Archives search tips

Here's a primer on how to search for and view stories in

the startribune.com archives. We also have instructions on how to save

or
print an article.

Enter your search terms: To search the archives, enter

the word or phrase you're trying to find. You do not need to place quotes

around your search terms, nor do you need to use capital letters.

You can refine your search

- by using connectors:

• to find all terms use "and" or "&"

• to find any terms, use "or" or "|" (pipe key)

• to exclude terms, use "butnot" or "%"

- by searching on specific fields, such as section, byline, headline or source, using parentheses. For example:

• to find an article on the economy in the business section, type
  

  section(business) and economy

• to find an article with Sid Hartman's byline, type
  

  byline(hartman)

• to find an article with Twins in the headline, type
  

  headline(Twins)

• to find a specific source, such as the Associated Press, simply type it as your search term.

- by entering your search term and then specifying where

it appears. For example:

• to find an article on the economy in the business section, enter

  economy as your search term and then select business from the "Section"

  drop-down box.

• to find an article with Sid Hartman's byline, enter Hartman as your

  search term and then select byline from the "Appearing" drop-down

  box.

• to find an article with Twins in the headline, enter Twins as your search term and then select headline from the "Appearing" drop-down box.

Select the date or year to search: You can choose

articles published within the last 30 or 60 days, in a certain year

or all years; or, you can specify a date range. If you do not specify

a date, your search defaults to the last 30 days.

Specify how you would like articles sorted: Articles,

by default, are sorted in reverse chronological order, or latest first.

Instead, you can choose to sort your results by oldest to newest or

by term frequency. Frequency ranking list articles according to the

number of search words they contain.

Decide how many article abstracts you want to view:

By default, the first 25 article abstracts of a search request are displayed

on a page. However, you can choose to display 50, 100 or 200 abstracts

per page, too. Increasing the number of abstracts per page increases

the time required to perform the search.

Viewing an article: After you enter your search

criteria, click on the "Search" button; a list of your results will

be displayed. For each article you will see its headline, author, date

published and an abstract (the first 100 words or so) and an indication

of the story's length. To view the full text of an article, click on

"Download story." (See archives fees for information on your purchase options.) If you have an account, enter your user name and password and then click on "Sign In" to download the story. (Your credit card

will be automatically billed for the article.) If you don't have

an account, you will be asked to register for one at that point. This will provide you with a user name and password.

Saving or printing stories: If you want to save an

article, first make certain that you have downloaded the story and the

full text of the article is displayed. Then click on "File" from the

task bar in your browser window and select "Save As" under the File

menu. Navigate to the folder where you wish to save the document.

If you wish to print the article, first make certain that you have downloaded the story and the full text of the article is displayed. Then click on "Print" or on the printer icon located on the task bar in your browser window.