Using SEARCH effectively

Diagram Designer

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Diagram Designer

Using Search Effectively

 

 

The Diagram Designer user manual contains information about Diagram Designer and its use.  The manual is organized into topics and pages, but it may sometimes be difficult to find the right information!  The manual's SEARCH tab can help in this regard, but SEARCH has more power than is evident on the surface.  Following are some hints for using SEARCH effectively.

use HIGHLIGHT On the menu bar, click Options and make sure that the Search Highlight feature is ON.  If the menu item says "Search Highlight Off", then the feature is already enabled.  This feature will highlight items in the text that are found by the search.
use WILDCARDS The search utility normally looks for words (or phrases) as-is.  This means that a search for the word divide will not find any occurrences of the word divides!  Use wildcards to expand your search:
  * including an asterisk (ie. *) somewhere in the search target finds more combinations of the target, just as it does from a DOS (or Command) prompt.  Using divide* as the target finds divide, divided and divides as well.
  ? including a question mark somewhere in the search target finds any character in that position.  Using divide? as the target finds divides, divider and divides but won't find divide or dividing.
use PHRASES Searching for program session finds occurrences of both words in the same topic, but not necessarily together!  Using "program session" (enclosed in double quotes) treats it as a phrase and only finds that phrase.  Quotes cannot be found using the search, since they enclose a phrase.  Note that when searching for file names with extensions (eg. DiagramDesigner.chm), use a phrase also (eg. "DiagramDesigner.chm") otherwise the period will separate the search into 2 distinct words.
use BOOLEANS If you are looking for more than one word (or phrase), you may separate them with one of the reserved boolean words to restrict your search:
  AND Topics must contain both words, eg. help AND "pop-up" will only find topics containing both words or phrases.  Note that help AND "pop-up" is equivalent to help "pop-up".
  OR Topics may contain either word or both words.  Searching for object OR shape finds topics containing either or both of the words, anywhere in the topic.
  NOT Topics may contain the first word or phrase, but not the second, as in object NOT shape, which will find occurrences of macro, providing shape is not found on the page.
  NEAR Topics must contain both words or phrases, but close together.  A search for object NEAR shape will find phrases containing both words, but will not find pages where the words are far apart.  This search mode is not effective where pages/topics are short, since close together and far apart are not precise terms; NEAR works best on larger documents or pages.

 

 

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