Making the Most of the Woodslane Search Engine

The WOODSLANE web-site provides a powerful search function to help you find the book(s) you want.

Once you have created a short list you can then display that in a variety of formats and email that list off to any group of people you like. This document explains how to make the most of these features.

Starting your search

If you use the Fast Find feature, available in the right hand menu on most pages of the site, it will search for the word(s) you enter in book title, subtitle, author, subject and other areas. This will produce a list of titles that match any of these searches.

The Search Screen, available by selecting Search/Browse from the top menu on any page, gives you far greater control. You could search for all books with Excel in their title by an author with Curtis in their name. This allows you to get a much better fit on the titles you want.

The Advanced Search Functions give you even more control. In addition to all the search features, you can limit your search to a single publisher, category, status or target market. For example you can create a list of titles on a given topic by a given publisher, or a list of forthcoming titles on a particular subject. If you want a list of recently released business titles suitable for general retail outlets, just select those three criteria and click the Search button and the list is yours.

The Browse Function works quite differently. It allows you to drill down through publisher and series or through the category hierarchy to a list of titles. All the selection criteria and control over the display format is available to you from there.

Note that the Resource Area, available by clicking Resources from the top menu provides a number of predetermined searches that are commonly used.

Some general hints

Selecting more criteria will narrow your search. The easiest way to understand the implications of this is to test it.

1. Go to Advanced search

2. Enter Excel into the title field and click Search

3. Go back using the Back button on your browser

4. Now select Microsoft Press as the publisher and click Search again

5. Go back and type Curtis into the author field.

As you have experienced the MORE criteria you select the LESS results you get.

Searching for any words. You may have noticed that the search function searches for individual words though you can get it to search for complete phrases. Again an example will help illustrate this.

1. Go to Search

2. Enter Smith into the author field

3. You should get just under 20 results including Beckersmith etc

4. Go back using the Back button on your browser

5. Now insert Jerry before Smith so you are searching for Jerry Smith (There were two titles by Jerry Smith when I tried this)

6. Go back and change your search criteria to Jerry,Smith (You will get around 100 titles as the program searches for Jerry OR Smith)

By combining this with a number of criteria you can build very sophisticated searches.

Hints for advanced searching

Selecting Recommended stock. Woodslane tags every single title depending on the type of store it is recommended for. These categorizations are the basis of the Woodslane core stock list. Three possible selections are available in the advanced search. You can limit the results to only those titles

1. Recommended for all stores. These are known as the Group A titles. They should be available at every bookstore in Australia

2. Recommended for medium stores. These are known as the Group B titles. They will be available at medium sized bookstores and stores with a section dedicated to any of the segments (Sport and Recreation, Business, Technology or Travel) represented by Woodslane.

3. Recommended for large stores. The Group C titles are reasonably specialized. They are generally only available at major bookstores and those stores dedicated to one of the segments� (Sport and Recreation, Business, Technology or Travel) represented by Woodslane. The Woodslane's technology partner store in your area is the most likely place to be able to purchase these titles.

Note that you can NOT select multiple values in this part of the search form. Ie Titles recommended for large stores include A,B&C titles.

Selecting Status. It is often desirable to limit your search to books that are coming out in the future, are new, or have been in the market for some time. By allowing you to select any combination of the stages in a books life as a search criteria, the Woodslane search engine becomes a powerful tool for creating p4rice lists of new releases, forthcoming titles and so on. To make effective use of this feature it is important to understand the labels Woodslane uses.

� Forthcoming: Titles that have not been released yet in Australia

� Recent: Titles that have been released this month or last month

� Backlist: Titles released prior to last month

� New edition pending: Titles which are still active but will be shortly replaced

� Indent: Titles, regardless of their age, that are supplied on demand as firm sales

� Current: All Forthcoming, Recent and Backlist titles including indent titles.

� Current no indent: All Forthcoming, Recent and Backlist titles excluding indent titles.

� Active: All Recent, Backlist and New edition pending titles including indent titles.

� Active no indent: All Recent, Backlist and New edition pending titles excluding indent titles.

Controlling your results

You can control the results of your search using the drop down menus provided. These appear on the left of the web pages produced by the site or at the top of the screen on the left when you are displaying the results as a pricelist.

You can control the number of results displayed. You can show All, 25 or 10 results for any search.

You can control the status of the titles included in the search results. You can select forthcoming, current or recent titles.

When the number of results is not restrained you can also control the order in which the results are displayed. Thus you can make a list of titles in best seller order and then decide to show only the top ten. This creates a top ten best seller list for whatever categories you have selected.

Displaying your results

You can control the format of your search results using the links provided. These appear on the left of the web pages produced by the site or at the top of the screen on the right when you are displaying the results as a pricelist.

There are basically two formats available on the public web-site, a web page and a price list. Both these formats have a number of derivatives.

The web page may include blurbs and standard images, or may include only thumbnails. Lists of ten or less are always displayed with blurbs, you can choose which display to use for longer lists.

The pricelist comes in a number of forms depending on your status as a user. You can select between the forms available to you to understand the difference.

Any of these formats can be emailed to any body. Sensitive information is removed from the email version of any of these pages before it is sent. An order form is attached to the email before it is sent.

Handy Hint: You can reformat the email, including the order form, by sending it to yourself and then forwarding it on. This also allows you to email a list to any number of people in a simple, two-step process.

If you are logged onto the WOODSLANE network, you can also convert the results of your search into print quality documents. Formats available include the standard rep-kit, formal pricelist and Essentials.