Using operators to refine a boolean search
Search operators are words and characters which are read as an instruction to search for combinations of words, fields, dates and numbers. It works the same way most Web search engines do (based on Boolean logic), with some very powerful enhancements. For example, you can not only search for two words which appear in the same document, but specify how close they should be to each other, what field they must be in, by their exact case, and that one should be judged as more important. Using wildcards you can also search on just a fragment of a word and the search returns every word containing that fragment.

To use an operator in your search, type it into the search box.

Operator/expression	Description and examples
field FIELD [fieldname] (brackets)	These mean 'search this field.' You specify specify the field to search. There should be spaces between 'FIELD' and words surrounding it. Example: 'FIELD author CONTAINS Simpson' finds documents whose author field contains the word Simpson.
( ) [parentheses]	These determine the order in which the search processes sections of your query. A part of the query enclosed in parentheses will be processed before parts outside the parentheses. Example: '(Field author CONTAINS Simpson OR Field Title CONTAINS tuna) AND (Field body CONTAINS cat OR Field revdate > 01/01/1999)' will find all documents whose author field contains the word Simpson or whose title field contains the word tuna. It will also find documents whose body field contains the word cat or whose rev date field contains a date greater than 01/01/1999.
and AND	These find documents containing all the conditions or words linked by AND. Example: 'cat AND dog AND fish' finds documents containing all three of these words.
or OR ACCRUE	These find documents containing either of the conditions or words and returns them ranked by number of appearances in the document. Example: 'cat OR dog OR fish' finds documents containing at least one of these words. Note ACCRUE works slightly better than OR when sorting results by relevance.
NOT not	These make the query negative. You can put NOT between words: 'cat AND NOT dog' finds documents containing the word cat, but not the word dog. You can put NOT before any field name: 'NOT[author] CONTAINS Simpson' finds documents whose author field does not contain the word Simpson. You can use NOT after CONTAINS, and before a word: '[author] CONTAINS NOT Simpson' finds documents whose author field does not contain the word Simpson. You cannot put NOT after =, <, >, <=, or >= and before a date or number: '[date1] = NOT 12/25/98' does not work.
" "	Placing quotes around operators (like AND, OR, CONTAINS etc.) allows the search to read them as normal words. Example: "rock and roll" finds documents containing the phrase, intact.
PARAGRAPH paragraph	This finds documents in which the words surrounding PARAGRAPH are in the same paragraph, and ranks them by how close they are. Example: 'car PARAGRAPH wheels' finds documents in which 'car' and 'wheels' appear in the same paragraph and ranks them by how close the words are within the paragraph.
SENTENCE sentence	This finds documents in which the words surrounding SENTENCE are in the same sentence, and ranks them by how close they are. Example: 'car SENTENCE wheels' finds documents in which 'car' and 'wheels' appear in the same sentence and ranks them by how close the words are within the sentence.
?	This is a wildcard. It represents any single letter. It does not work with dates or numbers. Example: '?one' finds documents containing bone, cone, done, gone (and any other four-letter words that end with 'one') '???ck' finds documents containing stack, clock, stick, truck; rack, rick, rock
*	This is a wildcard. It represents any extension of letters. It does not work with dates or numbers. Example: '*one' finds documents containing bone, cone, clone, crone, done, drone, gone, telephone (and any other words of any length that end with 'one') Also, '*one*' finds documents containing bone, cone, clone, lonely, phoned, stoned, pardoned
TERMWEIGHT termweight	This gives importance, or "weight," to search words. You can use any value from 0 through 65537 to assign weight. Example: 'TERMWEIGHT 25 photo or TERMWEIGHT 75 audio or TERMWEIGHT 50 video' finds documents containing at least one of the words. 'Audio' is most important, 'video' is next, and 'photo' is least important. Notes ranks results accordingly. You need an AND or OR between first TERMWEIGHT and subsequent ones.
EXACTCASE exactcase	This tells Notes to search for the exact case of the word following. Example: 'exactcase Apple' finds documents containing 'Apple,' but not 'APPLE' or 'apple.'
CONTAINS contains =	This is tells Notes that the field before it must contain the text after it. There should be spaces between 'CONTAINS' and words surrounding it. Example: '[author] CONTAINS Hendricks' finds documents whose author field contains the word Hendricks.
= < > <= >=	These help you search for numbers or dates in numeric or date fields only. Example: 'FIELD date1<12/25/98' finds documents whose 'date1' field contains any date before 12/25/98.
- (hyphen)	This tells the search to find the hyphenated word pair. Example: 'full-text' finds documents containing "full-text" To find "fulltext" and "full text", activate Fuzzy search.