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Aware is designed to make Internet
research faster and better. Use these tips to help you get the most out of
Aware as you to go about your research.
Starting Out
The need to research the Internet
originates from a variety of sources: work assignments, requests from
co-workers, personal interest, etc. Sometimes there’s a starting place,
and sometimes you start from scratch. These tips will help you get started no
matter what the source of your research need.
If you don’t know anything about your research
topic.
It’s best to start on the Project node with a new search. Type in the
terms you think are close to your topic and search. If you see results that
are on topic, rate them “+”. If you don’t see anything
good, select all the results and click the “Ignore Link”
checkbox. Then think of another term related to your topic and repeat.
If you have an article, web page or document about
your research topic.
Aware is great for starting a search from documents. Start on the Project
node, and click the “Import Documents” button. Browse your hard
drive for the document(s), and enter any web pages you know are related.
Click “OK”, then start your search.
If you have an idea of the terms that define your
topic.
Aware thrives on terms! Right click on a Project node and select “New
Search” on the drop down menu. In that Search, click on the Terms tab.
At the bottom of the table, enter in your list of terms, one at a time. Go to
the top and click on the “Aware Search” button to get your first
set of results.
Working With Terms
Aware picks the best terms it thinks
represent your topic, and allows you to modify its judgements. Here are some
tips on how to work with the terms list.
Easy Does It
The terms list is representative of your topic, but is also going be good for
forming queries to bring back targeted results. Sometimes terms that seem
ordinary or even odd turn out to be terrific qualifying terms in queries. So
go easy on how you modify the terms list. Focus at first on the top ranked
terms and cull them to be as on-topic as possible, then let Aware modify the
rankings of the rest of the terms as you progress on your research.
Try Unlocking
After you have been searching a while, take a look at the terms you
originally started with. Aware keeps them locked at the top rating, because
they came from you. But terms at the start of your search may no longer be as
important to you, so click the lock icon to let Aware take over its rating.
It can help move your search results to your current needs and away from what
you already have.
Don’t Forget About Negative Terms
Lots of searches involve terms with multiple meanings in multiple domains.
Think of terms that are representative of those other domains, and add them
with a negative rating.
Keeping Organized
Branching Your Search
You’re hot in pursuit of information, gathering good results, and you
find a result that points to another avenue of investigation you really
should pursue. Without losing any work, you can create a new search node in
your project and drag and drop that result into the new search. Continue on
your path and pursue that other path at the same time.
Gathering the Best
Aware lets you create Folders within your projects for storing and organizing
documents. While your search collections are used by Aware to find new
information, you can use the folders to organize the documents for easy
access by you or another Aware user. Folders can have sub-folders as well.
Keeping On Task
It happens to everyone – you’re searching for one thing and come
across something else you get interested in. How do you pursue one without
forgetting the other? Aware gives you the File Later node for just that
purpose. When you find that shiny jewel that distracts you from your task at
hand, just drag and drop it into File Later and come back to it when
you’re done.
Have an Aware tip to share? Please email
us at support@AwareSearch.com.
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