Combined Searching
How do I use several techniques in a single search?

Different search techniques (simple, Boolean, proximity, phrases, and wildcards) can be combined in a single search. When more than one operators are used their precedence is significant.

Definition:
    Operators precedence is the order in which the operators are applied:
    1. NOT 2. NEAR 3. AND 4. OR

Operators precedence can be changed using parenthesis. For example:

    alice OR bob AND carol matches documents containing both bob and carol, together with documents containing alice.
    (alice OR bob) AND carol matches documents containing carol and, in addition, in the same document, either alice or bob.

    alice AND NOT bob matches documents containing both alice but not bob.
    NOT (alice AND bob) matches documents not containing both alice and bob in the same document.

    alice NEAR bob OR carol matches documents containing alice located close to bob, together with documents containing carol.
    alice NEAR (bob OR carol) matches documents containing alice located close to bob, together with documents containing alice located close to carol.

All of your letters are indexed and dated in a similar way (e.g., January 24, 1996).
     "mr johnson" AND (january OR february) NEAR2 (1995 OR 1996 OR 1997) returns all letters written to Mr. Johnson in January and February in the last three years.