Use the Explore by Topic tab to focus your search on a specific topic or to broaden your search over an entire subject to which multiple topics may be related. To use the Explore by Topic tab, you will:

1. Select the topics you want to search.



2. Specify the document-to-topic relationships that must exist.



3. Select the types of sources you want to search.



4. Optionally, identify specific terms the documents you are seeking must contain.

Selecting Topics to Search

Use the Add Topics panel to select the topics related to your search. Typically, you will select topics related to the documents you are seeking, but you can also select topics to which the documents should NOT be related. You can select the topics you want from a hierarchical list, from an alphabetical list, or by performing a search for topics and selecting them from the results of that search. For detailed information on selecting topics, see Add Topics.

Specifying Document-to-Topic Relationships

As you select the topics to include in (or exclude from) your search, the application adds them to the Find documents within topics panel. By default, the application uses OR connectors to connect the topics to each other in that panel. This means your search will find documents that are related to ANY of the selected topics.

You can go to the Find documents within topics panel, however, and specify other, more exact, relationships the documents should have in relation to the selected topics. For example, you can specify that the application should find only documents that are related to EVERY ONE of the selected topics or that it should find only documents that are related to some topics but not others, and so on. For detailed information on specifying the relationships you want, see Find documents within topics.

Selecting Types of Sources to Search

After identifying the relationships the documents you are seeking should have to the topics you have selected, you can use the Select source types section to select one or more types of sources to search. These sources include Case Law, Legislation, Commentary, Forms & Precedents, Citators and Digests, and Journals. Select the check box of any source you want to search. To exclude a source, clear the check mark from the source's check box. By default, if no sources are selected, the application runs the search against all sources.

Identifying Specific Search Terms

Optionally, you can use the Add search terms (optional) box to identify specific terms the documents you are seeking should contain and/or terms they should NOT contain. You can also use search connectors to specify other, specific relationships that should exist among or between the specified terms. For detailed information on using search connectors, see Search Connectors, Wildcards and Commands.