Simply entering the words you wish to search for will match records that contain ALL of those words, ignoring case and punctuation.
Examples
Steel matches "Steel Workers", "Steele, Jerome", and "Pittsburgh Steelers."
Steel J matches "Steele, Jerome" and "Jaded Pittsburgh Steelers Begin New Season." It does not match "Steel Workers."
Steel Building matches "Construction of King Building to Forego Use of Steel" and "George Steele Begins Building Life Anew." It does not match "Rebuilding Steel" (since no word begins with 'building').
Searching for Steel, J is identical to searching for J Steel or j. steel
W. C. T. U. matches "W. C. T. U.", "w.c.t.u.", "Women's Christian Temperance Union", and "Thespians Wait Under Curtain". It does not match "WCTU".
Exact Phrase Search
Enclosing a specific phrase in double-quotations (" ") will match only those records with text matching the exact phrase in question, including punctuation, case and spacing.
Examples
"Steel" matches "Steel Workers" and "Steele, Jerome" but not "steel workers."
"Steele, J" matches "Steele, Jerome" and "Steele, Jennifer" but not "Jerome Steele" or "Steele Jerome."
"building" matches "building" and "Rebuilding" but not "Building."
"W. C. T. U." matches "W. C. T. U. Meets". It does not match "W.C.T.U. Meets".
In general, exact phrase searches are faster than keyword searches.
Combinations
Phrase and Keyword searches can be combined. By default, a General Search will match all records with at least one field containing every search term. (One keyword or complete phrase is a search term.) However, you may also prepend a plus ("+") symbol to the search text to match all records with at least one field containing any single search term. Prepending the plus symbol in an Advanced Search field will have a similar effect for that particular field.
Examples
"Steele" J will match "Jerome Steele", and "Steele joins Partnership", but not "J steele". (The quoted "Steele" must be an exact match - including case. The un-quoted "J" can match any J at the beginning of a word. Only records with a field containing BOTH will match the entire search.)
+ "Steele" J will match "Jon", "jedidiah", "Jerome Steele", and "Andy Steele" but not "steele".
"W. C. T. U." "W.C.T.U." matches "W. C. T. U. is sometimes written as W.C.T.U.". It does not match "W.C.T.U." or "W. C. T. U.".
+ "W. C. T. U." "W.C.T.U." matches "W. C. T. U." and "W.C.T.U.". It does not match "Women's Christian Temperance Movement".