Search Tools

Search texts with precision.




Search Tools

Customize Your Search

Search Tabs

This page will provide an in-depth guide to the search window, including examples for both simple and advanced queries.

How to Use:
  1. Open a book.
  2. Click on the Search icon.

    3. Shortcut: Use the spacebar.

Search Window


Word List

Before you make a search, select a word list. The word list is a section of the text (which varies from book to book). For example, a book may have the following word lists: Text and Footnotes. When searching within the Text word list, you will find results in only the main text, not the footnotes. Many books will only have one word list, which will include all text.

Your search results will only come from the word list you select. Selecting All Text will search in all the word lists. Selecting My Notes will search within notes you have created for that book (only available if you have made notes).

Create Custom Word List

You can create a custom word list by combining two or more preexisting word lists. If you wish to make more advanced changes, this must be done in the ETAX file using the lexicon element.


How to Use:
  1. Open the search window.
  2. Select <Add or edit custom word lists...>.
  3. Click Add....
  4. Name the word list.
  5. Select preexisting word lists.
  6. Click OK.


Keyword Search

By default, your search will be a keyword search. Searching for a word will find all instances of that word. However, the power of keyword search appears when searching for two or more words. A keyword query will find every instance where the words occur within the same paragraph, regardless of the order in which they appear.



Example:
time to time
time...50 to 100 times
time to get some actual work done...time
show it to you. Six is two times three, 15 is three times five


Exact Match Search “”

When searching for a specific phrase, use an exact match search to find the phrase exactly as you type it. Wrap your phrase in double quotes “ ” to indicate an exact match.



Example:
“time to time”
And yet, from time to time
and I did from time to time
From time to time, we can do it.


Partial Match Search ‘’

If word order matters to your search, you might want to experiment with partial match search. A partial match query will find results in the same word order, allowing for words to occur in between. Wrap your query in single quotes ‘ ’ to indicate a partial match.



Example:
'time to time'
first time they ranked to the second time
give time to things, the time that things need
a lot of time to spend playing games. Maybe too much time


All Forms

When All Forms is enabled, your search will find results for all forms of each word in your query. All Forms ignores case, ignores diacritic characters, and works with exact and partial match searches.



Example:
be
solution is good enough
I am sure of the
what are the other


Example:
“be good”
solution is good enough
remember to be good today
the experience was good


Ignore Case

When Ignore Case is enabled, your search will find results for both uppercase and lowercase versions of each word. When this option is disabled, uppercase and lowercase versions of the same word will be treated as separate words.



Ignore Type

When Ignore Type is enabled, your search will find results regardless of word type. All books will have Normal words and Subwords, but some books may have additional types.

Word Types
  • Normal- Normal words.
  • Subwords- Words that occur between normal words that don’t affect adjacency in a search (e.g., punctuation).
  • Tagwords- Metadata for words. Tagwords can modify normal words or subwords (e.g., Part of speech) and don't affect adjacency in a search.
  • Group Words- Phrases indexed together because they have a meaning as a unit. This allows you to search for an entire group word, or the individual normal word.
  • Ruby Text/Furigana/Pinyin- Small letters above the text.


Ignore Diacritics

When Ignore Diacritics is enabled, your search will find results regardless of diacritic characters. When you search for resume, you will also find résumé. When this option is disabled, resume and résumé will be treated as separate words.



Ignore Part of Speech

For books that have been tagged by parts of speech.

When Ignore Part of Speech is enabled, your search will find results regardless of parts of speech tags. If a book has been tagged by parts of speech, you can disable this option to search for words by their parts of speech.



Example:
Ignore Part of Speech: Leaves Leaves as a noun
who never leaves your office. covered with leaves.
they burn juniper leaves I have so many leaves in my yard.
but this leaves us with a big gap the overhanging leaves and branches


Bounds

Bounds narrow your search to a certain section within the text. You can use bounds to limit your search to a custom section, a section of the table of contents, an attribute, or a note-topic. Bounds options will vary from book to book (e.g., a book may have a table of contents bounds, but no references or attributes bounds).



Section Bounds

Create custom sections of a book using the table of contents (e.g., chapters 1–5).



How to Use:
  1. Open the search window.
  2. Click the Bounds drop-down.
  3. Select Section Bounds.
  4. Click the book icon (top-right).
  5. Click Add... (bottom-left).
  6. Name your section.
  7. Select sections of the preexisting table of contents.
  8. Click OK.
Table of Contents Bounds

Limit your search with the Table of Contents.



