Search tips

To search this website just enter a keyword into the search box. 

This carries out a search of all the web pages in this website. You can also search for documents and both documents and web pages within the website. If you want to see results from Lancashire County Council go to Source Results on the right hand side.

The search will show you pages containing any of the words you have entered into the keywords box (it will ignore words like ‘a’ and ‘for’). If you want the search to look for a particular phrase rather than pages containing any of the words see the punctuation tips below.

Other tips to help your search -

• Try to limit the amount of words you use when searching but make sure you include all of the main terms you are looking for.
• It does not matter if you use capitals or lower case – the same results are returned.
• When you carry out a search (apart from the examples below) all punctuation is removed.
• Try to spell the word correctly, or if you are unsure type the first few letters and wait for the drop down list of options to appear. Then select your search term by clicking on the word in the list.

Using punctuation to define your search

The plus operator may be used to mark individual words and concepts as mandatory, for example: tennis +Wimbledon. This example will search for the words “tennis” and “Wimbledon” but all documents returned would need to contain the second word.

When using the plus operator, there must be no spaces between the plus sign and the mandatory word (or concept). In this example: tennis + Wimbledon the plus sign is ignored.

Quotation marks may be used to identify a mandatory concept, for example: tennis +"Wimbledon Championships”. Here the concept “Wimbledon Championships” would be required in every document returned.

The minus operator may be used to mark individual words or concepts as excluded, for example: tennis -Wimbledon. This example will search for the word “tennis”, but will exclude any document containing the word “Wimbledon”.

Quotation marks may be used to identify an excluded concept, for example: tennis -”Wimbledon Championships”. This example will search for the word “tennis”, but will exclude any document containing the concept “Wimbledon Championships”.

When using the minus operator, there must be no spaces between the minus sign and the excluded word (or concept). In this example: tennis - Wimbledon the minus sign is ignored, because it is followed by a space.

When using the minus operator, there must be a space preceding the minus sign (unless it is at the start of a new line). In this example: Wimbledon-fortnight the minus sign is ignored, because it is not preceded by a space.