Searching Safari Books Online - An Overview

Searching Safari Books Online - An Overview

This article provides an overview of searching on Safari Books Online.

Details

There are a number of ways to filter searches to find exactly the piece of information you need: Quick Search - including Suggested Search - Nested Search, Advanced Search and several check boxes at the top of the Search Results list. You can also save a search into a Smart Folder with the click of a button.

Quick Search

Enter a search term in the Quick Search text entry field at the top left corner of the screen. By default, entering multiple words in this field will search for sections where all words appear within 50 words of each other. Use quotation marks around a phrase to return results with exactly that phrase.

Click the dropdown to the right of the text entry field to limit the search term(s) you entered to a specific content type.

Suggested Search

You can also click one of the Suggested Search terms that display under the Quick Search text entry field as you begin typing in your search term.

Nested Search

On the Search Results page, you can narrow the results of an initial search by adding another search term and clicking SEARCH WITHIN RESULTS. You can also filter the content type for this additional term. Repeat this process until you are satisfied with the results. 

NOTE: If you are using Internet Explorer as your browser, you may need to click the SEARCH WITHIN RESULTS button rather than simply clicking ENTER on your keyboard to active your narrowed search.

If narrowing your search provides too few results, click the previous term in the search breadcrumb (for example, click Dreamweaver below) to return to the previous search results list.

Advanced Search

Click the ADVANCED SEARCH button on the toolbar at the top center of the screen. The Advanced Search overlay lets you to build your search, one step at a time. Notice that you can build your search using the Advanced Search Form, or you can write your own query by selecting the Free Form Query radio button.

If you use the Advanced Search form: 

• The All/Any dropdown at the beginning specifies the Boolean operator you want to use. All = AND, Any = OR"
• The + button at the end of a line adds a new element to your search.
• The - button removes an existing line from your query.
• The dropdowns in each line let you specify details about your desired search.

Save Search as Smart Folder

Click SAVE SEARCH AS SMART FOLDER if you want to save the results of a particularly valuable search. The Smart Folder will be saved in the Favorites & Folders area of My Safari.

Options to Filter Search Results

Use the tabs, checkboxes and dropdown at the top of the search results list to further filter your search results.