How to search an Open Guide

This page outlines how to use the search facility on OpenGuides sites. If you have any feedback or tips, please send them to the developers' mailing list. Please also let us know if you are able to translate this page into other languages.

Simple searches

Every page on an OpenGuides site contains a "Search" textbox. Entering a word into the search box will bring up a list of pages containing the word, much like any search engine you're used to. The list of results will be divided up into pages, each showing 20 results.

This or that searches

If you want to search for more than one thing but not necessarily all of them, separate your search words by commas. So, a search for

will list you all pages containing either the word "restaurant" or the word "cafe".

"Group of words" searches

To search for an exact phrase, enclose it in double quotes. For example:

will get you the pages that contain the exact phrase "pedestrian street", but not pages that contain something like "the pedestrian should avoid this street".

A note on search scores

The results of your search are sorted by their scores, which appear next to them. If you're interested, this is how they're worked out; otherwise, you can skip this bit without worrying.

• A match for your search in a page's title scores 10 points.
• A match in a page's category or locale scores 3 points.
• A match in a page's main content scores 1 point.

These points are then added together. Pages matching in score are sorted by title.