How to search the Knowledge Base

IT Knowledge Base

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Search the Knowledge Base using a standard text search, browsing by category, or a combination of the two.

The VCU IT Knowledge Base is designed to easily and effectively find answers to your common IT issues; it offers solutions for all applications and IT services provided by VCU. 

You can search in three ways: a standard text search; browsing by category; or a combination of both.

Searching using the standard text search

• A search string should contain a minimum of three different words.
• Do not include common words such as "the," "not," "a," "and," "at," etc. 
• Include the application name as part of the search string.
  • Optionally, you may also want to include the version number.
• When searching for an error-related issue, use the complete error message. 
• Searching for a word automatically searches for its synonyms, as well.
   EXAMPLE: Searching for "establish" also searches for "create." 
• Add a plus sign (+) in front of the search term, or enclose it in double quotes, to search for only that word and not its synonyms.
• Add a minus sign (-) in front of the search term to exclude it from the search results.
• Exclude multiple words by adding a minus sign in front of each of them. The minus sign can be used to exclude numbers and symbols in addition to words.
   EXAMPLE: Search for vpn -xp -2000 to find all pages that contain "vpn" but don't contain "xp" or "2000".
• Enclose a set of words in double quotation marks (") to search for those words in that exact order.
• Search already considers the order and the fact that the words are clustered as a strong indicator for results, so quotes are usually unnecessary. In fact, using double-quotes may result in the exclusion of some helpful results.
   EXAMPLE: A search for "Windows 11 Professional" (with quotes) will miss the pages that refer to "Windows 11" or "11 Professional". 
• Use Filters on the left side of the search screen to further narrow search results. 

Browsing by category

You can browse by category without executing a traditional text-based search.

• Click on the Knowledge Base tab to reveal all the available categories, commonly referred to as 'taxonomy.' 
• This section also includes 'subcategories,' which you can use to filter by specific content areas.

Combining text-based search with browse by category

1. Click on the Knowledge Base tab.
2. Navigate to the desired category under 'All Categories'.
3. Perform a text-based search.
4. To expand your search click the All Categories link.