Searching for Information on VTN

With all search tools, the choice of search words is a little science and a little art, and the more you use a search tool -- experimenting and paying attention to the results -- the better you will become at finding information.

Recently changed documents
Find someone
Searching documents
Limiting the scope of a search
Customizing a search
Searching other CSuite Sites **Remote Services**
Searching the Internet

New and Recently Changed Information

You can find new or recently revised documents by using the CSuite shortcut [go recent] which produces an automatically generated list of all new and revised documents on the system.

Finding People

You can use the CSuite shortcut [go people] to find the profile/Homepage of Victoria Telecommunity Network users.

This shortcut will present you with a form that allows you to enter a name, a userID or a word or combination of words. If you were to search on the word "garden" you would find anyone who had used the word garden (or gardening) in their profile..., who had mentioned Spring Garden Rd., or Garden Street, or whose last name was Teagarden.

Another CSuite service will tell you who is currently online at VTN. To access this service use the shortcut [go who].

Searching Documents

Community network volunteers and information providers have prepared documents on a wide range of topics. The CSuite shortcut [go search] will allow you to search for information on any topic you wish.

This service presents you with a form that allows you to type in one or more words to search for. If you enter more than one word, the search can be for:

all words in query
any word in query
query as a phrase

The default is to search for "all words in query". If you search for "balance of trade" and do not specify "query as a phrase" you will find any/all documents that contain these words in any order.

To change the search (type) option position the cursor over "all words in query" and press enter/return.

The csuite [go search] command is a very general search tool that will search in both the documents maintained by VTN Information Providers and documents such as the on-line Helpdesk.

Limiting the Search

The 'button' bar at the bottom of each VTN document contains a "Search" link that has usually been configured to limit the search area to a smaller number of documents.

As an example, the "Search" button on the Government page will limit the search to documents relating to government. As another example, the search button on a Helpdesk page will search only documents with the Helpdesk.

Customizing the search

You can create a custom search button by inserting a link to the VTN search engine in your profile or in an IP document.

If you wish to create a search link for the Help/Email/ directory the format for the url is:

http://victoria.tc.ca/cgi-bin/search-form/Help/Email

**Remember to use...

<a href=" "> label </a>

...in addition to the url above. They aren't combine in this example in an effort to make the url a little more clear.

When you limit the search with a custom search link, the top of the form will include a line that indicates that where the search has been limited to.

CSuite Remote Services

Many of the CSuite search services are available for other CSuite sites. You can find out who is currently on-line, search for documents or visit the webpages of Information Providers at many other sites. Any search screen that has a link for "...other places" or "Other CSuite Sites" can be used to access another community network. The full list of remote services is available through the [go remote] shortcut.