# Search Help
## Basic Search Form
The [[WebSearch]] form offers basic search features:
- Search field: Enter one or more keywords
- All webs flag: Check the flag if you want to search all public webs, not just the current web
- Scope: Select if you want to search the topic title, text body or both
The search is keyword based like in a typical search engine:
- Specify word(s) you want to find
- Multiple words form an **AND** search, `intranet web service` returns all pages that have the three words anywhere in the page
- Optionally specify plus signs for **AND** search, like `intranet +web +service`
- Enclose words in double quotes to form a **literal search**, like `"web service"`
- Specify a minus sign to **exclude** a word, like `soap -shampoo`
- Use double quotes if you want to search for a leading minus sign, like `"-nowarn"`
- **Stop words** are excluded from a keyword search:
- Stop words are common words and characters such as `"how"` and `"where"`, defined in the SEARCHSTOPWORDS setting in the [[TWikiPreferences]]
- If you want to search for a word in the stop word list, prefix the word with a plus sign
- **Example:** To search for all topics that contain `"SOAP"`, `"WSDL"`, a literal `"web service"`, but not `"shampoo"`,%BR% enter this: `soap +wsdl "web service" -shampoo`
## Advanced Search Form
The [[WebSearchAdvanced]] form offers more control over search.
TWiki supports three types of searches:
- `keyword`: The basic search type
- `literal`: Simple search where text is searched literally
- `regex`: A [[RegularExpression]] search for power users
TWiki's regex search is a set of regular expression patterns:
- Patterns are delimited by a semicolon
- An AND search is performed for the list of patterns
- An exclamation point preceeding a pattern indicates an AND NOT search; use it to exclude a pattern, like `!web service`
- If you want to search for a semicolon or an exclamation point, escape them with a leading backslash, like `\!shampoo`
- **Example:** To search for all topics that contain `"SOAP"`, `"WSDL"`, a literal `"web service"`, but not `"shampoo"`,%BR% enter this: `soap;wsdl;web service;!shampoo`
## Formatted Searches
You can embed a nicely [[formatted search|Main/FormattedSearch]] in a topic by using the `%SEARCH{}%` variable described in [[TWikiVariables]].
## Search Preferences
The [[TWikiPreferences]] has these settings:
- `SEARCHDEFAULTTTYPE`: Default search type for search forms which calls the `search` script
- `SEARCHVARDEFAULTTYPE`: Default search type for `%SEARCH{}` variable
- `SEARCHSTOPWORDS`: List of stop words
-- TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny - 18 Jan 2004