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Truncation By means of the technique of truncation--also called wildcard searching--the asterisk and question mark (* and ?) can be used to search for words with the same root and as a shortcut to typing out long terms. The asterisk (*) wildcard will search for terms that match the root terms plus any number of additional characters (or no characters). For example, typing music* in the Text Search criterion entry box will result in the search engine selecting records that include music, musical, musician, musicians, etc. The question mark (?) wildcard will search for terms that match the root term plus one additional character. For example, typing school? In the Text Search criterion entry box will result in the search engine selecting records including school and schools. Sample Search You would like to search for grantmakers located in a region of northern California. The region you are targeting includes cities that have a zip code beginning with 960 (i.e. 96020, 96044, 96001, etc.) Suggested Strategy 
In the search entry box adjacent to Text Search, type ca 960*. The search engine will pick
up this combination of characters (ca for California, and 960 for the
first three numbers of the zip code) within the contact information of the grantmaker record.
Click on the Search button, or press the Enter key to generate a list of 32 grantmakers, all located within the same geographic region. Note: When performing this type of search, you might notice that the search engine also will pick up the zip code within an application address, which may be different from the location of the grantmaker.    |