Search

We hope that our search is pretty intuitive and similar to many other online searches but here are some guidelines and recommendations that you might find helpful.

General Notes

Quick Search

Advanced Search

Search Results

General Notes

• Our Search only checks our product database and is not a search of the website content.
• If you are wishing to browse our products with no particular titles in mind, we recommend you use the Browse Menu on the left hand column of the site rather than our search. The search assumes that users are trying to find either a single item or a small range of items.
• If a word is misspelled and no match is found, we will suggest a sensible alternative spelling.
• If you have a response of 'No Search Results found' we may suggest alternative searches based on the words you originally entered, but you may wish to re-check your entries.
• As standard we display results when ANY word that you entered encounters a match. This means that if you enter two words we first display matches that contain all the words you searched for, then show matches that contain only some of the words.
• The more search words you enter the more likely it is that the product you are looking for will be at the start of the Search Results. If you only enter one word then all results will have the same relevance. So the product you want may be listed but not at the top. The more common the words entered the more results there are likely to be. We suggest refining your search with the options provided or entering more search words.
  

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Quick Search

The quick search is always available via the search bar under the tabs towards the top of the page. It has some options available to the user but not as many as the Advanced Search. These options have a default setting to provide the widest search.

• SEARCH box - This is where you enter the word/s or ISBN you wish to search for. You do not need to enter the words in the same order as they appear on the product UNLESS you use the Author Exact or Title Exact option in Refine By.

Tip - Using the default settings you will find this most effective if, wherever possible, you enter first the author's surname and then at least one word from the title. This prevents the results including similar titles by other authors.

• WITHIN box - This defaults to all products on the website but you can choose to restrict your search to particular types by selecting from the drop-down list. So you can choose to look ONLY in eBooks, Books or Sheet Music, for example.
• REFINE BY box - You can restrict the fields within which the words are searched for to either ONLY the Author or Title fields. These are the options;

All Fields - this is the default setting. All words or numbers will be checked in the Title, Author and ISBN fields. Items will be listed in the results if ANY entry is matched, although items that match all entries will be listed highest in the results. We recommend using this when you can cross-reference words from the title with an Author such as King + Shining..

Title - we only look for your search words that appear within the product's title.

Title Exact - Also looks only in the Title field but results are only displayed if ALL words are found in the same Title.

Author - we only look for your search words in the product author/contributor/artist field

Author Exact - Also looks only in the Author field but results are only displayed if ALL words are found in the same field. This can match across multiple author names. For example, a search for Milton Cross would match on a book that was by both Arthur Milton and Neil Cross, but not by Arthur Milton alone.

ISBN - This standard for International Standard Book Number is made available by most bookshops and libraries and online. As the same ISBN is used by everyone it is the most accurate and quickest way to find a particular book. Both 10- and 13-digit ISBNs can be used. The ISBN will vary from format to format (paperback to hardback) and edition to edition. So if you want to see all formats and versions available please use the Title Exact Search.

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Advanced Search

This search is recommended if you wish to see a selection of results rather than one particular product OR if you want to reduce the number or type of results returned by refining your search using options that aren't available in the Quick Search.

