The Advanced Search
page allows users to build more complex search queries without manually
entering an advanced search syntax string. For users who have not yet
learned the available search query syntax and would like to refine the
keywords, languages, and property restrictions included in a search
result set, the Advanced Search page provides a set of options for
building more advanced queries.
The Advanced Search page can be accessed by a
link on the All Sites search center prior to entering an initial query
or from the All Sites search results page after entering a query.
Depending on the settings made by the administrator, it may also be
possible to access the Advanced Search page by a link next to the query
box or site search results page (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Advanced search link
If the user navigated to
the Advanced Search page from a result set, the query that was already
entered will be copied into the first field of the Advanced Search page
in SharePoint 2010. If additional non-query restrictions were entered
into the result set, such as a refinement, it will not be carried into
the Advanced Search page. As shown in Figure 2,
without customizations, this page allows for users to work in two
primary areas. These areas include “Find documents that have…” and “Add
property restrictions…”
Figure 2. Advanced Search page
Keywords on the Advanced Search Page
The two categories of query manipulation are
aligned with search syntax discussed in the last section. The first,
“Find documents that have…”, is where the keywords for the query are
entered. These fields allow the user to execute operators other than
the AND operator by entering the search term in the corresponding free
text field. By entering a search term into a free text field, the
operator indicated by the field's description will be executed behind
the scenes. The fields correspond to the operators in Table 1.
Table 1. Search Query Syntax Overview
| Field Title |
Operator |
| All of these words |
AND |
| The exact phrase |
" " |
| Any of these words |
OR |
| None of these words |
NOT |
All of the terms that should be in the search
result are entered in the first text field, titled “All of these
words”. The AND operator will automatically be inserted between the
words entered into this field. Any phrases that contain multiple words
that need to occur in a specific order next to each other can be
entered into the second field, titled “The exact phrase”. The phrase
will be treated as if it had quotation marks surrounding it. For
example, SharePoint Expert will return results with this exact phrase
in the order the terms are entered, unlike the “All of these words”
field, which would return results that include “SharePoint” and the
separated term “Expert”. No quotation marks are necessary when entering
a phrase into this field. The third field, titled “Any of these words”,
will treat all entered terms as if they were separated by the OR
operator. Words that can but don't have to be in the search result are
entered into this field. The inclusion of one, but not all, of the
terms in this field is sufficient to indicate a desired search result.
The final field, titled “None of these words”, allows for the exclusion
of the terms entered into the text field. Search results will not
include any of the terms entered into this field.
The “Find documents that have…” section also
now includes language restrictions and result type refinements.
Selecting the check box next to one of the listed languages narrows the
results to include only items that were authored in the chosen
language. By default, the language field of an item is not factored
into its availability as a result. All languages supported by the
installed language packs are searched on. When a language restriction
is chosen, SharePoint will exclude results not authored in the chosen
language(s).
The last option in this section is to restrict
the search results by a result type. This functionality is identical to
the result type refinement on the search results page for the available
refinements. By selecting a result type from the drop-down list, only
items matching the chosen result type will appear in the search result
set. When choosing a result type, SharePoint 2010 will include all
versions of the format. For example, when Word Document is selected as
the result type, files with the extensions .doc, .docx, .dot, .docm, and .odt
will all be returned. The result types available for selection without
customization of the Advanced Search page can be seen in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Advanced search result type refinement
