Introduction
The All Category Search is a good place to start if you're
not exactly sure which database is to be searched. This search allows you to
look for a keyword among all databases or as many databases as you
specify and therefore increase the speed of your search.
Eg. Searching for [tobacco] within the Case Law and Legislation
databases of the Indlaw Directory returns only judgment and legislation
documents relating to tobacco based on relevance and date.
Thus searching within a database of your interest allows you to quickly narrow
in on only the most relevant documents.
Submitting a Search
Basic Instructions
1.Enter a keyword in the "Search for" field
2. Tick the checkboxes before the specific databases in which you require the search to be conducted; and
3. Click Go.
General Search Guidelines
1) Search is not case-sensitive.
2) You may search for any word except for those in the exception list (for English, this includes a, an, and, as, and other common words.) Words in the exception list are ignored during a search. In Exact Phrase search, words in the exception list are treated as placeholders.
3) Punctuation marks such as the period (.), colon (:), semicolon (;), and comma (,) are ignored during a search, except as separators during Keyword Search.
Exact Word Search
When you enter a word as a query in Indlaw All Category Search, the query will return results containing at least one occurrence of at least one of the keywords you enter across the specified databases.
Note: Since it is not a specific type of search, All Category search often returns a large result set.
For keyword search, Search will treat anything separated by spaces as distinct words. If you want to ensure that certain names or phrases are treated as single units i.e. cheque, bouncing, loan -- you can use commas as separators. Other than this special use of commas, the Search ignores punctuation.
Exact Phrase Search
It is not possible to define the Exact Phrase search criteria in All Category Search .
However you can search for exact phrases using Boolean parameters in the Database Searches.
Advanced Boolean Search
Boolean Search facility is not included in the Indlaw All Category Search Section. However, users seeking very specific information across the database can use Boolean search in the Advance search or database search. The Indlaw.com Search engine supports the standard Boolean operators and syntax: And (and); Or (or); Not (not); and Near (near) .
Reviewing Results
Search Engine Results by Relevance and Date
Search queries will return results, ranked by relevance and date. When reviewing your results, consider the following elements:
1) The number of results arising in the All Category Search is specifically marked to each specific database. The Database provides some context for evaluating a particular result.
2) The user would need to click on the specific database to further retrieve the searches he has looked up.
3) The search engine calculates Percentage relevance. Higher percentages indicate a higher occurrence or a closer relevance to your search in each specific database. Results are displayed in descending order of relevance or occurrence of the word searched.
4) The Search results are also sorted on the basis of date.
5) In all databases, there would be a result Title or keyword summary or the summary information written by the content authors. Rely on either of these to provide the context in which to evaluate the result Title and Summary.
6) If you determine that all results of interest to you should to be from a particular database then you can limit your search to that database and further refine your search in the area of interest using "Search within Search" function.
Refining Your Search
Search Within Results
Search Within Results provides a simple way to narrow down a result set within the specific database.
Eg. On your first search in the Case Law Databases, you can enter a fairly simple query term, such as the general law of interest to you. When the specified results are received, identify the field in the "Search Within Results" box and enter keywords into the text box (separated by commas or spaces) that help to define the specifics of what you are looking for. You can repeat the process as many times as you need to until you have the result set that meets your requirements.
