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Wildcard

The wildcard (*) can be used in place of letters or symbols to widen the search e.g. entering engra* in the search box will find images where the words engrave, engraver or engraving are in the item record.

Using a wildcard is the best way to search for words that could be either singular or plural eg Church* will find both church and churches in an item record.

Narrowing your search

When you are searching for more than one word or wish to leave out specific words from a search you can use AND, NOT and OR to narrow your search.

Using AND

A search for Holyrood AND Palace will find items with both words in their records. All search results returned will contain both Holyrood and Palace.

Using NOT

A search for Holyrood NOT Palace will find items with Holyrood in their records but exclude records that contain Palace from the search results. All search results returned will contain Holyrood but will not contain Palace.

Using OR

A search for Holyrood OR Palace will find items that contain Holyrood. It will also find all items that contain Palace in their records which will include Holyrood but also item records that might contain Linlithgow or Scone Palace. All search results returned will contain Holyrood and Palace.

Phrase searching

A phrase can be found by placing quotes around it. For example, a search for royal mile will find any item that has the word royal or mile in it somewhere - there are many of them. Searching for "royal mile" only returns items with that exact phrase.



Advanced search

If you already know some details of the image you require then you can find it more quickly by using Advanced Search. You can enter words in more than one field. Be as specific as possible in order to produce the best set of results. The search results will be images that match all the words you have entered.

Three of the fields Category, Artist/Maker and Type have drop down lists and you can choose your search terms from these lists.



Collections

Each record can have one or more subject keywords associated with it. You can search for keywords by browsing by subject or with the A - Z search.



Images of Edinburgh

Search for images by area of the city, date or by browsing the map.



Favourites

Selecting an image adds it to your Favourites these can be viewed at any time during a session using the Favourites tab, closing the browser will clear your Favourites As a registered and logged in user more options are available on the Favourites page, such as saving selections for viewing at a later date.



Register

As a registered and logged in user more options are available to you. You can save selections in your favourites to view and print at a later date. You will also need to register to place an order on the website.