Searches produce a list of files that contain the word or phrase no matter where it appears in the text.

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Here are some things to keep in mind when searching.

• Consecutive words are treated as a phrase. The search will produce only those files that have the exact phrase.
  For example, if you type early pension into the box, the search will return a list of pages which contain that phrase exactly, but not pages which contain early unreduced pension, or similar.
• Searches are not case-sensitive, so you can type your words in uppercase or lowercase letters. For example Canada Pension Plan and canada pension plan are treated equally in the search.
• Common words, such as, an, as, for, and the, are ignored during a search.
• Punctuation marks such as the period (.), colon (:), semicolon (;), and comma (,) are ignored during a search.

• If you want to search for several words, but not a specific phrase, you can use AND, OR, or NEAR to specify additional search information.
  • Use AND to find pages that contain both of the words you're looking for, but not necessarily as a single phrase. For example, if you type early AND pension into the search box, the search will produce a list of pages that include early pension, early unreduced pension, early reduced pension, etc.
  • Use OR to find either word on a page. For example, if you type spouse OR child into the search box, the search will produce a list of pages that contain spouse or child, or both spouse and child (not necessarily together) on the same page.
  • Using NEAR is similar to using AND in that the search will produce a list of pages that contain both words; however, the list will prioritize those pages which contain the words closer together.
• To search for pages that contain a particular word, but don't contain another, use AND NOT as part of your search text. For example, find information relating to spousal benefits but not child benefits, type spousal AND NOT child into the search box.
• You can use wildcards to search for similar or related words.
  • Use one asterisk (*) to look for words with the same prefix. For example, type benefi* to find benefit, benefits, and beneficiaries.
  • Use two asterisks (**) to search for all forms of a word. For example, type pay** to find pay, pays, paid, payment, and payroll.
• To use special characters such as &, |, ^, #, @, $, (, ), in your search, enclose your search text in quotation marks ("").
• To search for a word or phrase containing quotation marks, enclose the entire phrase in quotation marks and then double the quotation marks around the word or words you want to surround with quotes. For example, "World-Wide Web or ""Web""" searches for World-Wide Web or "Web".

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