Searching with Boolean Operators

A Boolean search of PDF documents provides more search options by letting you combine search criteria in a clearly defined way (using logical operators). It applies only when multiple documents are searched; it does not apply when searching by patterns or masks. When searching for multiple search words or phrases, an OR search is performed; that is, each occurrence of either search string will be reported. This means Boolean operators are no longer needed to do OR-type searches. AND-type searches (where both strings must be present, so fewer results are generated) can only be done with Boolean operators.  

 

To use a Boolean query in a multiple-document search

  1. Open the Search dialog box in the Home ribbon.

  2. Choose Select Index from the Look In drop-down list, select an index in the Index Manager dialog box and click OK.

  3. Click >> Advanced and choose Boolean query in the Match drop-down list.

  4. Type the query for the search terms, using Boolean operators and syntax.

  5. Click Search. The results appear  in the bottom part of the Search dialog box.

  6. Click an entry in the Result list box to display its page with the search result highlighted. The number of occurrences appears bottom-right in the Result list box.

Commonly used Boolean operators

In the following examples A and B represent search words or strings. The green parts in the diagrams show which occurrences will be found.

 

Operator

Symbol

Examples

Diagram

AND

&

A AND B
A & B

venn diagram for 'AND'

OR

|

A OR B

A | B

venn diagram for 'OR'

EXCLUSIVE OR

^

A EXCLUSIVE OR B
A ^ B

venn diagram for 'exclusive OR'

NOT (alone)

~

NOT A
~
A

venn diagram for 'Not A'

NOT (combined)

~

A NOT B
A ~ B

venn diagram for 'A not B'

 

In the case NOT A, the green area represents all the files included in the search.
 

Note

You cannot do wildcard searches using asterisks (*) or question marks (?) when searching index files.