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Easy search

Easy search is the simplest way of searching for records in FSTA Direct. Just type your search terms in the search box and click the Search button.

Navigation to Easy search: If Easy 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 Easy search from another screen by clicking on the Easy search tab.

Boolean logic operators (AND, OR, NOT) can be used to help refine your search in combination with brackets (to set priorities) and double quotation marks (to indicate phrases).

For example, if you type in more than one word you can decide if you want to find records that contain:

All the words you have specified

Example: chocolate AND cakes

Searches for records containing both 'chocolate' and 'cakes'

Any of the words you have specified

Example: chocolate OR cakes

Searches for records containing 'chocolate' or 'cakes' or both

The words as an exact phrase

Example: "chocolate cakes"

Searches for records containing the phrase 'chocolate cakes'

One word but not another

Example: chocolate NOT cakes

Searches for records containing 'chocolate' but excludes those with 'cakes' present

Parentheses (i.e. curved brackets, () ) can be used to make queries more precise and to define the sequence in which the components of a search are interpreted. For example, to search for records that have the word 'bread' present with either 'butter' or 'cheese', the search can be typed as bread AND (butter OR cheese). Nesting of brackets is not supported in Easy search.

Truncation: Easy search supports prefix and word-stemming wild-card searches.

For prefix wild-card searches use *
Example: choc*Searches for records containing words that start with the prefix 'choc' , e.g. chocolate, chocs, chocolates, etc.

For word-stemming wild-card searches use ~
Example: dry~
Searches for records containing grammatical variations of dry, e.g. dry, dried, dries, drying

Greek symbols can be added by clicking the 'Greek symbols' button, selecting the appropriate letter, and pressing OK. Alternatively the textual equivalent can be entered directly in the search box: for example, <beta> is entered (note use of angled brackets) for the Greek letter, beta.

The Clear button is used to delete any text in the search box.

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

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