Basic Search Mode

The Basic search mode has a box into which to you type the search term. Asset search engine will then look for this text anywhere in any article in the database.  There is also a drop down list to select the maximum number of records which will be summarised when a search is done.  By default this is normally set to 25, to ensure rapid responses even if loose search terms are specified.  Irrespective of this setting, every search covers the totality of all selected databases.  This setting only determines how many on the retrieved articles will be summarised on the returned web page.

To instigate a search, press the Search button. 

Standard Search Mode

Standard search mode is essentially a hybrid between Basic and Advanced modes.  It has one box for specifying search terms, and one for date searching.  The search then retrieves articles including the search terms in the body of the article text.  If a date or date range is specified, searches are limited to this period.

The Summary and Article Pages

Once a search is instigated, the results are shown on a summary screen.  For example, the search on the left for Health Minister' returns the summary screen below.  

This lists hits in reverse chronological order: i.e. most recent first.  For each hit, the article Headline or title is displayed, together with the Publication and date, and the first sentence or 256 characters of the article.  There is also brief information at the top of the summary screen on how many articles have been retrieved, and what date range they span.

By clicking once on the headline, which is displayed as a hyperlink, that article is retrieved, as shown on the right, with the search terms highlighted in blue in the body text on each occurrence.

Searching by Date

You can specify a date or date range for a search.   This can be done as the only search term, or in combination with others. 

To specify a single date, type it in the date field in the format d/m/yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy.  To specify a date range, type both dates in this format, separated by a space.  The date range will be taken as inclusive by the search engine.