Search Capabilities
      in the Public Access System

If you access the Public Access System via
the Web, you may perform simple
word searches on the bills, the Revised
Code of Washington, the Washington
Administrative Code, and the Washington
State Register.  Bill Search and RCW Search
choices appear on the Bill Info and Legislative
Info pages.

Select the document set(s) you wish to search, then
simply enter the word or words you wish to
search and press Enter.  You may use single
words, root words (e.g., crim* to find crime,
crimes, criminal, and criminals), and AND,
OR, or NOT searches.  If you use the
connectors, you get the following results:

cat AND dog     Will find any document in
                which BOTH "cat" and "dog"
                appear

cat OR dog      Will find any document in
                which EITHER "cat" or "dog"
                appears

cat NOT dog     Will find any document in
                which "cat" appears but not
                if "dog" also appears

If you enter more than one word without a
connector, the system will treat your search
as an AND search.  When the document
appears on the screen, the search terms will be
highlighted.

The system returns a list of the documents
that met your search criteria.  The list
displays the directory location of the
document, its name, and its size.  The list
does not appear in numerical order; rather,
it is "ranked."  That is to say, the
documents are ranked according to how
closely they match your criteria.  The system
looks for how often the word occurs in the
document, how close the words are to each
other, and whether the words occur within key
phrases (such as "In conclusion").