Help

Browsers
This application requires a browser to run (but does not require an internet connection). Your browser needs to have Java enabled (most do by default), and also have "cookies" enabled to use the FAVORITES feature (again, most do by default). Windows XP™ users, a special exception, may need to install a Java virtual machine since Microsoft no longer installs one by default. A pop-up window should appear to alert you, and then allow you to download and install "Microsoft VM." Or click the following link to go to Microsoft's Java VM download page: http://www.microsoft.com/java/vm/dl_vm40.htm

Windows Browsers
Microsoft® Internet Explorer™ 4.0 and higher are the recommended browsers. All features will function correctly with these browsers.

Macintosh Browsers
Netscape® Navigator™ 4.7.x is the recommended browser. With Microsoft® Internet Explorer™, you are limited to using the FULL SEARCH feature.

Netscape Issues
If you use Netscape® Navigator™ 4.7.x (Mac and PC), you will not be able to use the FAVORITES feature. This application is not compatible with Netscape version 6.x (Mac & PC).

The most recent browsers can be found at the following web addresses:
MS Internet Explorer: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.asp
Netscape Navigator: http://browsers.netscape.com/browsers/main.tmpl

Navigation, etc.
Use the navigation bar at the left to access the various sections of this application. You should be familiar with standard browser conventions to use this application. For example, you can use the normal "back" and "forward" browser buttons as needed to move between pages. Underlined colored type indicates a "hyperlink" that will perform a function or navigate somewhere. Also, most citations will open in their own browser window, on top of the application, and may need to be closed for you to continue. You can use your browser's printing capability to print any page.

Reset the Application
If you should begin get garbled or unexpected results, click the HOME button to reload the application. Then continue from where you left off.

Search Tips

  • Enter one or more keywords.
  • Searches are not case sensitive.
  • Use quotes to find an exact phrase, for example: "big cake."
  • You can enter multiple keywords, such as good food. Or you can enter a Boolean expression, using AND, OR and NOT.
  • Multiple keywords entered without a Boolean use the AND expression. Thus, entering good food is the same as entering good AND food.
  • You can use an expression like pizza OR pie to find pages containing either keyword.
  • You can also use parentheses in Boolean expressions. For example, you can enter (pizza AND cheese) OR pie.
  • You can use the asterisk (*) as a suffix wildcard character in keywords. For example, enter cook* to find pages with keywords such as cook or cookery or cooking.
  • Use the NEAR operator to find keywords that appear near to each other. For example, type peanut NEAR butter to find documents with words peanut and butter appearing one near another.
  • Beside using NEAR operator, you can specify how close keywords could be. For example, use "peanut W/5 butter" (with quotes) to find documents where words peanut and butter appear within a frame of 5 words, or "W/7 peanut butter cookie" to find peanut, butter and cookie within a 7 word frame. Note that common words are not counted as part of word frame.
  • If no matches are found, reword your query and try again.

    • Highlighting
     On searches where highlighting is enabled, all permutations of the search term will be highlighted (stemming) regardless of the type of search terms you typed in. For example, even if you search for the journal, "CNS Drugs," (in quotes, since you want this exact title, without stemming) and 3 article citations are returned, you will notice that the word drug is also highlighted throughout the citation because drug is a stem of CNS Drugs. This does NOT mean that the search returned results for drug. If you had searched on the term drug, you would have many more returns than 3.

    Alphanumeric Interface Bar
     Some of the sections of the application use an interface graphic with the letters A-Z and a # symbol. This "pound" symbol (#) will list those entries that begin with a number, should there be any.

    Listing by Title
     In the TITLE section, because certain prefixes and hyphenations are ignored by the application (for flexibility in searches), when you list the titles for each letter, some titles may appear out of place. For example, clicking the "B" button will list the titles that begin with the letter "b." You may see a title that begins with "Double-blind..." in the "b's" because the hyphenated "double-" is ignored. This title would also show up under the "D" titles as well. The same thing occurs with common prefixes such as "micro" or single letter words like "A." Also note that the listings returned by clicking the letters do not appear alphabetically.

    Favorites
    You have the opportunity to "save" any article citations you wish using the FAVORITES feature. Simply click the "Add to Favorites" link that appears on each citation page you wish to store. That page's ID number is stored in a browser "cookie," a small data file. Then when you click the FAVORITES button on the left side navigation bar, the search engine will automatically return all the documents you have added to your favorites. From this page, you can also remove any or all the articles saved as favorites.

    Keep in mind that your browser must have cookies enabled (most do by default) for the favorites feature to work. Also remember that cookies are stored per browser and per machine. This means that if you have different browsers on a single machine, like both Netscape® Navigator™ and Microsoft® Internet Explorer™, each has its own cookies, and thus different sets of favorites. It also means that if you use this application on multiple computers, you will have favorites specific to each computer.