Tip of the day: basic search options (Search panel icon menu) and drop-down options

MJ. Smith

Three options (settings) for a Search are not visible in the Search statement. Not knowing to check that these are set correctly appears to be the most common error in searches for new users.

1. These options are:

• Match case causes the search to be case sensitive used to distinguish between God and god or Job and job for example.
• Match all word forms causes the search to use a parsing routine to include all morphological variations of the word used to include Job and Job's or hear, hears, hearing, heard, for example.
• Match equivalent references cause the search to include closely related references use to combine  <Topic Marriage>, <Culture Marriage>, <Theme Marriage> etc. in a single search

 

2. When entering the string "Job" into the search argument box, one is given a dropdown menu offering options in addition to the simple string -- all dependent upon Logos tagging

• the person Job
• the topic Job
• the Bible book Job

Each option produces different results:

a: simple string

b: person

c: topic Job

d: Bible book Job

3. Using the simple string as the example each of the basic search options generates different results. Note that these options may be set on and off independently. I simply have chosen not to illustrate all permutations.

a) Match case - not selected if the J is not capitalized as in when referring to employment and not the first word of the sentence.

b) match all forms e.g. include possessive and plural forms

c. match equivalent forms should have little effect when searching for a simple string

4. It is worth your while to spend some time comparing the effects of these options on monographs will little tagging, dictionaries with significant tagging and Bibles with maximal tagging. You want to get to the point where you recognize from the results when the "hidden" options are not what you intended ... or where a misplaced click created a search argument that was not what you want. You also want to recognize where you can or can not distinguish between Job the person and Job the book.

John Kight

Thanks! This was a helpful refresher. [y]

Bruce Dunning

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/750250#Comment_750250

Great reminder to check the settings before doing a search. Thanks MJ.

James Taylor

Match equivalent references cause the search to include closely related references use to combine  <Topic Marriage>, <Culture Marriage>, <Theme Marriage> etc. in a single search

thanks MJ, didn't realize this setting does this.