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Posted/Update Date: December 15, 1995
CD article first appeared on: October 1995
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TechNet Japanese Article Search Guide
KBCategory Keywords
KBSubcategory Keywords
Additional Reference WordsThe Microsoft Knowledge Base-the primary product information source for Microsoft support engineers-is available on the World Wide Web. This comprehensive database includes more than 60,000 detailed articles containing technical information about Microsoft products, fix lists, documentation errors, and answers to commonly asked technical support questions. These articles are also available through CompuServe, GEnie, Microsoft OnLine, the Microsoft TechNet CD-ROM, and the Microsoft Developer Network CD-ROM.
The United States version of the Microsoft Knowledge Base (US KB) is a valuable information resource-a collection of articles so huge that it contains just about anything you want to know about Microsoft products. It is so huge, however, that you may find it challenging to locate special groups of articles you are interested in.
So before you set off to find the subset of Knowledge Base articles on the Web that deal with, say, printing issues, take a few minutes to look over the article that follows. It can help you make more efficient and productive searches.
All articles in the Microsoft US Knowledge Base contain keywords relating to subject (kbprint) and/or product (ntboot) that Product Support Services uses for tracking and sorting. You can use them too, to find groups of articles that cover similar topics. For example, if you want to find all of the articles about Object Linking and Embedding, query on the keyword kbole. On the May 1995 TechNet CD that query yields a list of 675 articles.
Subject keywords are located at the end of an article in the KBCategory field. Product-specific keywords, if the article contains any, are located directly below the KBCategory field in the KBSubcategory field.
You can find lists of keywords in the Knowledge Base by searching on the term kbkeyword. Click the Find button on the upper toolbar (or press CTRL+F) to open the Find dialog box. Enter kbkeyword in the Query box.
Find the list you want and the keyword you need and you are on your way. Search on that keyword in the US KB and you will get a list of all the articles containing it.
There are a couple things to remember. First, all articles have at least one subject keyword, but not all contain product-specific keywords. If you can't locate a list of keywords specific to a particular product, it probably is because the articles for that product do not contain this type of keyword. Second, while all articles have been reviewed and keyworded, there may be information pertinent to your search in an article not returned by your search. Keywords apply to the basic subject and thrust of an article: associated information included in the text may not be keyworded. The odds of this adversely affecting a search are minimal, and keywords have been placed carefully so that when they are used in a search they return focused and useful lists.
The version of the Microsoft Knowledge Base available on the Internet through the World Wide Web includes technical support articles for these product categories:
Business Systems: Windows NT, Microsoft Mail, SQL Server and Open Data Base Connectivity (ODBC), LAN Manager, and other networking issues.
Desktop Applications: Microsoft Office, Word for Windows, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, and Home products.
Developer Tools: Languages and Development Kits.
Personal Operating Systems and Hardware: Microsoft Windows, Windows for Workgroups, Microsoft Mouse, and other hardware.
Microsoft Software Library (MSL): Drivers, patches, application notes, and other support files from Product Support Services (PSS).
The products for each area are listed beneath the area title, with each product name underlined, colored, or marked by your browser as jump text. When you move the cursor across this (or any) jump text, it changes to a hand icon; clicking on the text takes you to another screen or page.
To access articles in a specific product area, click the product name; this takes you to a page that allows you to search the product database using keywords. Each of these pages is specific to a single Microsoft product or a grouping of closely related products. For a list of keywords, and examples of how to use multiple keywords to search for specific topics, see the section below: Categories and Keywords for All Knowledge Base Articles.
Each product also has a set of its own keywords. Each product-specific page contains a jump to the article listing them. For example, the Microsoft Word page includes a jump to the article containing keywords to find types of articles within the Microsoft Word section of the Knowledge Base.
Each product-specific page contains the sentence "Here are some search hints." The word "hints" is a jump to a screen or page with more information on querying the Knowledge Base.
There are four basic uses of keywords:
Keywords in titles
KBCategory keywords (subject and type)
KBSubcategory keywords (product-specific)
Additional reference words
These indicate what the article is about. For example:
Title Article subject
keyword
PRJ3 Microsoft Project version 3.0 only
PRJ4 Project version 4.0 only
MPRJ4 Microsoft Project version 4.0 for the
Macintosh only
In the KBCategory line at the end of every Knowledge base article is at least one SUBJECT keyword, and often a secondary keyword indicating the TYPE of article.
For additional information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base ARTICLE-ID: Q94671. TITLE: Categories and Keywords for All Knowledge Base Articles.
Here is how some KBCategory keywords are used in Microsoft Project articles:
Keyword type Microsoft Project subject category
Subject
Keywords
kbprg articles about programming issues (macros or Visual
Basic procedures)
Type Keywords
kbcode articles containing sample Visual Basic code
kbmacro articles containing Microsoft Project version 3.0 macro
code
Product-specific keywords are located in the KBSubcategory line at the end of an article. Here are the product-specific keywords used in Microsoft Project articles:
Major Topic Minor Topic KBSubcategory
Microsoft projdir Disk contents/directory for Microsoft
Project Project
projmac Applies only to Microsoft Project for
the Macintosh
projwin Applies only to Microsoft Project for
Windows
projppc Applies only to Microsoft Project for
the PowerMac
Words in the "Additional reference words" line at the end of an article include acronyms (such as gpf, odbc, fs) and alternate spellings or word choices that don't appear in the article but which you might use to find the article (for example, Novel, Gnatt, hang, crash, lock up, freeze, won't respond). Searches are not case-sensitive.
