To use OFMDFM's search facility, enter your query terms in the search box and click the search button on the right hand-side. You can use single terms or type in a whole sentence or phrase but try to use terms that are likely to be within the text of the documents you are searching for.

OFMDFM's search facility will find documents containing as many of these words and phrases as possible, ranked so that the documents most relevant to your query are shown first. Don't worry about missing a document because it doesn't have one of the terms in your query because OFMDFM's search facility returns relevant results even if they don't contain all query terms.

You also don't need to worry about spelling your query correctly. If OFMDFM's search facility thinks you have made a mistake it will show the suggested spelling below the search box. Simply click the suggestion link to re-submit your query with the correct spelling.

You can make your query more specific by clicking on the radio buttons below the search box. By default, OFMDFM's search facility will match Any Words (in your query) but you can force OFMDFM's search facility to only return results that have all of your query terms by selecting All Words. If you are looking for an exact phrase then type the query exactly as it would appear in the source document and click the Exact Phrase radio button.

Click Find in Title only check box to restrict your search to only find documents that have your query terms in the document title.

For a more powerful search, use Advanced search.

Your search results

Once you have submitted your query, OFMDFM's search facility will return a page of results. You will see the title of the document (if it has one) and a brief summary that is likely to indicate what the document is about. Click the title to go to the actual document.

Additional information about each document is also displayed on the results page:

• The relevance of the document.
• The last modified date of the document.
• The location of the document.

Results grouped by site

Your search may yield results from many different websites. By default, OFMDFM's search facility shows you results from all these sites. However, you can select results from one particular site by clicking on one of the tabs shown above the results.

Sorting your results

Results are sorted by their relevance to the specified query. Click sort by date to re-display the results sorted by their last modified date. Clicking sort by relevance will re-sort by relevance.

Showing more results

If your search has yielded lots of results, OFMDFM's search facility will divide these into several pages. You will see 10 results on each page. Use the Previous or Next links to navigate through the results, or jump to the page you want by clicking on the page number.

Recommended links

Terms and phrases in your query may trigger the display of recommended links before the search results. These link to a document which has been selected for it's relevance to the terms you are searching for.

Refining your search

At the top of the results page is another search box allowing you to refine your search.