At its simplest, a Crossroads search can be just a word or a phrase in the first box. But with the tips on this page, you can expand the focus of your search to give you more complete results.
- Look for words with the same prefix or suffix. For
example, type employ to
find employer, employee, employment, unemployment, and so on.
- Type a phrase in one searchbox to ensure the words will appear together. For example, type population census to
find entries containing the phrase population census but not entries where the words population and census are separated.
- Select the AND option between searchboxes to ensure that all the words you type will appear somewhere in each result.
search. For example, if you want to find all entries that include both the word
hunger and the word poverty somewhere in the entry, use
the following search:
![Example: hunger [AND] poverty](/newcrossroads/images/example-and.gif)
- Select the NOT option between searchboxes to exclude certain text from your
search. For example, if you want to find all instances of
employment but not unemployment, use
the following search:
![Example: employment [NOT] unemployment](/newcrossroads/images/example-not.gif)
- Use the OR option between searchboxes to find all entries that contain at least one word or another, for for example:
![Example: drugs [OR] alcohol](/newcrossroads/images/example-or.gif)
This search finds all Crossroads entries that mention drugs or alcohol or both.