Help with searching

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How to start searching

To search for stories you are interested in, enter a term in the search box under "Refine your search".

You can add or remove search terms, one at a time, using the plus/minus buttons.

If your search shows no results, remove some search terms.

If you want to search for an exact word or phrase, like "helpful nurse", enter it surrounded by quote marks.

Search terms you can add by typing in the box

When you type into the search term box, we will try to make a good guess on how best to use what you type.

  • If you type the name of a service we know (for example "Derriford Hospital"), we will filter your search to just stories about that service
  • If you type the name of a population area we know (for example "Sheffield"), we will filter your search to just stories from that area
  • If you type the name of a tag (for example "thank you"), we will filter your search to just stories with that tag
  • If you type the name of a specialty we know (for example "cardiology"), we will filter your search to just stories about services which provide that specialty
  • If you type something we don't recognise (for example "had an attitude"), we will filter your search to just stories containing that exact phrase

You can add multiple services, areas, tags and specialties to your search.

When you add multiple terms of the same kind, we search using any of the terms. This will add more stories to your search.

Adding dates to your search

You can add date limits to show just stories posted before or after certain dates.

For example:

  • since 1/1/2014
  • after Jan 2014
  • until 31/3/2014
  • before April 2014

If you're not sure, just try it and see if it works.

You can also show just recent stories by adding these search terms:

  • yesterday
  • last 10 days (or other period)
  • last week
  • last 6 weeks (or other period)
  • last month
  • last 4 months (up to 12 months)
  • quarter 3 (uses financial year quarters)
  • Q4

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