Search tips

The more specific your search terms, the better your search results will be.

1. If you enter:

   thinkpad

2. You will get:

   Every document in the knowledge base that contains the word "thinkpad".

3. Instead, try this:

   thinkpad t23 modem drivers

4. You will get:

   Only those documents that contain "thinkpad" and "t23" and "modem" and "drivers." You will get fewer, more relevant results.

Here's another example:

If you have a problem installing your ThinkPad battery,

1. Enter this:

   thinkpad 600e battery installation

2. You will get:

   documents that contain all four of the words; these will be more relevant than those you get if you just use the word "battery".

Hints:

• Always use multiple words, not just one word for your search terms.

• Don't worry about capitalizing your search terms.

• An automatic AND is assumed between the words you enter in your search terms unless you type an OR which must be capitalized. Both AND and OR must be capitalized when used as operators. For example:

1. If you enter:

   netvista OR aptiva (capitalize the word OR)

2. You will get:

   all documents that contain the word "netvista" OR that contain the word "aptiva".

Note: When you use the OR operator in a search, linguistics processing (e.g. spellchecking on product names), is disabled.

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Sometimes it is more effective to search for a specific phrase. For example:

1. If you enter:

   "client access express data transfer" (with the quotes)

2. You will get:

   only those documents that contain the exact phrase that you type in the exact order in which you type it. This can quickly narrow down the search to a specific topic.

Note: without the quotes, search will find all documents that contain the words "client" and "access" and "express" and "data" and "transfer" in any order anywhere in the document.

Another example:

1. If you enter:

   "device driver file matrix" netvista

2. You will get:

   documents pertaining to "netvista" that specifically contain a device driver file matrix.

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Sometimes you can narrow your search results by excluding words from your search. For example, suppose you want to get information on IBM's Websphere product, but you are not interested in Websphere Studio. You could use the following search terms.

1. If you enter:

   websphere NOT studio (capitalize the word "NOT")

2. You will get:

   all documents about "websphere" except those that contain the word "studio".

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If you are trying to find all instances of messages that begin with the letters "DFH", you can use the following search query to find such messages:

1. If you enter:

   dfh*

2. You will get:

   all documents that have a word that begins with "dfh" regardless of what follows the "h".

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If you are looking for information about a specific PC, Storage or Printing systems product (e.g. ThinkPad, Aptiva, NetVista, Infoprint, Network Attached Storage) or PC option, you may find it easier to use the Search by machine type model or options part number feature on the Technical support search page.

1. If you enter:

   2645-5EU

2. You will get:

   the specific support documents for the 2645-5EU

Here's another example:

1. If you enter:

   2770-001

2. You will get:

   the specific support documents for the Infoprint 70 printer

Let's look at one more example:

1. If you enter:

   05K8886

2. You will get:

   the specific support documents for the ThinkPad DVD drive.

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Enter your 7-digit machine type and model number or options part number.

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#1:  Title of result document with brief description.

#2:  Click the "More items like this" link to see other documents that are similar in topic category to the result displayed above the link. Learn more

#3:  Add additional search terms to narrow your search. This causes a new search to be done within the current search results. Learn more

#4:  Narrow the current search results by selecting a specific document type. Learn more

#5:  You can sort the search results by ascending or descending modified date. Results are automatically returned in a ranking relevance order determined by the search engine. Learn more

#6:   Product categories that contain documents that meet your search criteria. Click on a specific category to see results applicable to that category. Learn more

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You can filter your results by selecting specific product categories. Search "collects" all documents that meet your search criteria (search terms) into "categories."

Hint: After you click to view a category, browse the presented search results list to see if the results are helpful. If not, then you can continue to "drill down" on successive sub-categories to get to more granular, specific results.

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After you do a search, each search result displayed represents a document found in the most specific, applicable product category given your search criteria. The specific category is displayed in the "More items like this found in XXXX (where XXXX represents the name of the product category). If you click on this link, you will see other documents in this specific category that also meet your search criteria.

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Whenever you do a search, the search engine uses the search terms you specify to find documents that contain those terms in the various parts of the document. Depending on how frequently your terms are referenced in the document and in what parts of the document, the search engine assigns a ranking relevance to the documents that it finds and returns them to you in that ranking order. There are other aspects that are factored in when the search engine does its mathematical calculation of document rankings. In general the search engine tries to put the most relevant items at the top of the search results list. The more terms you use when submitting your search, the better job the search engine can do in ranking the returned documents.

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On any search results page, you can further filter your results by appending words to your original search terms. This performs a search within your current set of results.

Examples:

1. If you originally entered:

   client access express

2. You can append:

   client access express AS/400

3. You will now get:

   only those documents in your original results list that contain the word "AS/400"

4. If you originally entered:

   thinkpad drivers

5. You can append:

   thinkpad 600e audio drivers

6. You will now get:

   only documents that are about "audio" drivers for a ThinkPad "600e"

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On the search results page, you can narrow your search results by selecting a specific document type from the "Document type" drop down box.

Hint: You can combine filtering by document type and by appending search terms in one step.

Examples:

1. If you originally entered:

   websphere application server

2. You can now add:

   websphere application server enterprise beans

3. And you can select:

   frequently asked questions (in the dropdown box)

You will get only those documents that:

• meet your modified search criteria (websphere application server enterprise beans)

• are frequently asked questions

• are within the product category to which you have currently navigated

For definitions of the document types click here.

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The advanced search page allows you to do a search that can:

• combine techniques of including and/or excluding certain keywords; and/or :

• specify a product category for narrowing the search; and/or:

• specify product attributes

• specify a date range

Here are examples of how to use advanced search to further specify and filter your search.

Example One:

If you enter the following:

You will get all documents that:

• contain the word "thinkpad"; and

• do not contain the word "netvista" or the word "aptiva" or the word "netfinity"; and

• were modified within the last 12 months

In addition, advanced search will present 10 results per page (this is the default value; you can change this value).

Advanced search, in the above example, actually builds a search string using Boolean logic that equates to the following query string:

             +thinkpad -netvista -aptiva -netfinity

Hint: You can build such a string yourself using Boolean operators in any keyword search box.

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Example Two:

If you enter the following:

You will get all documents that:

• contain the word "websphere"; and

• do not contain the word "studio"; and

• are found in the area of "Application Servers"; and

• are applicable to the os/390 software platform

In addition, in this example, search would present 20 results per page.

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