• All of the fields below can be used in concert with each other to allow cross-referencing except for the Phrase/All Words/Any Words.
• TITLE OF THE BOOK CONTAINS - we only look for your search words in the product title. In combination with the Phrase/All Words/Any words option you can refine the accuracy of the search. See below.
• AUTHOR'S NAME CONTAINS - we only look for your search words in the product author/contributor/artist field. In combination with the Phrase/All Words/Any words option you can refine the accuracy of the search. See below.
• ISBN - This standard for International Standard Book Number is is made available by most bookshops and libraries and online. As the same ISBN is used by everyone it is the most accurate and quickest way to find a particular book. Both 10- and 13-digit ISBNs can be used. The ISBN will vary from format to format (paperback to hardback) and edition to edition. So if you want to see all formats and versions available please use the Title Exact Search.
• ALL FIELDS - All words or numbers will be checked in the Title, Author and ISBN fields. In the Advanced search if you want to cross reference an author with a title please use the previous fields.
• PHRASE - This refers to how the search is looking for the words or numbers you entered in the fields above. The search will be looking for a match to the words entered in the order that they were entered. It will include matches in the results where the phrase is found in a larger title. For example if entering 'whole world' in the 'Title of the book contains' field the following would be included; 'The Whole World' or 'Whole world in his hands' but not 'The world is whole' because this presents the words in a different order.
• ALL WORDS - This refers to how the search is looking for the words or numbers you entered in the fields above. This restricts the results to matches that include all the words that were entered but they do not have to be in the same order. For example if entering 'whole world' in the 'Title of the book contains' field the following would be included; 'The Whole World' or ' 'The world is whole' but not 'World of Birds' or 'The Whole of the ocean' because they do not contain both entered words.
• ANY WORDS - This refers to how the search is looking for the words or numbers you entered in the fields above. The search will match each word entered IF it appears in the correct field for your selection. An item will be included even if only one word is matched. This search is useful for those times when you are not confident of the accuracy of your information. However, it can also lead to many unnecessary results, especially when combined with the All Fields option.
• PRICE RANGE - This allows you to reduce the range of your search to include ONLY items within the price band of your choice. Please choose from the Drop Down List. Price is also available within our Browse Menu.
• PUBLICATION YEAR - This allows you to reduce the range of your search to include ONLY items within the year of your choice. Please enter the year in the full 4 digits e.g.; 2011. You can only enter one year at a time. Please note that the year of publication can vary depending on the edition or the format of the book so should be used with caution.
• FORMAT - This allows you to reduce the range of your search to include ONLY items within the format of your choice. Please choose from the Drop Down List. The formats offered are at the highest level allowing choice between book and eBook, for example, but not hardback or paperback. These options are available in the browse menu.
• CATEGORY - This allows you to reduce the range of your search to include ONLY items within the subject category of your choice. Please choose from the Drop Down List. The categories offered are at the highest level as listed on our Browse Menu.
• AVAILABILITY - This allows you to reduce the range of your search to include ONLY items available at the time of your search. Please choose from the Drop Down List. The categories offered are at the highest level as listed on our Browse Menu. More information on these options can be found in our General Help.
• SORT BY - This allows you to determine the order in which you see the results. This can be altered whilst looking at the results. Please choose from the Drop Down List. The default view is Relevance. For more information see the Search Results Help below.

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Search Results

We aim to provide as many results as possible that match your criteria. Therefore our default settings are on the widest possible searches. This can be refined so that the number of results are reduced. Please see the options available in both the Quick and Advanced Searches.

We recommend that you enter as much information as possible in order to narrow your results and make them as relevant as possible.

All search results have an order in which they appear. The various options for this are listed below and can be chosen by you from a Drop Down List in the Order By field in the top right of all Search results screens.

• RELEVANCE - This is the default order as it gives the best opportunity for the item you are looking for to be at the top of the list. The search will list results with the highest number of matches based on the words or ISBNs that you entered in the Search box. Then this is combined with serveral factors such as availability and sales to make the most likely titles appear at the top.
• FOYLES RECOMMENDS - This puts our own recommendations at the top of the list. This can be used when using either the Search or Browse to see a large number of records and receive advice on which titles we think are the best. It is not meant for helping to find a specific product amongst the list.
• PUBLISHED DATE - This puts the results in order of publication with the most recently published first.
• AVAILABILITY - This puts the results in order of the products current availability, with items that are most immediately available listed first.
• CUSTOMER RATING - This puts the results in order of customer rating with the highest rated items first and those with no rating last.
• TITLE (A-Z) - An alphabetical list of results by title in ascending order.
• TITLE (Z-A) - An alphabetical list of results by title in descending order.
• AUTHOR (A-Z) - An alphabetical list of results by Author Surname in ascending order. Only the first author listed on the product is taken into account.
• AUTHOR (Z-A) - An alphabetical list of results by Author Surname in descending order. Only the first author listed on the product is taken into account.
• PRICE (Low-High) - A list of results in ascending order by the current Online Price.
• PRICE (High-Low) - A list of results in descending order by the current Online Price.

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