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Advanced search

Advanced search enables powerful and precise searches of FSTA to be constructed. All FSTA fields are available for searches, and queries are built line by line in the search builder at the top of the screen.

Navigation to Advanced search: If Advanced search is set as your default search screen (see Preferences) then this is the search screen you arrive at by default after logging in. You can select Advanced search from another screen by clicking on the Advanced search tab.

An Advanced search query is built by

1. [For second and subsequent rows]Clicking on the Logic selector to choose the desired Boolean logic operator
2. Clicking on the Field selector in the first row of the Search builder
3. Selecting the field you wish to search in from the list offered - see Fields and field codes for more on this
4. Selecting the match criterion
5. Entering search terms
6. Clicking on to confirm this element of the search (click on - to delete it)

After the last of these steps, a new row is presented on screen and a new part of the query can be constructed repeating the basic method.

When the elements of a search are completed, click on Customize to edit the search or Search to run the search.

Customize enables you to edit the search string, for example to change terms or logic, to or apply brackets to set priorities for the components of the search.

For information on the use of wild cards, see Truncation.

The Reset button clears all the fields on this screen, enabling a new search to be entered.

On the right-hand side of the screen there are some panels that contain information and facilitate more searching:

• FSTA search status
• My FSTA searches

Please click on the links above to learn more about these panels

See also