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Opinion Search Help

We endeavored to keep our opinion search site as simple as possible. As you can see there are only three things you need to concern yourself with. They are the "Match" criterion, "Display Format", and "Search Text."

Match:

Our opinion search supports three different search modes. They are "All words", "Any word", and boolean. By default your search is for all words. However, you can change to either of the other two modes by changing the "Match" field.

Read on for a description of each mode.

All Words (default)

By default your search is for all words. That means if you type "prisoner civil rights" in the "Search Text" field then our search engine will show you a list of all opinions that include the words "prisoner", "civil" and "rights." If an opinion does not contain all three terms, then it will not appear in the list. The "All Words" option is like using a boolean "and" between each term.

Any Word

The "Any Word" option is different from All Words in that the search engine will show you a list of documents that match any of the words you type in the "Search Text" field. Following the example given above you will get documents that contain the words "prisoner", "civil" or "rights". Any one of the documents in the list may have the word "prisoner", but may not have the word "rights." The "Any Word" option is like using a boolean "or" between each word. To use this option change the "Match" field to "Any Word."

Boolean

Boolean search is an advanced option that lets you compose complex boolean search phrases. For instance, lets assume that you are working on a cases involving sexual harassment and sexual discrimination. Under this circumstance you might want to see all opinions that involve either issue. In this case you might want to type " sexual and (harassment or discrimination)". Terms grouped by parenthesis are evaluated first. All other terms are evaluated left to right.

Boolean Operators

Operator Usage
and Terms on both side of the "and" operator must be present for the search engine to find a document.
or Either or both terms may be present for the search engine to find a document.
not Used to exclude certain terms from the set of documents. For instance you might want all documents involving cats and not dogs. You would then type "cat not dog" in the "Search Text" field.
( ) Used to group terms to establish an order of precedence.

Display Format

The display format determines how your search results will be displayed. There are two options. They are "Partial Page Text" and "URL Only". You can change from one format to the other. You do this by selecting the appropriate format from the "Display Format" drop down.

Partial Page Text (default)

The "Partial Page Text" option displays the name of the file that matches your search, and a snippet of page text showing the context in which the term is used.

URL Only

When you select this option you will only get the name of the file and the files internet address in your search results

Search Text

This is the field where you type your search terms. See the instructions under "Match" for help in forming your search.

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United States District Court
Western District of Wisconsin
120 North Henry Street, Room 320
P.O. Box 432
Madison, WI 53701-0432
(608)264-5156
fax: (608)264-5925
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This file last modified 09/20/04.