows it to detect other words on the page that also are acceptable to you and to treat these words as the equivalent of a keyword match.

About constructing wildcards

To construct a wildcard from a keyword:

• Replace one or more of the characters at the start and/or end of the keyword with a '*' character. This tells the Search Tool to find a page if it contains any word with the character string you entered that falls between the first "*" character and the last "*" character. The nature and number of the characters replaced by either "*" character do not matter.
  • For example: If you search for *ick*, the Search Tool will FIND pages that contain the word Electricka or the word trick. Many additional word combinations will be FOUND, if they are in pages.
  • For example: If you search for *le*ick*, the Search Tool will FIND pages that contain the word Electricka or the word trick. Many additional word combinations will be FOUND, if they are in pages.
• Replace one or more of the characters anywhere in the keyword with a "?" character. This tells the Search Tool to find a page if it contains any word with the character in the character position(s) with a "?."
  • For example: If you change the keyword Electricka to ?lectri?ka, the Search Tool will FIND pages that contain the words Electricka or Electrika. Many additional word combinations will be FOUND, if they are in pages.
• The Search Tool will also accept and process wildcards that contain combinations of "*" characters and "?" characters.

About Exact Phrase Searches

Search for an exact phrase or phrases by surrounding each of the phrases in quotation marks, as in "Central America".

about combinations of different types of search terms

The different kinds of Wild Card and Exact Phrase searches can be combined in one search.