Advanced Search Tips

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Issue:

What are some Advanced Search Techniques for SAGE Online?

Solution:

Search Connectors & Other Advanced Product Search Tips

Search Connectors

Search connectors are used when you want to include more than one keyword, theme or color in the same search. You can use a variety of connectors depending on what you need to do. Note that search connectors only work in the detailed search view.

Using AND & OR:

Most often, one keyword will do. However, if you need to narrow down results, you can enter multiple keywords, separating each by "AND" or "OR". You will find these two buttons above the box at the right. "AND" indicates that both words must exist. For example, if it has to be both ceramic and have a handle, you could enter CERAMIC AND HANDLE as keywords. On the other hand, if you wanted something either ceramic or porcelain, you would type CERAMIC OR PORCELAIN in the keyword area.

Using Not:

“NOT” will eliminate words from your search. For example, if you want to search for a plastic pen without a stylus you would enter Pen as your category and PLASTIC NOT Stylus as your keywords.

Using Parentheses:

You can also use parentheses to make your search as specific as you need. For example, if you want a mug that is either ceramic or porcelain but in either case it has to have a handle, you will enter (CERAMIC OR PORCELAIN) AND HANDLE in the keywords field.

Advanced Keyword Searches

As you become more experienced with SAGE Online, you will notice that you want to make your searches more complicated to find specifically what you need. You can add more than two keywords by using parentheses. For example, if you want a plastic or metal flashlight that is waterproof, type:

(PLASTIC OR METAL) AND WATERPROOF

Note that depending on where your parentheses are placed, your search will take a completely different direction. For example, if you moved the parentheses in the above example to look like this:

PLASTIC OR (METAL AND WATERPROOF)

you would get a list of any flashlight that is plastic OR both metal and waterproof. You might get many flashlights that are plastic, but not waterproof at all. However, those that are metal will definitely be waterproof. So, as you can see, it's important to make sure to put the parentheses in the right place!

As a final example, suppose you want a flashlight which is either plastic or metal, waterproof, but without a quartz lamp. You would put "flashlights" as the category, and then your keyword list would look like this:

(PLASTIC OR METAL) AND WATERPROOF NOT QUARTZ

Using Quotation Marks:

Using quotation marks “_”, will allow you to search by phrases. Say you are looking for a shirt that is 75% Polyester, you would use the category of SHIRTS, and your keywords would be “75% Polyester”. This would only show results for shirts that have that specific arrangement of words, instead of having both words somewhere in the description or keywords.

Using the Asterisk:

Using the Asterisk *, will allow you to preform wildcard searches when you want to search multiple variations of a word. For example, using keyword MAGNET* will pull up results for Magnet, Magnetic, Magnetically and Magnetized.

Using Brackets:

Using brackets [-], will allow you to search by exact forms of words. SAGE will automatically search for different variations of word endings (-ing, -ed, etc.), so sometimes we want a specific form of that word, so the additional variations are not helpful that is where the brackets come in. If you want a felt material laptop bag, you can use BAGS as my category and [FELT] AND LAPTOP as my keywords.

Where to use the Search Connectors other than keywords:

Category: OR
   • Example: Masks OR Bandannas

Theme: AND, OR, NOT
   • Example: Golf AND Outdoors, Golf OR Outdoors, Golf NOT Outdoors

Color: / (for two-tone items), AND, OR, *
   • Examples: Red/Black, Red AND Black, Red OR Black, Camo*

Additional search tips:

Brand Names:
Instead of searching for the brand name in the Keywords field, instead try using the Item Name field instead, since the title of the product will normally include the brand name.
Also try looking up the brand name in a Supplier Search to see if it is the suppliers name or a line they carry.

Narrowing down results for Flash Drives:
Flash drives can be tricky to search for when you have multiple sizes available. If you know the specific size (MB or GB) you are looking for, try putting that in the Item Name field to limit the results to specifically that sized flash drive.

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