Instructions.
Contents.
Browsing the Dictionary
Ÿ Click on the navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen to browse through the file or page through the documents using the keyboard. Press ALT+HOME (First Document), ALT+PG UP (Previous Document), ALT+PG DN (Next Document), and ALT+END (Last Document).
Ÿ Click on a letter of the alphabet. This will take you to the first word beginning with that letter. You can then use the navigation buttons to move through the terms.
Searching the Text
Ÿ The most convenient way to search is from the Search Line. Simply press the ESC key or click in the Search Line. Then enter a word or words you wish to find and press ENTER. The search results are listed in a window at the bottom of your screen.
From the Search Line, you can use the following types of searches:
Boolean Searches
askSam allows the use of the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT to combine the elements in your search.
Enter: peace love understanding
or Enter: peace AND love AND understanding
These two searches are identical.
Find: documents containing the words peace, love, and understanding.
Enter: Florida OR Hawaii OR California
Find: documents containing either Florida, or Hawaii, or California.
Enter: NOT war and Iraq
Find: documents which do not contain the word "war" but contain the word "Iraq".
Enter: red AND (blue OR yellow)
Find: documents containing red and either blue or yellow.
Enter: (red AND yellow) OR blue
Find: documents containing red and yellow or just blue.
Wildcard Searches
Searches can include the wildcard symbols * and ?. The * replaces multiple characters (up to 80). The ? replaces a single character.
Enter: German*
Find: Germany, Germanic, Germans, ...
Enter: 19??
Find: 1900,1901, 1902,... 1999
Searching for Phrases
When you enter several words in a search, all texts containing these words are retrieved:
Enter: band of brothers
Find: Any text that contains the combination of these three words. For example: "Both of my brothers played in the high school band."
To find words directly next to each other, place square brackets [ ] around the phrase.
Enter: [band of brothers]
Find: Any text that contains this exact phrase.
Ÿ askSam also supports other powerful search options including Boolean searches and proximity searches (show me all works where "love" and "country" appear in the same sentence). The ACTIONS menu contains a variety of search commands.
Reports
The Contents Page contains a link to REPORTS. We've included one report:
Ÿ Contextual Excerpts - This report lets you enter a word or phrase and outputs the 5 lines around and containing that word or phrase.
Printing
Ÿ Choose FILE - PRINT to print the document that is currently displayed.
The HELP file includes more information on using askSam.
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Contents.
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