User Guide

Unlock the full power of intelligent search and immersive learning

Two Search Methods

Find exactly what you need with precision and speed. Choose the search method that fits your needs:

Search by Name Finds files by filename and folder path Full-Text Search Searches within document content
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Search by Name & Path

Search Filters Overview

The library search is fast and intelligent. It automatically prioritizes the most relevant results at the top. The search looks through both file names and folder names simultaneously. The system uses multiple filters that work together — all filters are applied simultaneously, so you can combine them for precise results.

  • Search Query: The search box filters files by name or path. You can use advanced features like exact phrases, exclusions, and regular expressions.
  • Category Filters: Filter by language, text type, material type, and file format.
  • Date Range Filter: Filter files by date ranges (e.g., all files up to 1973, or files between 1950-1960).

How it works

  • Type Less, Find More: You don't need to type full words. Searching for dia tod will find "Dianetics Today". Searching for stud pra will find "Student Practice Check" documents. The order of words doesn't matter.
  • Smart Ranking: Files that exactly match your search or your upper/lower case appear at the top. The system automatically prioritizes the best matches so you don't have to scroll.
  • Search Inside Folders: The system searches both the file name and the full folder path. For example, searching for Congress will show every file inside any folder named "Congress", even if the word isn't in the file name itself.

Advanced Search Features

  • Abbreviations: Common terms are expanded automatically and are case-insensitive. Searching for OT finds also "Operating Thetan", and PC finds also "Preclear". This also works vice-versa: searching for preclear will find "PC". Other examples include: ARC, FN, CS, NED, PTS, SP, BD, EP, PTP, and more.
  • Roman Numerals: Searching for a number like 7 will also find files labeled VII (valid from 1 to 12). For example, Class 7 finds both "Class 7" and "Class VII", and Level 6 finds "Level VI".
  • Date Matching: The system understands dates in any format and automatically recognizes them in filenames and paths. The search uses intelligent date recognition that supports multiple formats and languages. (Well, almost any format — Mayan calendar dates might be a bit tricky, but we're working on it!)

    Important: Documents are typically marked with the date of their first release. To check the revision date of a document, you need to look inside the file. Also, some documents may not have a date in their filename or path — such files will not be searched/filtered by date.

Search Operators

  • "Double Quotes" — The system automatically puts exact phrase matches at the very top. Use quotes to hide everything except exact matches. Example: "the effect" only shows files with that exact phrase. You can combine them: tone "scale in" forces "scale in" to be exact, while "tone" can appear anywhere else in the name or path.
  • -exclude — Put a minus before a word to hide it. This is helpful when one type of material (like journals) clutters your results, or if you want to create a clean list of files to share with someone. Example: ability -journal finds "Ability" bulletins and lectures but hides the many issues of "Ability" journals.

    • r"Q[EFD]\d+" — finds items containing QE, QF, or QD followed by numbers (like QE123).
    • r"q ?& ?a" — finds "Q&A" whether written with or without spaces (e.g., "Q&A" or "Q & A").
    • r"SHSBC-00\d" — finds SHSBC materials starting with "00" and followed by a single digit (from SHSBC-000 to SHSBC-009).
    • You can also use negation (exclusion) with the minus operator: -r"pattern" excludes files matching the pattern. For example, -r"my exclusion"

Full-Text Search

Search within the content of documents using advanced full-text search. This search method analyzes the actual text content of documents to find relevant matches. The system automatically prioritizes the most relevant results at the top.

How it works

  • Intelligent Ranking: The search automatically finds the most relevant results first. Documents with your exact phrase appear at the top. Below them are documents that contain all your words. At the bottom are documents that contain any of your words. This way, you see the best matches immediately without scrolling through pages.
  • Morphological Analysis: The search understands word forms in multiple languages to find matches regardless of word endings.
  • Highlighted Excerpts: Results show relevant excerpts from documents with your search terms highlighted. Common words (stop words) are usually filtered out from highlights to keep results clean and focused.
  • Filter Support: Full-text search works together with all filters — language, format, material type, and date ranges. All filters are applied simultaneously to narrow down results.

Full-Text Search — Documents are indexed using word tokenization, so the search matches individual words rather than exact character sequences. This helps find relevant matches even when word forms differ, but very specific character patterns may not match exactly.

Search Features

  • Exact Phrases: Use double quotes to search for exact phrases. For example, "operating thetan" will find documents containing that exact phrase.
  • Exclusions: Use a minus sign before a word to exclude it from results. For example, ability -journal finds documents about "ability" but excludes journal issues.
  • Scroll to Load: You can load the next page by scrolling down. When you scroll near the bottom of the results, a loading indicator appears. Continue scrolling a bit more, and the next page will automatically load and append to the current results.

Full-Text Search — The search usually finds exact matches, but documents with special characters can interfere with exact phrase matching. If you see unusual characters, try searching for part of the word or different terms.

Limits

  • Query Length: Maximum query length is 500 characters.
  • Maximum Results: Up to 300 results total (30 pages × 10 items per page).
  • Authentication Required: Full-text search requires authentication. Guests are automatically redirected to the login page when attempting to use this feature.
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