How to Use:
  1. Open the search window.
  2. Click the Bounds drop-down.
  3. Select Table of Contents Bounds.
  4. Select the sections to include.
  5. Click OK.
Note-Topic Bounds

For books to which you have added highlighting or note topics.

Search within text you have assigned a topic. This includes your highlights and your notes. For information on highlighting and creating notes, see Study Tools.



How to Use:
  1. Open the search window.
  2. Click the Bounds drop-down.
  3. Select Note-Topic Bounds.
  4. Select highlighted sections to search in under Topics. It will only be available if you’ve highlighted a text and sorted it into topics.
  5. Click OK.
Reference and Attribute Bounds

For books with references or attributes.

To better narrow your search, you can sort by reference levels (e.g., genre, volume, or section) or tagged attributes (e.g., keywords, topics, age, etc.).



How to Use:
  1. Open the search window.
  2. Go to the Bounds drop-down.
  3. Click Reference or Attribute Bounds.
  4. Under Bound Type, choose Attribute bounds or Reference bounds.
  5. Select your bounds.
  6. Click Insert Item(s) to Bound.
  7. Press OK.


Special Characters

The following special characters can further refine or broaden your search. They may stand in the place of multiple characters, create search logic, or define an exact match search.



Character Function Example
' Partial match 'time to time'
" Exact match "time to time"
space Separates search arguments time to time
* Stands in place of 1 or more characters *ment
? Stands in place of 1 character gr?y
() Create a group
^ Search for a special character ^?
& And operator airplane & fly
+ Or operator needless + unnecessary
# Not operator airplane # fly

Search for a special character

If you would like to search for the characters *, ?, ", or any other special character, add a carat ^ before the special character you want to search. Without the carat, they will perform their special function.

Wildcards

Wildcards like * and ? stand in place of one or more characters to broaden your search results.



Examples:
Search for... Search Results
part of a word house* house, household, and housekeeping
*ment parchment, comment, and garment
within a word s*p ship, sleep, and sharp
one character gr?y grey and gray
an entire word “you * me” you get me, you know me


WordWheel

The WordWheel is located in the lower half of the search window. It shows all words that occur in the selected word list and their frequencies, along with additional word data. To view WordWheel data for another word list, use the Word List dropdown.

WordWheel
Columns

Some columns will be hidden by default. To change which columns appear, right-click a column header in the WordWheel.

WordWheel Columns:
  • Number: The row number.
  • Frequency: The word’s frequency in the given word list.
  • Length: The length of the word in characters.
  • Z-score
  • Filtered Z-score
  • Log Frequency
  • Part of Speech(for books tagged by parts of speech)
Sort

Sort by any visible column.



How to Use:
  1. Click on a column header to sort high-to-low.
  2. Click again to sort low-to-high.
Filter

Filter by any visible column to customize the data displayed. Filtering the WordWheel is similar to making a search; it is more useful for finding information about all of the words in your text (such as word frequencies), but does not provide the context that each word appears in.

You can combine filters, such as filtering by frequency and parts of speech at the same time. When you filter the WordWheel, you can use simple operators like Equal to and Greater than, as well as wildcards and regular expressions.



How to Use:
  1. Open the search window.
  2. Select the WordWheel tab.
  3. Click the Filter dropdown.
  4. Choose a filter category.
  5. Build a filter value.
  6. Click Add to list.
  7. Click OK.

You’ll see your filter applied in the WordWheel window and in the Filter search bar. To modify your filter, click on the filter token in the Filter box. To delete a filter, click and drag the filter from the Filter box.

Filter

Filter Categories

Words: Build a Filter Value

Filter words by the letter they begin with, the letter they end with, exact words, and more.

Helpful Definitions:
"Equal to" words that match exactly what you type in the field
"Less than" words that come earlier in an alphabetical list (fair is “less than” gravity)
"Greater than" words that come later in an alphabetical list (gravity is “less than” fair)
Examples:
  1. Find words that end in -tion.

    2. Change the filter operation to Ends with. Enter the filter value of -tion.

  2. Find variant spellings of a word.

    3. Try the wildcard operation and enter a filter value like judg*ment to see the number of instances of judgment and judgement.

  3. Trying to guess today's Wordle?

    4. Try using a Regular Expressions filter. If you know that the first letter is L and the third letter is O, try searching for ^l\wo\w{2}$ to find results like looks, lions, loops, and loose.

