How to be a Ci Search Ninja: Advanced

How to Become a CI Search™ Ninja: Advanced
Thousands of customs compliance professionals use CUSTOMS Info every day, but few of them know how to get the most out of its most powerful tool: Ci Search™. This week we will be doing a three part series that will take you through the steps to become a Ci Search™ power user. We will go from the most basic search skills to the advanced skills that will help you become a Ci Search™ Ninja.
Ci Search Advanced Skills
This post will deal with the most advanced search operators that can be used in Ci Search™. By the end of this post you will have the skills to be a power-user of Ci Search™; a Ci Search™ Ninja!
* (Prefix term)
If you missed it, that's an asterisk (*). Using an asterisk immediately after a word specifies a match of words or phrases beginning with the specified text. If you want to use the asterisk in a phrase, add an asterisk before the ending quotation mark, so that all text starting with the simple term specified before the asterisk is matched.
Example: work* matches work, worker, working, workhorse
Example: "run shoe*" matches "running shoe", "running shoes"
% (Stem word form)
The "%" search will return results based on the root of your keyword. Note: Using a simple term in a phrase with the stem word form will not match both nouns and verbs
Example: ride% matches ride, riding, ridden, and so on
Example: berry% matches berry, berries
Example: "blue berry%" matches "blue berry", "blue berries"
NEAR | ~ (Word proximity)
Indicates that the word or phrase on the left side of the NEAR or ~ operator should be approximately close to the word or phrase on the right side of the NEAR or ~ operator. Multiple proximity terms can be chained. There is no method for specifying a user-defined proximity (i.e., "10 words apart", "2 paragraphs apart", etc.)
NOTE: Using NEAR or ~ in a search term will override the default result set sort order. Results will be ordered by a ranking of words nearest to each other.
Example: textile near bag
Example: leather ~ shoe
( ) parentheses
Mixing the AND, OR or NOT operators can create search terms that require grouping certain words or phrases together. Parenthesized groups are evaluated first before other non-grouped words or phrases.
Example: shoe* and (leather or suede)
Example: (textile near bag or fabric near bag) and 4202* and 6307*
Endless combinations
Operators can be mixed and combined to narrow down or expand search results. Experiment with different combinations to see the effect on search results.
Now that you have all these tools under your belt, you can be a real Ci Search Ninja.