To use KBroker, enter your query terms in the search box and click the search button on the right hand-side. You can use single terms or type in a whole sentence or phrase but try to use terms that are likely to be within the text of the documents you are searching for.
KBroker will find documents containing as many of these words and phrases as possible, ranked so that the documents most relevant to your query are shown first. Don't worry about missing a document because it doesn't have one of the terms in your query because KBroker returns relevant results even if they don't contain all query terms.
You also don't need to worry about spelling your query correctly. If KBroker thinks you have made a mistake it will show the suggested spelling below the search box. Simply click the suggestion link to re-submit your query with the correct spelling.
You can make your query more specific by clicking on the radio buttons below the search box. By default, KBroker will match Any Words (in your query) but you can force KBroker to only return results that have all of your query terms by selecting All Words. If you are looking for an exact phrase then type the query exactly as it would appear in the source document and click the Exact Phrase radio button.
Click Find in Title only check box to restrict your search to only find documents that have your query terms in the document title.
For a more powerful search, use Advanced search.
Once you have submitted your query, KBroker will return a page of results. You will see the title of the document (if it has one) and a brief summary that is likely to indicate what the document is about. Click the title to go to the actual document.
Additional information about each document is also displayed on the results page:
Click hide summaries and this additional information will be hidden. Click show summaries to display this information again.
Your search may yield results from many different websites. By default, KBroker shows you results from all these sites. However, you can select results from one particular site by clicking on one of the tabs shown above the results.
Results are sorted by their relevance to the specified query. Click sort by date to re-display the results sorted by their last modified date. Clicking sort by relevance will re-sort by relevance.
If your search has yielded lots of results, KBroker will divide these into several pages. By default, you will see 10 results on each page. Use Previous 10 hits or Next 10 hits to navigate through the results. Click Show 20 hits or Show 30 hits to show more results on each page.
Terms and phrases in your query may trigger the display of recommended links before the search results. These link to a document which has been selected for it's relevance to the terms you are searching for.
At the top of the results page is another search box allowing you to refine your search. You can do this in two ways: