Google Drive - Searching for Items Part III

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The last couple days I've shared the general way to think about Google files and searching,  and about the Advanced search bar hidden at the top of Google Drive.  Today let's talk about Boolean operators.

Boolean operators are something that can help you narrow your search.  A Boolean searching "is built on a method of symbolic logic developed by George Boole."
OR is the most common Boolean.  In fact, you use it every time you do a search with multiple words!  When you type in two words in the search bar, by default it is finding every file that has either one of those terms.  The number of results returned to you can be overwhelming when using OR (either on purpose, or by default if you use several words in your search), so knowing additional Boolean operators can be keep to finding exactly what you want.

Let's look at a search so we can compare how these work.  Here's my general search in my drive for the terms blended learning:


Some other key ones to know, including an example from my earlier search:
NOT - putting not before a word in your search will eliminate all results that include that additional word.  Here's my example that is eliminating all results that include the word blended

AND - putting and between two words will require that both words are included in the file.  Here's my example that is requiring that both blended and learning are in the results.

Quotation Marks - putting a phrase in quotation marks will require that exact phrase to appear in all results.  Unlike AND, using quotes requires the words to be the same order as you type them.  Here's my example that is requiring the exact phrase "blended learning" is in the results.


By the way I've listed these here in an order from least to most specific.  The final one - the use of quotations marks - will generate the fewest results in your search. 

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