(This is adapted from Knowledge Base ARTICLE ID: Q94671)
NOTE Following the Subject and Type tables below is a table of outdated keywords and their replacements.
Information categories and keywords
Article subject Keyword Interactions with third-party kb3rdparty products Interoperability with other MS kbinterop products How to use product kbusage features/functionality Printing kbprint Setup and installation issues kbsetup Networking kbnetwork Environment and configuration kbenv information OLE technology kbole Tools, utilities, applets, such as kbtool MS Draw or Write Programming kbprg User interface kbui Graphics kbgraphic Multimedia (all homemm articles, kbmm Haunted House, Magic School Bus, Explorapedia, and anything else that discusses sound, video, etc.) Hardware kbhw Microsoft At Work kbatwork Sound (audio) issues kbsound Display (video, monitor, kbdisplay resolution) issues Readme files kbreadme Lists of vendor phone numbers, disk kbref directory listings, other lists or references Support boundaries, policies, kbpolicy processes, and procedures Other: Any subject not covered in kbother other categories
Article type Keyword Application Notes kbappnote Bug info for a particular version kbbuglist of a product Sample code kbcode Documentation errors kbdocerr Error message followup information kberrmsg FastTip scripts or maps kbfasttip Binary file information located in kbfile the Microsoft Software Library Fixed bug info for a particular kbfixlist version of a product Articles listing product-specific kbkeyword keywords Sample macro with article kbmacro Problems not classified as bugs kbprb FastTip Technical Library Catalog kbtlc Troubleshooting information kbtshoot
Here is a list of formerly used keywords and their replacements. For explanations of what these keywords represent, see the tables above.
Old keyword(s) New keyword 3rdparty, isv, 3rd kb3rdparty party phoneref, diskdir kbref errmsg, err msg kberrmsg docerr, doc err kbdocerr buglist kbbuglist fixlist kbfixlist softlib kbfile tshoot kbtshoot appnote kbappnote fasttip, ivr kbfasttip tlc kbtlc
Future querying tools may allow friendly names for information categories. With current searching tools, "printing" cannot be used as a keyword because it is often used in articles not devoted to printing. Until tools allow searching on keywords separately from article text, Knowledge Base keywords must have unique spellings, which is why they begin with "kb".
How to Search for Home Products Articles by KBSubcategory
PSS ID Number: Q97587
Article last modified on 07-10-1995
PSS database name: HOMEMISC
How to Search for Office Product Articles by KBSubcategory
PSS ID Number: Q123516
Article last modified on 07-21-1995
PSS database name: OFFICE
PC Gen: How to Search for Mail & Related KB Articles by Topic
PSS ID Number: Q98105
Article last modified on 01-04-1995
PSS database name: PCMAIL
How to Search for Microsoft Project Articles by KBSubcategory
PSS ID Number: Q126784
Article last modified on 07-14-1995
PSS database name: PROJECT
How To Search for Publisher Articles by KBSubcategory
PSS ID Number: Q124143
Article last modified on 02-09-1995
PSS database name: PUBLISHER
Query Keywords Specific to the FoxPro Knowledge Base
PSS ID Number: Q122791
Article last modified on 07-05-1995
PSS database name: FOXPRO
How to Search for FoxPro Articles by KB Subcategory
PSS ID Number: Q122923
Article last modified on 07-05-1995
PSS database name: FOXPRO
KB Category Keywords for Each FoxPro KB Subcategory Keyword
PSS ID Number: Q123362
Article last modified on 07-05-1995
PSS database name: FOXPRO
How to Contribute Articles to the Microsoft Knowledge Base
PSS ID Number: Q70220
Article last modified on 06-21-1995
PSS database name: VBWIN
How to Search for Visual Basic 3.0 Articles by KB Subcategory
PSS ID Number: Q108753
Article last modified on 07-20-1995
PSS database name: VBWIN
How to Search for Languages Articles by KB Subcategory
PSS ID Number: Q117552
Article last modified on 07-14-1995
PSS database name: VISUALC
How to Search for Windows DDK Articles by KB Subcategory
PSS ID Number: Q118331
Article last modified on 04-12-1995
PSS database name: WIN16DDK
How to Search for Windows SDK Articles by KB Subcategory
PSS ID Number: Q115695
Article last modified on 06-13-1995
PSS database name: WIN16SDK
How to Search for Win32 Articles by KB Subcategory
PSS ID Number: Q115696
Article last modified on 06-21-1995
PSS database name: WIN32SDK
Windows NT Categories Used for Knowledge Base Queries
PSS ID Number: Q102652
Article last modified on 07-27-1995
PSS database name: WINNT
How To Search for Microsoft Access Articles by Subcategory
PSS ID Number: Q119526
Article last modified on 03-13-1995
PSS database name: ACCESS
Obtaining Knowledge Base Articles on the World Wide Web
PSS ID Number: Q129725
Article last modified on 05-26-1995
PSS database name: TECHINFO
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