The General Search tool is an intelligent search box, which can search many different parts of the image database using one search box. For best results, use quite broad terms. If you want to refine your search, keep specifying more search terms and click 'Search'. If you want to exclude any results which do not contain every word in your search term, click the box labelled "Only show exact matches".

The General Search system is not case-sensitive, plurals are automatically checked, and the results are returned to you in order of relevance.

You can add the following logic to your search to refine the results:

• +: The word must appear in the results
• -: The word must not appear in the results
• ": The enclosed string is taken as a whole, used for phrase matching

For example, to search for York, you may wish to exclude many results referring to New York, USA. In this case, use "-New +York".

The Advanced Search allows you to create a combination of searches. Use the pulldown menu to choose which method suits your search best (ALL or ANY).

Next, use the pulldown menu to choose the field against which you are searching:

• Caption - the description for the file
• Keywords - keywords for the file
• Picture Reference - the IMS reference number
• Picture Filename - the filename
• Object Name - the IPTC object name
• Picture Storage Date - the file storage date
• Capture Date (EXIF) - the time stored by the camera when the image was captured
• Author - the IPTC author of the file
• Owner - the owner of the file (an IMS user)
• Royalty-Free - whether the file has been marked as royalty free in IMS
• Album - the source album in which the file is located
• Age - the time, in days, since the file was first stored in IMS
• Expiry date - the date the file expires (if set in IMS)
• Other fields may also be offered in this list

You can choose which criteria to use:

• CONTAINS - The search string is within the field
• CONTAINS THE WORD - The search string is a word, not a part of a word, within the field
• DOES NOT CONTAIN - The search string is not within the field
• INTELLIGENT MATCHES - Uses the natural language search method of the 'General Search' form
• STARTS WITH - The search string is at the start of the field
• ENDS WITH - The search string is at the end of the field
• IS - The search string is exactly the value of the field
• IS NOT - The search string is not the value of the field

Not all search types are available for all searches. For date searches, the options are:

• IS
• IS NOT
• IS BEFORE
• IS AFTER

If you click 'Add another condition...', a new row will appear which allows you to add more search conditions. Use this to search within a range of dates, for example by combining date "IS AFTER" with date "IS BEFORE".