Search Tips: Find Your Answers to any Excel Problems

NUMBER 1 TIP! Don't Assume your answer! Search for what you are trying to do and not what you THINK is the answer.

Case Sensitivity

Google searches are NOT case sensitive

AND OR Searches

There is no need to use "AND" as this the default. To use OR it must be in uppercase. For example: Excel OR Formula will return results for pages containing either and/or pages that Google deems as relevant to either.

Only in Page/Thread Titles

All HTML pages on the Web should have a Page Title that describes the page content. For example, if you look at the very top of this page the Page Title is: Search Tips To Help Find Your Answers to any Excel Problems. This also what Google shows in the search results as a clickable link. It is deemed important by Google in matching relevancy. As such, many HTML pages contain the most relevant words in their Page Title.

If you start a query with allintitle: Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the page Title. For example: allintitle: Excel Formula will return only documents that have both "Excel" and "Formula" in the Page Title.

SYNONYMS

If you want to search not only for your search term but also for its synonyms, place the tilde sign ("~") immediately in front of your search term.

For example, here's how to search for summing by condition: Sum condition ~criteria OR ~criterion

Numrange search

The numrange operator searches for results containing numbers in a given range. You can use Numrange to set ranges for everything from dates (1950..1960) to weights (5000..10000 kg ). Just add two numbers, separated by two periods, with no spaces, into the search box along with your search terms, and optionally specify a unit of measurement or some other indicator of what the number range represents.

Exclude Common Words

Google ignores common words and characters such as "where" and "how", as well as certain single digits and single letters. This is because they tend to slow down your search without improving the results. To include such words or digits use the + operator. For example: Excel +12 will return results for pages containing "Excel 12", Excel and 12 and/or pages that Google deems as relevant to both.

Whole Phrases

To search whole phrases use quotations. For example: "Excel Pivot Tables" will only return pages containing the phrase "Excel Pivot Tables" and/or pages that Google deems as relevant to the phrase.

Negative terms

To omit certain words or phrases precede them with the - operator. For example: Excel -"Pivot Tables" will only return pages containing the word Excel but not "Pivot Tables".