Adobe Acrobat 7 Professional - Manual (Page 555)

Using Boolean queries in multiple-document searches
A Boolean search offers more options for searching for exact phrasing, alternate words,
and excluded words.
To use a Boolean query in a multiple-document search:
1. Choose Edit > Search or click the Search button , and click Use Advanced Search
Options.
2. For Look In, choose the location you want to search.
3. For Return Results Containing, choose Boolean Query.
4. For the search terms, type the query, using Boolean terms and syntax.
5. Select any additional criteria you want to use, and then click Search.
In your query, you can use commonly used Boolean operators, including the following
examples:
●
Use the AND operator between two words to find documents that contain both terms. For
example, type
paris AND france to identify documents that contain both paris and
france. For simple AND searches, the All Of The Words option produces the same results.
●
Use the NOT operator before a search term to exclude any documents that contain that
term. For example, type
NOT kentucky to find all documents that do not contain the
word kentucky. Or, type paris NOT kentucky to find all documents that contain
the word paris and do not contain the word kentucky.
●
Use the OR operator to search for all instances of either term. For example, type email
OR e-mail to find all documents with occurrences of either spelling. For simple OR
searches, the Any Of The Words option produces the same results.
●
Use ^ (exclusive OR) to search for all instances that have either operator, but not both. For
example, type
cat ^ dog to find all documents with occurrences of cat or dog but not
both cat and dog.
●
Use parentheses to specify the order of evaluation of terms in a query. For example, type
white & (whale | ahab) . The query processor performs an OR query on whale
and ahab and then performs an AND query on the result with white.
To learn more about Boolean queries, syntax, and other Boolean operators that you can
use in your searches, refer to any standard text, website, or other resource with complete
Boolean information.
Note: You cannot do wildcard searches using asterisks (*) or question marks (?) when
searching Acrobat 7.0 indexes.