Search Tips

Basic Search Techniques

These techniques can be used in the Search field on any TexasOnline web page. For broadest search results, start from the TexasOnline home page.

Search for a word or combination of words

Enter one or more words to describe what you are searching for. Results will contain at least one of the words entered, regardless of order.

Ex.: vehicle registration will return the same results as registration vehicle. It will return results that contain either registration or vehicle or both words.

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Search for exact phrases

Place double quotes around an exact phrase. Search function is not case-sensitive and disregards punctuation marks within a search term or terms (excepting double quotes before and after an exact phrase).

Ex.: "TMB Physician Registration" will return results that contain that exact phrase, but will not return results with "Physician" or "Registration" alone. "TMB Physician Registration" and "tmb physician registration" will return the same results as "T.M.B. Physician Registration".

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Use +, -, AND, OR, NOT operators to refine search

Note: AND, OR, NOT must be capitalized. To include and/or exclude words or phrases:

  • Use a plus sign (+) to include and a minus sign (-) to exclude.
    Ex.: +driver -record will return results that contain driver license or driver education, but not driver record.
  • Use NOT to exclude.
    Ex.: driver NOT record will return the same results as the example above.

Match on every word or phrase entered, in any order:

  • Use AND to require a match on every word or phrase.
    Ex.: "driver license" AND "license renewal" will return results that contain both terms and would not return results containing only one of the terms.

Match on at least one of the words or phrases entered:

  • Use OR to match on any of the words or phrases entered. This can be useful when something may be known by more than one name.
    Ex.: "driver license" OR "driver record" will yield results that contain either or both terms.

Note: By default, TexasOnline Search uses AND in conjunction with OR. Search first displays results containing all search terms entered, followed by results containing at least one search term.

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