Understanding How Search Works

Before discussing the execution of a search query, certain basic concepts must be covered. A search query contains one or more words that represent the content you are trying to find. Search scopes help you focus your search query so that only a portion of the overall index is queried. Your SharePoint Administrators build or create the index by crawling the content you want to find. When executing a query, SharePoint returns a set of content items that form a result set. If you query to locate information that you know exists and it doesn’t appear in your result set, contact your SharePoint Administrator for assistance.

In the following exercise, you will familiarize yourself with the interface of the search Web Parts.

OPEN the SharePoint site. This exercise will use the http://wideworldmporters site, but you can use whatever SharePoint team site you want. If prompted, type your user name and password, and then click OK.

BE SURE TO verify that you have sufficient permissions to execute a query in the site you are using. If in doubt, see the Appendix on page 436.

1. In the upper right corner of the home page, find the search Web Part. This Web Part contains a scope drop-down list whose default setting is \This Site, a query input box, and a magnifying glass icon that executes the query.

2. Enter a query term that can be found in at least one document in your site, such as oak.

The result set contains items that match your query term, including documents and folders. Note that you can sort the result set by either relevance or modified date. If more than one page of content items matches your query, the total number of pages in the result set appears, with each page number representing a link to that page of the overall result set.

CLOSE the browser.