How Perceptive Search searches

To search Perceptive Search indexes, you provide Perceptive Search with a query. Perceptive Search then matches your query to the documents in the selected index(es) and lists all results that match your query. The simplest way to create a search is to type in a single word. Perceptive Search will search its records and display all documents that contain that single word.

In many cases however, a single word is not precise enough, and will retrieve too many documents. Perceptive Search offers five systems to help you construct your search:

• The Menu-Assisted query facility allows you to construct a query which consists of words, phrases, proximity and Boolean operators, structured and unstructured searching, all by simply typing words and point-and-click.
• The Command Based query facility exposes the full power of the Perceptive Search query syntax, and enables you to quickly and concisely express precisely what you are looking for, as simple or as complex as you like.
• The Web Style query facility lets you type queries using syntax similar to that used on major public Internet search engines. While only providing some of the power of the Perceptive Search query syntax, it provides a more familiar means of expressing queries.
• The Concept Taxonomy is a hierarchical taxonomy of concepts that allows you to navigate through an outline view, which describes the logical structure of the information held within the index. The Concept Taxonomy is built by the administrator using Perceptive Enterprise Search, and can take whatever form you require. The Concept Taxonomy is a great place to start if you do not even know what sort of information exists in an Perceptive Search index.
• Natural Language queries allow you to type a simple, plain English description of what it is you would like found. Perceptive Search uses its knowledge of the contents of your documents combined with various linguistic techniques to find the set of documents that most precisely and concisely matches what you have asked for.