The search mask affords you basically three possibilities for searching the database available:

1. plain text search or
2. a search limited by the characteristic of the practical aid
   (specific practical aids or base knowledge) or
3. a combination of 1 and 2.
   (plain text search and limitation by characteristic of the practical aid)

1. Plain text search

To search the database for any terms or topics you can use the plain text search. This means that the records are scanned once the search term has appeared in the data fields of title, short description and description.

You can search for single terms or a number of terms simultaneously. No distinction is drawn between upper case and lower case. You can combine a number of search terms with AND and OR.

As standard a number of terms in the search enquiry are automatically linked with AND. This means that all terms sought must be in the document found (e.g. the search for stress strains will find pages which contain both terms).

If you link the terms with OR, you can search for a number of terms simultaneously (e.g. the search for stress or strain will find pages which contain either stress or strain or both terms).

At the end of and within the search term any number of letters may be substituted by *, (e.g. the search for str* will also find documents containing the term "strain").

If you place a series of characters within quotation marks, only those pages will be found which contain the search terms in exactly the order shown (e.g. "stress - mind - health").

2. Limitation by characteristics of the practical aid

Depending on the selection of the radio button

• specific practical aids or
• basic knowledge

the options on the right hand side permit one to limit the search result further. If you select one or more of these options, a pop-up window will open in each case where you can make your choice. You can narrow the choice down further by opening additional sub-catalogues with the plus sign.

3. Combinations of 1 and 2

To narrow the search results down further you can combine the plain text search with the search limited by characteristics of the practical aid.