Simple or complex search?
Simple or complex search?
Both the Authors tab and the Publications tab offer 'simple' and 'complex' search forms.
Why Simple?
The simple search forms perform a free-text search for the phrases that you have specified in the list of fields. The system searches for occurences of each of the specified phrases in a range of text fields. These fields are:
People records
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last name
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last name alternative spelling
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firstname
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firstname alternative spelling
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born settlement
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born county
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born country
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associated places
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notes
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sources
Publication records
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title
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subtitle
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genre
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notes
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sources
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series title (e.g. journal title)
This is a fast but imprecise way to find records in the database. The resulting list may contain records that have very little in common.
Note: you cannot use wild cards in a simple search.
Why Complex?
A complex search should be used to create results lists of more definitively related records. You can also specify ranges to be matched, for example, all authors born between specified dates.
You can use wild cards in a complex search. To match one or more characters, use a *. For example, "d*lin" matches "dublin", or "sm*th" matches "smith".