Instructions for Full-Text Search Options

Boolean Operators

AND / OR

These combine multiple search terms. Either "AND" or "OR" is used for the search. If two search terms are entered without an Operator, OR is assumed.

Example:
"göpel AND voss" - finds all pages with Göpel and Voss
"göpel voss" - finds all pages with Göpel or Voss

Preferred/Non-Preferred Operators

+/-

A plus sign before a word means: this must be present.
A minus sign: this must not be present. Alternatively, "NOT" can be used instead of minus.

Quotation Marks

" "

Search for this exact text. The Search Engine recognises words with slightly different spellings. This is useful for catching misspellings (up to two letters) from the OCR. By putting quotation marks, the search expression must appear precisely, i.e., this narrows down the number of search results.

The search with quotation marks should always be used when searching for numbers or identifiers.

Example: reel AND "14.45" or alternative example: +reel "14.45"

Parentheses

( )

Combine expressions for Boolean Operators. We can use OR or AND as Operators.
Example: (maria almas) OR (maria dietrich) (hans lange) OR (hans w. lange) OR (h. w. lange)

Wildcards

Asterisk

You can abbreviate your search before or after the search word with an asterisk. Wildcards can be helpful to catch more misspellings in the OCR text or to recognise hyphens. Some experimentation with variants is helpful:

Examples: ahnen* "ahnen*" ahnenerbe

Limit Search to a Subcollection

To limit the search to subcollections, the filter box under "SORT BY" on the left can be used for filtering. This list is sorted by the number of hits per subcollection. The list can be very long depending on the search query. If you want to limit your full-text search directly to a collection, you can do this via the text box in the search box.

Examples: "BArch B 323/108" "BArch B 323/108" AND bormann

OCR Blurring & Word Proximity

~

The "~" Operator is also interesting, with which you can try to catch different spellings or the proximity of words.

Example of Proximity: voss göpel~5
Searches for the names Voss and Göpel with a maximum distance of 5 words

Example of Blurring: apfelstaedt~3
Here significantly more pages with misspellings (up to two letters) of the name are found.