Sybase.com

Search Tips

Tips for effective Search results

General Tips
Basic Search
Advanced Search
Pre-Filter Results

Categorization of results
Product Manuals & Newsgroups
Password-Restricted Results

1. Be specific. Use words that are unique and descriptive of what you are looking for to limit your results. Typing ‘server’ will return every document where this word appears. Add one or more keywords to get more qualified results.

2. Use synonyms. If you don’t get the results you expect, try replacing your search keywords with similar words, eg., if results for ‘database classes’ are not satisfactory, try ‘database training’.

3. Check your spelling. Although each search engine has some spell checking functionality, misspelling words can lead to very different results from what you expected. The ‘Did you mean?’ functionality approximates the word to the best of its abilities but it’s not an exhaustive resource.

4. Use categories to obtain specific results. Once results are returned, you can pinpoint the type of documents you need by using the category links in the right column, as described below.

5.Search by technote ID numbers. You will obtain increased relevance if you use the exact phrase field in the advanced search screen. Type "id=xxxx" where xxxx is the technote number to have the specific doc display at the top of the list of search results.

How to use the Sybase.com search functionality

Basic Search

Most users will employ the basic search field at the top of each page on Sybase.com.
Type any keywords and press the ENTER key to get results.

Advanced Search

For more complex searches, or to limit the number of results returned in any given search, you can take advantage of the advanced search screen, where you can use a combination of any of the four listed search fields to define very specific queries.

To perform a search, type in a few descriptive words and press the Enter key or click the Search button.

Note: Boolean operators and wildcards are not supported and not needed as the functionality of the advanced screen allows you to run the same type of queries. Limit the total length of your search request to 225 characters.

Pre-Filter Results

You can further pre-define results by type of information sources, for example,

only business information
only technical information

as well as either of two useful Sybase database sources such as

solved cases
change requests

You can also restrict your query by words in title only, to obtain more focused results

Categorization of results

Search results are categorized in the right column to allow you to filter results down to specific content types and find results more quickly. All categories and sub-categories display counts of documents included in the results. You can filter results and further target your search by clicking on links for any one of the following categories:

Product Manuals and Newsgroups

Because results from these two large collections tend to overwhelm search returns and cause other useful document types to appear much lower in ranking, they are by default excluded from a user's immediate search results page. However, you can quickly get results related to your original query from either collection by clicking on the the appropriate Newsgroups or Product Manual links in the box at the top of search results.

Password-restricted results

Although you may be able to view password-protected results as part of your returned search results, whenever a padlock icon is present next to the title, you will be prompted to login into our system. Depending on the type of authorization on the page, your Sybase account may need authorization for Partner, SDN, or Technical Support contact.