Help Searching Saugus.net

Using the Search Facilities

The Saugus.net search facilities are meant to be fairly intuitive for the novice yet still provide some sophisticated capabilities for the experts.

Common endings to words will automatically be applied to the words being sought after to save typing and intelligently broaden searches. Search results will have a number of stars for each returned page based upon how well the page meets the original search criteria. The color of the stars will indicate the location of the pages; white stars will indicate pages on Saugus.net proper, yellow stars will indicate pages on local non-profit sites, orange stars will indicate pages on local commercial sites, and red stars will indicate pages on Town.Saugus.MA.US, the official town government site.

Basic Usage

At the novice level, just type a word (or words) into the search text window and press the "return" (or "enter") key (or click the onscreen "Search" button). A list of pages having something to do with those word(s) will be returned.

If the Long format is active, a brief description of each page will be displayed. If the Short format is active, just the name of each page will be displayed.

If the All match method is active, the returned pages must relate to every search word. If the Any match method is active, the returned pages will only have to relate to some of the search words.

Boolean Usage

If the Boolean match method is active, more powerful search queries may be entered in the search text window. Using Boolean, the words "and", "or", & "not" may be used along with parentheses to specify exactly what is being sought.

While the query "golden and hills" will be just like the query "golden hills" using the All match method and the query "golden or hills" will be just like the query "golden hills" using the Any match method, the query "cliftondale or golden and hills" will produce results not available with either the All or Any match methods. Likewise the query "hills not golden" will produce results not available with the other methods -- in this case results relating to hills but not the Golden Hills.

Parentheses can be used to clarify intended groupings; "(golden and hills) or cliftondale" is unambiguous while "golden and hills or cliftondale" may not do what is actually desired.

Troubleshooting

I'm not finding anything

Check the spelling of all the search words you used. If they're all okay, try making your search less restrictive or somehow more general. If you're using the All match method, switch over to Any. If you intended a Boolean search ensure you're really using the Boolean match method. If you're using the Boolean match method ensure that your logic makes sense. Try changing any plurals to their singular forms; for words with strange plurals (for example "cactus" / "cacti" or "datum" / "data" or "louse" / "lice") try both forms. Try using different (but related) words.

I'm finding too many things

Try making your search more restrictive or somehow less general. If you're using the Any match method, switch over to All.

I'm not finding a particular match that I know ought to be there

The search database does not update immediately (or even daily). If the match is a recent addition, wait a few days and try again.

I'm having trouble reading the indicated match

Is the page you're trying to view a regular web page or some other type of file? (Are you getting a message about trying to download a file with a ".pdf", ".pkg", ".sxw", or ".z5" extension?) If the match is a PDF file you will need a PDF viewer on your system in order to read it. PDF viewers are freely available for most computer platforms and can be typically set up as plug-ins for your browser. Free viewers can be downloaded from the Adobe Acrobat web site. If the file is a Newton book you'll need a Newton book reader to view it (built into some machines, available via shareware or freeware for others). If the file is a StarOffice document, you'll need either StarOffice or OpenOffice to read it. The latter is freely downloadable for most machines from the OpenOffice.org web site. If the file is a Z-machine data file, you'll need a virtual Z-machine to run it; these are freely available for most computers. If the file isn't one of these, the solution isn't obvious. It could be that the search database was updated prior to the removal of the match, or it could be a transient network communications problem.

I'm getting a syntax error

Usually the syntax error message will try and provide some clue as to what went wrong. Typically the boolean expression you entered under the Boolean match method will defy logic in some obvious way and/or have mismatching parentheses.