Site search tips

One of the easiest ways to find what you are looking for on seniors.gov.au is to search for it. Seniors.gov.au provides two methods for you to search:

• A simple search. The simple search is available from every page of the site and enables you to enter one or more words to look for and search for them immediately.
• A page with additional search options. These additional options enable you to fine-tune exactly what you are looking for on the site.

The two types of search can be accessed from the top right hand section (the 'navigation tools and search' section in a text browser) of every page.

Remember, the more words you enter the more specific the results of your search will be; you will also have less results to sort through. If you put in a lot of words and get no results try removing one or two words; your search will then return more results.

The following sections provide an introduction to how each of these searches work. There is also an introduction on how to use the results of your search.

Simple Search

The simple search is available on the top-right hand side of every page on seniors.gov.au, next to the buttons enabling you to increase or decrease text size. The following image shows where the simple search box is located on the page in a visual browser:



To use the simple search simply enter one or more of the words you are looking for, separated by a space, into the box and select the 'go' button. The simple search will then look through the information on seniors.gov.au and give you a list of the pages on the site that contained all of the words you entered.

You can read more about how to use the results of your search in the section on Using Search Results.

More Search Options

In most cases the simple search will enable you to find what you are looking for. However, if you wish to be more specific about what you are looking for, seniors.gov.au gives you some more options to fine tune your search. These additional options can be accessed from the 'More search options' link available under the simple search on every page. When you click this link you will be taken to another page that enables you to fine-tune your search.



The following table explains what each of the options available on the 'more search options' page does.

Option	Description
Search in	Enables you to select what type of information you are looking for. The options are: Information [&] Services In seniors.gov.au. This enables you to restrict your search to the information under the headings 'Your Health', 'Your Finances', etc. Events calendar in seniors.gov.au. This enables you to restrict your search to the events calendar. Other Australian Government Portals. This enables you to search the information available on the Australian Government's web sites for Womens, Families and Communities.
Search for	Enables you to enter a list of the words that you want to search for, separated by a space. If you want to look for an exact phrase, you can enclose two or more words in quotes, e.g. "Age Discrimination". You must enter at least 4 characters.
Containing	Enables you to fine-tune your search by looking only for pages that contain: All of the words. This enables you to restrict your search to pages that contain all of the words you want to search for anywhere in the page. Any of the words. This enables you to restrict your search to pages that contain one or more of the words you want to search for. Exact phrase. This enables you to restrict your search to pages that contain the words you entered in the order you entered them.
and show	Enables you to select the information you want shown in the search results. You can choose either: Title and summary. The site will show you the title of each page that matches your search, along with a short description of what that page is about. Title only. The site will show you only the title of the pages that match your search.

Once you have filled out the form select the 'go' button to see the results. You can read more about how to use the results of your search in the section on Using Search Results.

Using the Search Results

Once you have selected 'go' the site will look for the pages that match your search. The site will then show you a listing of these pages.



The search results page is displayed in a number of sections. The following table explains what each section does.

Section	Description
Search results for	Displays a list of the words that you searched for.
# to # of # matches	Tells you how many matches there were for your search and lets you know which matches are currently being displayed.
Resort by	By default seniors.gov.au shows you the most relevant results of your search first and the least relevant results last. You can select a different way to order the results of your search from the following: Title ascending Orders the results of your search alphabetically by title, starting with a and ending with z. Title descending Orders the results alphabetically by title, starting with z and ending with a. Publication date ascending Orders the results by the date they were published, with the oldest page first. Publication date descending Orders the results by the date they were published, with the newest page first.
Related topics	Enables you to search for information on other topics that may be of interest to you. The site will show you topics that are similar to, or related to, the words you searched for.
Results	Displays information about the results of your search. The following information is displayed for each result: Stars The number of stars that are displayed indicate how relevant that result is to what you searched for. The more stars, the more likely the page is what you are looking for. Title The title of the page. This is also a link to go to that page. Description A short description of the information available on the page. View this item A link to go to the page.
Navigation	If there are more than 10 results to your search the system will only display the 10 most relevant results by default. You can use these links to view the other results, in groups of 10.