Frequency: Build a Filter Value

Filter words by the number of times they occur in the text.

Examples:
  1. Find words that occur only one time (such as spelling errors).

    2. Choose Equal to. Enter the value 1.

  2. Find the most common words (such as words that occur more than 1000 times).

    3. Choose Greater Than. Enter 1000.

Length: Build a Filter Value

Filter words by their length.

Examples:
  1. Find 5-letter words.

    2. Choose Equal to. Enter the value 1.

  2. Find frequent short words.

    3. Change the filter operation of Less than. Enter the filter value of 6. Sort by frequency.

Part of Speech: Build a Filter Value

Filter words by their parts of speech (for books tagged by parts of speech).

Examples:
  1. Show all nouns.

    2. Change the filter operation to Equal to. Enter the value of N.

  2. Show all verbs that occur more than 100 times.

    3. Add a part of speech filter: Change the filter operation to Equal to. Enter the filter value of V.

    Add a frequency filter: Choose Greater Than. Enter the value of 100.

Word-Type

Filter words by type.

Select word types and click OK.

Alphanumeric or Punctuation

Filter for alphanumeric or punctuation words.

Choose either Alphanumeric words (words with letters and numbers) or Punctuation words. Click OK.

Export WordWheel Data

Export your findings.



How to Use:
  1. Open the search window.
  2. Select the WordWheel tab.
  3. Right-click within the WordWheel table.
  4. Select one of the following options:
    1. Copy: Copy one row.
    2. Copy All: Copy the entire WordWheel table.
    3. Export All: Export the WordWheel table as a TXT or CSV file.


Logic

The Logic tab is a tool to construct searches using the logic operators And, Or, and Not. Logic allows for specific parameters, including the distance between words: within the same paragraph, within another section of the text, or within a specific number of words.

Logic window

And Operator

Search for multiple words that occur together within a specified distance.



How to Use:
  1. Open the search window.
  2. Click the Logic tab.
  3. Type your first term into the search bar, followed by a space.
  4. Follow the logic prompts.
      1. Select the type of logic: And (&).
      2. Select word source: Words.
      3. Select type of word bounds.
          • Proximity (word)
              1. Set word separation: Set how far apart you want your words to be. If you click the Exact checkbox, it will search for only words exactly n words away.
          • Level (paragraphs)
              1. Select the level desired: Choose whether the words should occur in the same paragraph or other level (determined by the table of contents).
              2. Specify the word order: Choose whether the word order matters. By default, word order is ignored (Word one before or after word two).
  5. The logic should have been inserted after your first search term. If not, click Insert.
  6. Type a space, followed by your second search term.


Example:
Mary when it occurs within 5 words before or after mother.
Mary AND.5,5 mother
they saw the young child with Mary his mother
as his mother Mary was espoused
Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James

Not Operator

Search for a word, ignoring hits that occur near an excluded word (or words).



How to Use:
  1. Open the search window.
  2. Click the Logic tab.
  3. Type your first term into the search bar, followed by a space.
  4. Select type of logic: Not (#).
  5. Follow the logic prompts (see And Logic).
  6. The logic should have been inserted after your first search term. If not, click Insert.
  7. Type a space, followed by your second search term.


Example:
Mary when it does not occur directly before Magdalene.
Mary NOT.1,0 Magdalene
Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus
the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped
and said unto Mary his mother

Or Operator

Search for multiple words at the same time.



How to Use:
  1. Open the search window.
  2. Click the Logic tab.
  3. Type your first term into the search bar, followed by a space.
  4. Select type of logic: Or (+).
  5. Follow the logic prompts (see And Logic).
  6. The logic should have been inserted after your first search term. If not, click Insert.
  7. Type a space, followed by your second search term.


Example:
Mary when it does not occur directly before Magdalene.
Mary OR mother
the young child and his mother by night
they saw the young child with Mary his mother
And there was Mary Magdalene, and the
Group Search ()

Advanced combinations of logic.



Example:
Mary when it does not occur directly before Magdalene, when Mary is in the same paragraph as mother.
(Mary Not.1,0 Magdalene) And.P mother
is not his mother called Mary?
as his mother Mary was espoused
they saw the young child with Mary his mother
Logic Favorites

Use a keyboard shortcut to insert a logic operator without having to build it from scratch each time. You can add keyboard shortcuts for up to 10 logic operators.



