Help:Wiki/Searching

There are essentially 2 main ways of searching for articles within the wiki:

• the searchbox
• the index located on the Main Page

The Searchbox

The searchbox can always be found on the left side of the page wherever you are within the wiki. It has 2 functions:

• Go
• Search

If you are familiar with other sites using the MediaWiki software you are no doubt already aware of how these work. If not, then here is how to get the best results from using the searchbox.

The Go Button

The function of the Go button is to display a page directly, instead of first having to select it from a search result page. It thereby allows you to quickly navigate from page to page without following links. To view a page, just enter it's name in the search field and click "Go".

The Go button is more complex than it looks. It works as follows (each time, only continuing if there is no match):

1. Check existence of the page exactly as it is entered, e.g. Test Page and Test page are different pages.
2. Try all lower case (with the first letter capitalised), e.g. if you type "TEST PAGE", Test page and not Test Page would be displayed.
3. Try the version with all words capitalised.
4. Try the all upper case version.

Search

To use the search simple enter the search criteria in the search field and press the search button. You will be taken to a list of results with the highest probable match at the top.

Limiting search results

By default the search mode will turn up results with any of the words in your query. To limit to results that include all words, put a "+" at the beginning of each word, like Google's default mode.

You can also do a phrase search by enclosing words in quotes, which not only have both words but have them in order.

To exclude results that include some word, put a "-" at the beginning.

Like any search engine avoid short and common words for better results.

Case sensitivity

Where Go is case sensitive, Search will bring the same results whether the text you enter is all lowercase, Title Case or UPPERCASE.

For example: utada hikaru, Utada Hikaru and UTADA HIKARU all provide the same results.

Main Page Index

On the Main Page you will find to the right hand side an index for each of the major categories on Tiki. These are:

• Artists
• Albums
• Singles
• DVDs

Each category has a main alphabetical index page from which you can search.