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  • Remove Punctuation

    Is there a way I can have the system search for terms with/without punctuation?

    For example, we have a page with a title of Vintner's Cellar. If someone searches for the term vintner it will find it, but not vintners.

    So, is there any way to have it set that if I search for vintners to search the string but don't worry if it has punctuation or not? The reverse would be true too... if someone types in vintner's, it should find vintners and vintner's.

    Shawn

  • #2
    There are a number of options to configure how punctuation characters are handled ("Configure" window -> "Indexing Options" tab).

    With "apostrophe" selected here, a page with the words "Vintner's Cellar" would only be found by a search for "Vintner's". It will NOT match "Vintner" or "Vintners".

    With "apostrophe" un-selected, it will then be found by a search for "Vintner's" as well as "Vintner". It will however, still not match "Vintners".

    Note that what you describe is an isolated case with the apostrophe character and generally doesn't apply to any other punctuation character.

    The best way to achieve what you are after at the moment is to make use of Synonyms. Keep "apostrophes" checked in the Indexing Options so that you can use it to distinguish a word. Then create synonyms for the more commonly searched words with apostrophes, in this case, "Vintner's" should have synonyms "vintners,vintner".

    See ch 2.3.8 in the Users Guide for more information on Synonyms:
    http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/usersguide.html
    --Ray
    Wrensoft Web Software
    Sydney, Australia
    Zoom Search Engine

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    • #3
      Thanks Ray,

      I have used synonyms previously and it would work for this scenario too. I just thought there may be a way to have it automatically do it. It could also apply to dashes or comma's depending on the name so the synonym list could get rather long if there were a lot of names like that.

      Shawn

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      • #4
        There is no automatic way to do it at the moment. Something we can consider though.
        --Ray
        Wrensoft Web Software
        Sydney, Australia
        Zoom Search Engine

        Comment

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