HELP
Searching the
Office of the Executive Secretary (ExecSec)
of the Department of Defense (DoD) Web Site

This help page applies only to the ExecSec web site. Other search sites have their own help pages. If you are having trouble with another search site please go to that site and locate their help utility. On this page you will learn to search ExecSec using simple words or complex queries with the advanced syntax described below.

Table of Contents

Search capabilities available on the ExecSec web site are:

• Words
• Phrases
• Plain Language
• Including and Excluding Search Terms

Words (Back to the Table of Contents)

To search with words, separate the words with spaces. Enter words without capital letters to search for words with and without capitalization. When you enter a word with capitalization or punctuation, this search engine looks for the word exactly as you typed it. A string of capitalized words is assumed to be a name and is automatically searched for as a phrase.

Phrases (Back to the Table of Contents)

To search for an exact phrase, surround the phrase with double quotation marks. A string of capitalized words is assumed to be a name and is automatically searched for as a phrase. Separate a series of names with commas. Commas aren't needed when the phrase is surrounded by quotation marks. The following example searches for a document that contains the phrases "San Francisco" and "sourdough bread":

San Francisco "sourdough bread"

Plain Language (Back to the Table of Contents)

To search with plain language, enter a question or concept, and this search engine identifies the important words and searches for them. For example, enter a question such as:

Where is the sales office in San Francisco?

This query produces the same results as entering:

sales office San Francisco

Including and Excluding Search Terms (Back to the Table of Contents)

You can limit searches by excluding or requiring search terms. Documents that contain optional words have higher scores than documents that contain only the required word. A minus sign (-) immediately preceding a search term (word or phrase) excludes documents containing the term. A plus sign (+) immediately preceding a search term (word or phrase) return documents containing the term.