= Searching the help =

== Overview ==

Simply type the words you want to search for, separated by spaces.

{{{
render quality
}}}

By default, the search results only show documents that match *all* the words you type (an "AND" search). You can use `AND`, `OR`, `NOT`, and parentheses to do boolean searches.

{{{
render AND (quality OR time) NOT shadow
}}}

To search for a phrase (a series of words next to each other), put the phrase in quotation marks.

{{{
"render quality"
}}}

To search for all words beginning with a certain prefix, add an asterisk (`*`) to the end of the word.

{{{
real*
}}}

(Note that the search automatically expands word stems, so searching for `renders` also finds occurances of `render`, `rendering`, `rendered`, and so on.)

== Field searches ==

The search indexes several different "fields" for each document, such as the _title_, the _contents_, and each document's _type_ (such as `node`). Normally when you type a word, the search looks for the word in the _title_ and _contents_ fields. However, you can search for words in other fields by prepending a word (or phrase) with the name of a field and a colon, for example:

{{{
title:render
}}}

The _type_ field is useful for filtering results.

* `type:expression` -- only matches expression functions
* `type:hscript` -- only matches HScript commands
* `type:vex` -- only matches vex functions
* `type:hommethod` -- only matches HOM methods
* `type:homclass` -- only matches HOM classes
* `type:node` -- only matches node documentation

For example, if you're looking for HScript commmand docs containing the word shader

{{{
shader type:hscript
}}}

The _context_ field is used for both the network type of node documentation, and the context of vex functions. For example, to search for the word `copy` only in the node documentation of surface nodes:
    
{{{
copy type:node context:sop
}}}
    
To search for the word `light` only in VEX functions that are available in the "surface" context:
    
{{{
light type:vex context:surface
}}}