Website of the Department of Health

Question

How do I get better results?

Answer

Searching for a single word may not give good results. The more information you provide, the better your results will be. For example, searching for a phrase such as 'priorities and planning framework' will give better results than searching for 'planning'. In addition, making your search more specific by using the advanced search option will further improve the relevancy of your search results.

Question

How do I search for a phrase in basic search?

Answer

You can type either a word or a phrase in the Search this site basic search box. With a phrase, the search engine will look for items that contain the first, second or third word etc in your phrase and return all relevant results. In other words, the basic search option is an "or" search rather than an "and" search.  

Question

How can I cut down the number of results I get?

Answer

Using the tips above should cut down the number of results you get back. However, the advanced search options will help improve the relevance of your results further.

Question

Can I search for results by category?

Answer

Yes. When you submit a search you will often see a panel in the left hand side of the screen headed, "Matches found in these sections". This tells the user that their search results can be found spread across various different areas or sections of the website. You can select results from one or more of the categories and by clicking on one of these headings you can further drill down to see exactly what results are found in a specific area of the site.

Question

Can I use Boolean searching on the site?

Answer

This feature is not currently available.

Question

How do I search for items on the sub-domains of the DH site such as www.advisorybodies.doh.gov.uk?

Answer

Whenever you submit a search across the site all of the sub-domains are included in the search. When the search results are returned you can identify if the reference is available on one of the sub-domains as the source url will be displayed under the summary text. Eg Source: www.advisorybodies.doh.gov.uk

Question

Is the search engine case sensitive?

Answer

No. You can type your search query in lower case, upper case or a combination of both and it will not affect your search results.

Question

Does the search option support wildcard searching?

Answer

The search engine employs something very similar callled "stemming" where it will recognise a shortened version of a search word you have submitted and also search for items using this term. For example, if you submit a search for "children" you should also retrieve documents where the word "child" has been used.

Question

I'm concerned that my search isn't finding the most recently added and updated pages - how often is the site search index updated?

Answer

The site search index is updated on a daily basis by a spidering and indexing agent. This agent checks all the web pages each day to find any new content and pages that have an amended date stamp and adds these to the existing search index. In addition, any broken links (indicating pages that have either moved or been deleted) are deleted automatically from the index.

Question

What does the "search within" option do?

Answer

The "search within" option is available once you have submitted a basic or advanced search on the site. Along with the displayed results you'll see a box on the right of the screen headed, "Further ways to refine your search". Clicking on "search within" will present a new search box where you can type in a word or phrase which will allow you to narrow your search. For example, if you do a search for cancer then hit "search within" you can then type a term such as "breast" and the search engine will look within your original results for records that include the term, "breast".

Question

What does the "search again" option do?

Answer

The "search again" option is only available if you do an advanced search or library search. Along with the displayed results you'll see a box on the right of the screen headed, "Further ways to refine your search". "Search again" is one of the options available in this panel. If you click on it you'll be take back to your original search request so you can edit it without having to retype everything again. In this way you can widen, narrow or add further terms and filters to your search.

Using advanced search

Question

How do the 'What do you want to find?' options work?

Answer

These options will help narrow your search. Read the questions below for more details on each option.

Question

What does the 'Search any' option do?

Answer

This option searches for all the search terms you've entered and returns results where at least one or all of the words appears. This option is best used when you search for something that can be described in several ways. For example, 'Britain', 'UK' and 'United Kingdom'.

Question

What does the 'Search exact phrase' option do?

Answer

This option treats the words you type as a phrase and will only return results where all the words appear together. For example, 'getting ahead of the curve'.

Question

What does the 'Search all' option do?

Answer

This option will return results that include every word you have typed. For example, 'CMO', 'communicable' and 'disease'.

Question

What does the 'but not' option do?

Answer

This option is used to exclude words from your search. For example, you might want information about pay but not about Agenda for Change.

Question

Can I use these options together?

Answer

Yes. The first three options ('Search any', 'Search all' and 'Search exact phrase') can be used either on their own or with the other options. The 'but not' option must be used with one of the 3 other options already described. Using all the options will narrow your search significantly and may not return the results you need.

Question

What does the 'Search for terms in' option mean?

Answer

You can narrow your search to particular parts of the DH website by completing one or more of the boxes next to the "search for terms in" heading. You can type in a word, phrase or data in any or all of the boxes. This option searches through specific elements of each page to find the words you are looking for in the fields you have specified.

Question

Can I sort the results?

Answer

Yes. There are 2 display options: Relevance and Date. Relevance produces a list of results where the closest matches to your search terms appear nearest the top of the list. Date will display your search results by date of publication – most recent records first.

