| Here are some commonly asked questions regarding searching:
How do I find what I'm looking for?
Our search can be accessed through any page of our site.
Search textbox is located at the top right corner of the every page.
Simply enter the text you would like to search for and click the ok button:
The search functionality supports searching for one or more specific
words and/or phrases. A word is one or more characters without spaces or
punctuation while a valid phrase can consist of multiple words with spaces
or punctuation between them. For example, 'MSDN' is a word while
'MSDN Universal 7.0' is a phrase.
The search phrase can combine multiple words by using
the boolean operators 'AND' and 'OR' to enhance your search.
Furthermore, words can be negated by the use of the
'AND NOT' boolean operator. These boolean operators generally adhere to the following rules:
- NOT is applied before AND
- NOT can only occur after AND, as in AND NOT. The OR NOT operator is not allowed.
- NOT cannot be specified before the first term
- AND is applied before OR
Boolean operators of the same type (AND, OR) are associative and can therefore be applied in any order.
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What are my search options?
Our Search allows you to search the following type of product information:
- Manufacturer/Publisher name
- Product Description
- Manufacturer Part Number
- Part Number
- Category
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Does your search recognize punctuation or special characters?
Our search doesn't recognize special characters such as exclamation points,
question marks, or the @ sign. These types of characters are so common that
including them in a search would greatly slow the delivery of the search results.
Additionally, the use of punctuation on the web is so inconsistent that including
it in the query often does more harm than good to the relevance of your search results.
While we don't currently offer a way to force our search to recognize
all special characters, we understand that many useful search terms do
contain such characters, therefore, we have exceptions such as C++.
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Do you support wildcard searches?
A wildcard in a search query can be indicated by an asterisk (*) and
will match one or more entire words of text so that the query matches
a contiguous sequence of words.
A wildcard is automatically added to the end of all alphanumeric
and numeric search terms that you enter. For example, a search
term like “Component” will automatically have a wildcard added to the
end of it, resulting in a search for “Component*”. The search results
would include products with “Component”, “ComponentA”, “ComponentB”,
“ComponentC”, etc. in their product descriptions.
Use an asterisk (“*”) to add a wildcard to your keyword search terms.
For example, a search for the term “Comp*” will display all results
that start with “Comp” or a search for the term "*zip" will display
all results that end with "zip" like "winzip". We do not support wildcard
search in the middle of the word.
If you would like to disable wildcarding, simply place
quotation marks around the search terms
that you do not want wildcarded.
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How can I find products by manufacturer?
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One method to locate products by manufacturer is to visit the partner
pages by accessing the BRANDS link in the top horizontal navigation.
Once the cursor is placed over this link, a list of premier
partners will display.
Clicking on these manufacturers will display that manufacturer's
specific partner page that includes information about new releases,
featured products, and etc. From here, links are available to display
specific products lines for each brand.
Another method to see a listing of all products for a manufacturer
is to click on the manufacturer name on the navigation menu
results or search results page.
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Is there a category search?
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Our horizontal navigation has category searches for Software and Hardware.
Once the cursor is placed over the specific department a menu list of
categories/sub categories for that department will drop down.
Each of these departments and categories/sub categories within the hierarchy can
be clicked to display any featured products or specials that exist within that
department/category or you can navigate to the lowest level in order to display
a listing of all the products within that specific subcategory. We hope this
dynamic hierarchy navigation gives you the flexibility of seeing all the
categories/sub categories without clicking the individual pages, but also the
opportunity to click on any level of the category/subcategory hierarchy.
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Note the featured SOFTWARE categories (IDEs, COMPONENTS, DEVELOPMENT
TOOLS, UTILITIES, BUSINESS SOFTWARE, NETWORKING, OPERATING SYSTEMS/SERVERS, DATABASE, WEB DESIGN/DEVELOPMENT) at the top of
the site within the light-gray tabs. These are "hot-links" to popular SOFTWARE
categories that will display featured products and specials for that category.
Once this is clicked you can further navigate by clicking on the text subcategory
links using the navigation described above.
Also note the featured HARDWARE categories (COMPUTER SYSTEMS, STORAGE DEVICES, AUDIO/VIDEO,
COMMUNICATIONS, NETWORK, INPUT DEVICES, PRINTERS, ACCESSORIES, SYSTEM COMPONENTS, CABLES/SWITCHES)
at the top of the site within the light-gray tabs. These are "hot-links" to popular HARDWARE
categories that will display featured products and specials for that category.
Once this is clicked you can further navigate by clicking on the text subcategory
links using the navigation described above.
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How do I sort my search results?
The result you receive will be accompanied by sort options at the
header of the Search Results Grid. This will allow you to further refine
your results based on Publisher, Product Name or Price. The Product Name,
Publisher, and Price headers can be used to sort results. The first time you
click om Product or Publisher it will sort your results in ascending order
displaying from A to Z; the second time you click on the Product or Publisher, your
results will appear in descending order from Z to A. When you sort by Price, the first click
will display your results in ascending order, from lowest to highest, and in descending order
on the second click.
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How do I filter my search results?
The result you receive will be accompanied by filter options at the top of the Search Results Page.
This will allow you to further refine your results based on Publisher/Manufacturer or Category.
The Publishers/Manufacturers and Categories listed in the drop down boxes only list the
Publishers/Categories for the products that are included in the existing results.
To get back to your original Search Results, just change Publisher and Category to
– Show All – and then click Filter Button.
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