The Search Engine window contains three boxes and seven buttons. The upper left-hand corner box displays the Criteria List from which you select the specific criteria for your resource search.

The Criteria List changes as you choose search criteria categories (figure below) from the pull-down menu above the criteria list box:

You can see types of Content Themes, Process Theme, Subjects, and Keywords in their respective lists. The Project category allows you to find resources by the name of the project in which the resources were found originally. Resource Type allows you to specify the form of the resource such as student readings or teacher info.

You also can specify Grade level in you search, and the book category allows you to search by the book titles. Link Type allows you to find resources that have links to the types of resources in this list. For example, if you select audio, you will get a list of all resources that have audio resources in their link lists.

Selected criteria list

To choose items from the Criteria List, place the cursor on your selection and click the mouse to highlight that item. Click the Add Item button:. Notice that the criteria item now appears in the list of selected criteria in the upper right-hand box. The Remove Item button allows you to remove an item from the selected criteria list. To remove the item, click on the item, then click the remove item button. The Clear All buttonallows you to remove all items from the selected criteria list. To remove the items, click the button.

The Scroll Asssistant

The scroll assistant buttonallows you to scroll through long lists, such as the keyword list, by typing the first few letters of the word or term for which you wish to search. The keyword list scrolls automatically as you type the letters. To activate the scroll assistant, click the button, then type the term for which you wish to find associated resources. See Using the Scroll Assistant for more about using this feature.

Resources List

The Open buttonallows you to open a resource from the Resources list. To open a resource, click on the resource title, then click the open button. The lock buttonallows you to save a resource in the resources list before you change search criteria. If you do not lock resources in your resources list, you may lose those items from the list when you change your search criteria. To lock an item, click on the resource title, then click the lock button, or hold the option key while clicking the title. (See also Locking a Resource)

The Add to Print List Button allows you to specify resources for printing immediately or later. To add an item to the add print list, click on the resource title, then click the button. To bypass the Add to Print List dialog box, hold the option while clicking the button. This adds the item using the default settings. (See Preferences and Printing C & T Resources.

The Number of Resources Available Counter, located on the bottom left-hand corner of the Search Engine window, displays the number of items in the Resources list, including locked items. As you specify search criteria, this number immediately updates to reflect the number of resources meeting those criteria.