Question

Can you restrict your search to a specific section of the site?

Answer

Yes by using the advanced search option. Use the "show items in" option and tick one or more of the boxes. This will restrict your search to one or more of the subject areas on the site.

Searching the libraries

Question

What are libraries?

Answer

The libraries hold all examples of specific types of documents published on the website. The DH website has libraries for bulletins, consultations, publications, letters and circulars, press releases and tenders. All of the libraries are searchable by title, combinations of words and/or date. Circulars, Bulletins and Press Releases are also searchable by series number.

Question

Where do I find the libraries?

Answer

Each library relates to a specific area of the website and links to each library are available in the relevant section. For example, the Consultations library is found in the Consultations section and the Tenders library is found in the Procurement and Proposals section under Tenders. In addition, when you are using one of the search libraries you are now able to access all the other search libraries from the navigation panel on the left hand side of the screen.

Question

How do the libraries work?

Answer

Each library page works in a similar way to the 'advanced search' page. You can search by title, if you know it, or by combinations of words to describe what you are looking for. Searches in Libraries are 'and' searches, ie when you type in a combination of words the search engine looks for all the words. In several of the Libraries there is also an option to search across the library or in specific sections of that library. For example, you can search in the Bulletins Library across all of the Bulletins or just one of them eg. Chief Executive's bulletin.

Question

How do I search for press releases by date range?

Answer

You need to search in the Press Releases library. Within search criteria enter the range of dates you wish to search within in the From date and To date fields. You will also need to enter some data in one of the content fields (ie Search terms, Title or Series number) otherwise the search engine will not return any results. The most recent DH Press Releases (from Jan 06 to date) are now published on the Government News Network (GNN) website. Earlier Press Releases can be found using the Press Releases Library.

Question

Can I search for all items published on the site within a date range?  

Answer

Yes by using the advanced search option. You need to add a search term to one of the fields and then complete the From date and To date fields. Tick all the boxes under "Show items in" and click on search. The option to search for all items by entering * in the search terms field is not currently functioning but we hope that this facility will be available soon.  

Understanding the results

Question

What are recommended links?

Answer

In some cases, the search engine will provide recommended links before the full links listing. These links are controlled by the website librarians and are a means of improving the relevancy of the results returned by the search engine. The recommended links will be appropriate for the search words you typed. You can recognise them as they are prefaced with "We recommend".

Question

A message "Also try" appeared above my search results - what is this?

Answer

"Also try" suggests alternative terms for the user to search on that are synonyms for the original search term used. So it's a way of broadening your search results or making them more relevant. If you click on any of the "also try" terms a completely new search is carried out on that term.  

Question

Why are some words highlighted in green in the search results summaries

Answer

Wherever the search term or phrase you searched on appears in the summary it is highlighted in green. This feature enables the user to make a quick judgement about the relevancy of the results.

Other ways of finding information on the website

Question

Can I use the url to locate a specific page on the site?

Answer

Yes. If you know the exact url of the page you wish to find you can copy and paste this into the address field of your browser and you'll be taken directly to the specific web page. You can also use the url to determine the exact area of the website where the material has been published . For example, if you wanted to find information about coronary heart disease, the url below indicates that this information has been published in the main section, Health care, then in the sub-section National Service Frameworks and then in a section called Coronary Heart Disease:

www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/NationalServiceFrameworks/ Coronaryheartdisease/index.htm

Question

When I'm looking at a specific web page how can I tell which area of the site it belongs in?

Answer

There are several clues to help you determine the exact location of the page you're viewing. 1) The crumbtrail. This is the information displayed horizontally across the screen immediately above the main title of the page eg: You are here: Home - Health care - National Service Frameworks - Coronary Heart Disease This example hows that the CHD page is located off the National Service Frameworks area of the Health care main section. 2) The left hand menu - this expands to show exactly where the page you're viewing is located within it's sub and main sections. 3) the url - please see the guidance above.

Question

Are there other ways to find information on the website besides using the search option?

Answer

Yes. 1) A-Z Site Index. You can access this by clicking on the site map link (top right hand corner of screen) and then on A to Z site index. This is an alphabetical listing of key DH policy areas, topics and sections of the site. The A-Z is constantly updated so it is worth checking this resource before using the search options. 2) Browsing. If you have a reasonable idea of which main area of the site contains the information you're looking for you can try browsing through the main section ie Health care, Social care, Public health, Managing your organisation, Publications, News, About us. Each main section is structured in a way that guides the user through all the subject areas it contains using navigation pages.