Features on the Search Page
The four main sections of the search page are:
Search Options
Search Criteria Form
Search Results Navigation and Options
Search Results Table
Search Options
Near the top of each page, next to the title of the search, is a row of buttons. These buttons let you select different varieties of search, and display additional information about the search. Some buttons may be available only after you have done a search.
| Button | Meaning and Use |
|---|---|
| Switches to the Basic Search form. | |
| Switches to the Advanced Search form, which has more options than the Basic Search form. Values you have entered in the based search form will be copied to the Advanced form. | |
| Displays this help page. | |
| After you submit a successful search request, the search form will be hidden so that more search results can be shown. Clicking this button will reveal the search form with all of the data you have entered; you can modify the data and do another search. Clicking the button again will hide the search form. |
Search Criteria Form
The search page has a form where you can fill in the words you want to search for and where you can select options that control how the search is performed.
The search criteria form has at least one field where you can type in text and/or numbers (search terms). Both search forms also have drop-down lists to select a date range to search. The advanced search form also includes ... You can use the Tab key on your keyboard to move from one field to the next (the Tab key plus the Shift key moves backwards to the previous field). The fields, drop-down lists, checkboxes and buttons work in the same way as in other programs you may have used.
Some fields have a linked "lookup" feature. Any field that has an associated lookup will show a 
button to the right of the field box. Clicking on this button displays a list of possible values for the field; you select the one or ones you want from the list by checking the checkboxes. All of the checked items will be copied into the field. You can then either search using those terms, or modify the terms as needed.
One field that is found in both search forms is the "Rows/page" field. This lets you specify how many rows should appear in each page of data displayed in the search results table. The default value is 20 rows, but you can set it to any number (for example, to ensure that all rows are displayed on a single page you can enter a large number like 99999). The more rows are displayed per page the longer it will take for the page to be displayed, so you should normally keep the number relatively small.
At the bottom of each search criteria form are one or more buttons. One of the buttons is labeled "Search"; click that button to start the search with whatever search criteria you have entered on the form (you can also start the search by pressing the Enter key while the cursor is in any search field). You should only click the Search button once; clicking it again while the search is being processed will only restart the search. Another button is labeled "Clear"; click it to clear out all of the fields and set all options back to their default values; it will also remove any search results that are being displayed.
Search Results Navigation and Options
Once you have performed search that produces results, the results are displayed in "pages" of however many records you specified in the "Rows/page" field. A set of navigation controls, located above and below the search results table, allows you to display other pages of data. Additional options may appear to the right of the navigation controls. A typical navigation and options bar looks like this:
Depending on the search and the results, some of the options may be hidden or disabled. The options are:
First
Prior
Next
Last
Export
Bookmark
Search Results Table
All search results are displayed in tabular format (columns and rows). Normally each row displays one retrieved record. The table has a header row that shows the title for each column, and provides the means to sort the table by any column.
Depending on the search, the results table may have many columns. If your browser window is too small the columns may become too narrow for easy reading. For best viewing, maximize your browser window.
The results data can be sorted on any column that has sort buttons [ 
] displayed. By default, the results are sorted in ascending order of publication date. Click the up arrow button [ 
] to sort the column in ascending order, or the down arrow button [ 
] to sort in descending order. If the sort buttons do not appear for a column, that column cannot be sorted on.
Additional information for each row is available, but is initially hidden. Rows with hidden information will have a 
button at the left. Clicking the button will reveal the hidden information; clicking it again (when a 
will hide the information. You can reveal or hide the additional information for any number of rows at once. To reveal the details for all rows, click the 
icon in the table header. To hide the details for all rows, click the 
icon.
Notes on publication dates:
1) Some of the records in the original data did not include a publication date. For those records, we have provided the most recent previous publication date. The date reference at the end of the transcript has an asterisk (*) appended to it to indicate the date is interpolated from previous records in the database. The additional information for the record specifies that the date has been "interpolated" from other records in the database.
2) If a publication date appears in blue rather than black, it is a link to an image of that issue of the newspaper in the British Colonist site. Records which have an interpolated publication date will link to the issue for that interpolated date, which may not be the correct issue, but the correct issue will be no earlier than the interpolated date.
Notes on event dates:
1) For each record we've pulled out the first reference in the transcript to a date and assigned that to the "event date" field in the additional information for that record. In those records for which we could find no event date, we have used the publication date and indicated in the additional information for that record that the source of the event date is the publication date.
2) If an event date appears in blue rather than black, it is a link to an image of that issue of the newspaper in the British Colonist site. It is provided as a convenience, but typically the publication date is more likely than the event date to point to the correct issue in the collection of newspaper images.