Keywords: information retrieval, query,
computer programs, search programs,
boolean algebra, boolen logic, instructions, manuals, tiedonhaku
Instructions:
How to make Boolean searches with Windows' own Find
tool
Jaakko
Anttila
General
Windows's own Find -tool can be used for searching
- any kind Windows documents (.doc, .rtf, .html etc.)
-
documents with a given
character string
(longer than three characters) in the contents of the document
AND and OR -operators can be
used by
operating with subdirectories.
1)
Find -tool
Find -tool can be found in all
Windows -PCs
(Start - Find - Files or Folders...):
2)
Defining the target document set
First, point out what is the
set of the
documents where you want to make your search - what is the subfolder
where your
CV collection is located. To do that, use the Browse -button on
Name&Location -sheet. Remember to tick "Include subfolders" box
(this is
default). For example in Helsinki we put all incoming
CVs in G:\CV Sumppu -directory:
3)
The search string (word to be searched)
Go to "Advanced" -sheet and
write the
string to be searched in "Containing text" -box. Note that no
truncation (wild
card) is needed since the tool finds the string even if it is inside a
word.
As an example we search for "chemical" to find persons with some relation to (mentioned in their CV) business sectors "chemical industry", "wholesale of fine chemicals" etc.:
4)
Starting the search
Clicking "Find now" starts the
search. The
picture of the magnifying glass is moving as long as the search is
unfinished
(the search process continues). When the search is finished, the
magnifying
glass is stopped and "Find now" -button turns from grey to black again.
The
search results are then listed in the window. NOTE: Be patient, it may
take a
while until the search is ready!
5)
Printing the search result documents
To open up a document, just
double-click
it.
You can also print them all
out at the same time:
Edit-Select
All
File-Print
NOTE: if there are more than ten documents in the list, to avoid getting your PC stucked, you should print them in sets instead:
Click on the first document
Press down "Shift" -key and click on the last one in the set (10-15 documents per set is a suitable amount)
File-Print
Repeat until all documents are printed.
NOTE: It is recommended that
you write down
the name of the last document in each set before clicking "Print". This
is a
precaution and will help you, if there would be some printer errors and
you
would have to print again some of the sets.
6)
Using Boolean -operator "AND"
In this example we search for
Directors in
chemicals industry. We refine the search that we made in 4) (WARNING: be sure
that in the
second step you Copy, not Cut!):
a) Create a temporary directory, for example on your C:-drive. Let's name it "chem"
b) Copy the search results (documents) to the temporary directory, C:\chem
(in the Find -window) Edit - Select All
(in the Find -window) Edit - Copy
(in the C:\chem -directory
-window) Edit - Paste
c)
Make a new search, only
this time you search the documents that you
copied to your temporary directory,
C:\chem
d) The search string is now the one that you want to "AND", "director" in this example:
e) Copy the resulting documents (they contain words: "chemical" AND "director") in another temporary directory (For example: C:\ chemANDdirector) or print them out.
7)
Using Boolean -operator "OR"
Example: In the search that we
made in 3)
we searched for the documents containing word "chemical". In Helsinki
office we
also have some Finnish language CVs, so we also make a search with the
same
word in Finnish, "kemikaali". WARNING: be sure that in the
second step you Copy, not Cut!
a) Create a temporary directory, for example: C:\chemORkemikaal
b) Copy the search results (documents) that were found with string "chemical", in 4), to the temporary directory, C:\chemORkemikaal
(in the Find -window) Edit - Select All
(in the Find -window) Edit - Copy
(in the C:\chem -directory
-window) Edit - Paste
c) The search string is now the Finnish one, "kemikaali" in this example. The directory to be searched is the original one, G:\CV Sumppu
d) Copy the search results (documents) also in C:\chemORkemikaali
e)
Now each of the
documents in C:\chemORkemikaal contain the string
"chemical" OR the string "kemikaali" in their text. You can print them
out or
refine the results by using "AND", see instructions starting from 6 c).
For data security reasons:
When
you have finished searching, remember to delete or move away from C:\
the CV
-documents. Anyone (maintenance and cleaning personnel etc.) who has
physical
access to your PC also has a direct, unlimited access to all documents
on your
hard drive (C:\).
Hints:
-
Making searches this way
reserves
quite a lot of server resources. If you have lots of documents, you
make many
searches or the searches will be complicated, you could consider
copying all
CVs on your own PC and making the searches locally. AGAIN: remember
to delete the copied CVs afterwards!
- If you make your search using AND, always choose the most rare word to be the one to be searched first. That saves a lot of time in the consequent steps.
-
"Case sensitive" can be
found in
"Options" in "Advanced" -sheet.
This article has previously been published in Finnish in Tietopalvelu, 1/2002, p.58. Updated, translated and republished in Jaakko Anttila´s homepages (http://koti.welho.com/janttil4/Index.html) 2003-10-05.