Create a logic shortcut:
  1. Open the search window.
  2. Click the Logic tab.
  3. Create a Logic Operator.
  4. Click the Favorites drop-down > Edit.
  5. In the top of the pop-up window, you should see your Logic Operator in the Current logic (CL) box.
  6. Select an empty slot.
  7. Click Replace with CL.

To edit a shortcut, go to the Logic tab and select Favorites > Edit.



Attributes

The Attributes tab allows you to limit individual terms to a specific word list or word type. If you are searching across multiple word lists or using tagwords, this tab may be especially useful.



How to Use:
  1. Open the search window.
  2. Click the Attributes tab.

    3. If you can’t see the Attributes tab, click More... > Attributes Tab.

  3. Type your search term in the Find box. Keep your cursor on the word.
  4. In the attributes tab, select a Word-type, Word list, or Language. The attribute should appear in the search query.


Example:

In the English Parallel Bible – Advanced, the text shows English side-by-side with Hebrew and Greek text. If you wanted to search both the King James text and the Hebrew text, you could use attributes to look for any Hebrew word that appears parallel to the word God.

Attributes example


Reference

This tab does not search for specific words. It will allow to you search for a reference or attribute category, showing results for all words that are tagged with that category. Like other features, references are book-specific. A book may have metadata added to indicate categories such as topic, gender, date, and more.



How to Use:
  1. Open the search window.
  2. Click the Reference tab.

    3. If you can’t see the Reference tab, click More... > Reference Tab.

  3. Under Type, select References or Attributes.
  4. Select a value.
  5. Click Insert.
  6. Click Go.


Examples:
  1. Search for all talks in General Conference tagged with the topic of compassion.
    Reference - Compassion
  2. Search for all TED talks given in the month of January.
    Reference - January


Part of Speech

For books tagged by parts of speech.

The Part of Speech tab will allow you to search for a specific word by its part of speech or search for a part of speech category with the wildcard *.



How to Use:
  1. Open a book tagged by parts of speech.
  2. Open the search window.
  3. Click the Part of Speech tab.

    4. If you can’t see the Part of Speech tab, click More... > Part of Speech.

  4. Type your search term. Keep your cursor on the word.
  5. Select the part of speech.
  6. Customize part of speech search options (bottom right):
    1. Find all variants of the selected code (e.g., instead of searching for just proper nouns, include all nouns).
    2. Find only the selected code (e.g., search for only proper nouns, excluding all noun variants).


To search for a part of speech category:
  1. Open a book tagged by parts of speech.
  2. Click the Part of Speech tab.
  3. Select a part of speech.
  4. Click Insert.


Example:

Look for any adjective in Ted Talks (English) followed by the noun girl.

Part of speech example


Phrase Lists

The Phrase Lists tab allows you to insert a list of words or phrases into your search. You can create your own phrase lists or import an external phrase list (such as the COCA Most Common Words list).



How to Use:
  1. Open the search window.
  2. Click the Phrase Lists tab.

    3. If you can’t see the Phrase Lists tab, click More... > Phrase Lists Tab.

  3. Select a phrase list.
  4. Click Insert.

Create a Phrase List

  1. Open the search window.
  2. Click the Phrase Lists tab.

    3. If you can’t see the Phrase Lists tab, click More... > Phrase Lists Tab.

  3. Click Options > Create a phrase list.
  4. In the Description box, name the phrase list.
  5. Click Add....
  6. Type a word and click Save and Next.
  7. After adding all terms, click Save.

Import a Phrase List

Free WordCruncher Phrase Lists

The following phrase lists are available to download from WordCruncher’s GitHub.

After you download a phrase list, import it using the Phrase Lists tab.

  1. Open the search window.
  2. Click the Phrase Lists tab.
  3. Click Options > Import a phrase list.
  4. Select the WSLX file and click Open.
Import Your Own Phrase List

Convert your list to the WordCruncher WSLX format.

  1. Go to the Phrase List Creator web tool.
  2. Paste your list of words and phrases into the text box. Make sure each item is on a new line.
  3. Click Create Phrase List. This will prompt you to download a WSLX file.
  4. Select the WSLX file and click Open.
  5. Open the search window.
  6. Click the Phrase Lists tab.
  7. Click Options > Import a phrase list.
  8. Select the WSLX file and click Open.

Export a Phrase List

  1. Open the search window.
  2. Click the Phrase Lists tab.
  3. Select the list.
  4. Go to Options > Export Phrase List.
  5. Name the file and click Open.