Search Help


Submitting a Search
   Basic Instructions
   Exact Phrase Searches
   Any of these Words
   Category Searching
   Date Searching

Reviewing Search Results
   Reviewing Search Results
  




Submitting a Search



Basic Instructions

1. Type your search (phrase, keywords etc.) into the textbox.
2. Select the Search criteria you want to use: any of these words, all of this words,exact phrase .
3. Modify category selections to your target search if desired.
4. Click the Search button.
5. See the topics following directly below for more detailed explanations and instructions.

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Exact Phrase Searches

The Exact Phrase search method on appellate.net looks for the Exact Phrase you type into the search box. You do not need to add quotes, just enter in the phrase you want to find. Search will return results that contain at least one occurrence of the exact string of words you entered in the exact order you entered them, EXCEPT in some cases common words like a, and, the, etc.

Note: Search is not case sensitive , nor is it affected by punctuation in exact phrase searches.

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any of these words

An any of these words query is much less specific and will return results containing at least one occurrence of at least one of the keywords you enter. This is the least specific type of search. If you are having trouble getting results for your query, use an Any of these words query.

Note: Search is not case sensitive.

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Category Searching

In addition to choosing the type of search you want to perform, you can select a category of appellate.net content to target by checking and/or un-checking selections. You can search with any combination of one or more checkboxes checked.

If you aren't sure what category to choose or don't want to bother on your first query, just search. Every result will have information on the source Category. This information can help you determine what categories are really interesting to you, so that you can narrow your result set if it is too large or not specific enough to your information need.

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Date Searching

By default the search engine searchs for any documents created since the site was created.You can overwrite this behavior by providing a date range.
You can provide a date range by selecteing one of the options available in the pick list "Realeased within" or by typing "Beginning" and "End" date in "Beginning" and "End" input boxes.

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Reviewing Search Results



Reviewing Search Results

Search queries will return results ranked by relevance and sorted by the option selected from the pick list "Sort Results By".

The results are displayed 10 a time. You can use the next arrow or previous arrow located at the top and button of the search result section to scroll through and review the search result.

When reviewing your results, consider the following elements:
  • Percentage relevance (Rank) calculated by the engine. Higher percentages indicate a closer relevance to your search.
  • Result Title and Summary information written by content authors.