The advanced search function allows you to be more specific about the item(s) for which you are searching.  There are two major areas to search.  The first is to search for an item looking only for the particular Catalog number or the actual Item number (say from an invoice).  The second is to search for item(s) looking in the name, description and keywords for matching text.  You can also specify how many items you want displayed on the results page.  Below explains these search areas in more details.

Catalog or Item Number Search
If you have information about a particular item from a catalog or an invoice, you might want to go directly to that item by searching for the Catalog number or the Item number.  To do this, simply select the option at the top of the Advanced Search area labeled "Catalog and Item Number".  This will disable the extra fields not needed to be incorporated into the search.  Then enter your Catalog or Item number in the field labeled "any of the words" and press the "Find Item" button.

Name and Description
If you are uncertain as to the specific item you are seeking, you might want to enter various text items to narrow the search. You can do this through selecting the option "Name and Description" (which is the default search type) above.  You can make your search very broad or very narrow depending on how much information you provide to the search.  There are five options you can manipulate to refine your search.

1.    any of the words - the search engine will look for any and all of the words you enter here (i.e. if you enter "hot pack" the search engine will look for "hot" in the name, keywords and description fields for every item and then it will search again for any items with the word "pack" in those fields).

2.    the exact phrase - the search engine will look for exactly what is entered as though it were one word (i.e. "hot pack" would be searched for in each field instead of breaking it into "hot" and "pack").

3.    excluding the words - the search engine will exclude any items that have any of these words.

4.     Limit search to Category - allows you to set the search engine to look for items in only the selected category.

5.     Limit search to Subcategory - allows you to set the search engine to look for items in only the selected subcategory.

It is important to note that as you enter more information from the top of the information fields to the bottom you are narrowing your search.  A search that looks for only "any of the words" is the broadest search.  If you also add in an "exact phrase" you would then receive fewer items in the search results. You are not limited to entering text and options in a certain order with two exceptions.  First, you cannot select a subcategory until you select a category.  However, you do not have to choose a subcategory. You can search all subcategories in a selected category.  The second exception is that you cannot search for any "excluding" text without including words or phrases for which you want to search.