How do I use the Search?

The search engine can search several different areas of deviantART including all Deviations, the Shop, News Articles, Chatrooms, Forum Posts, and even Journals! There are many ways to use the main Search function on deviantART, and this entry will attempt to explain each option.

All Deviations

The search engine is defaulted to search for Deviations. Simply enter your keywords, click "Go", and you are on your way to find tons of artwork. There are several parameters that will make Searching through deviantART quick and easy. Parameters can be combined to narrow down Search results, to find very specific results. Below is a listing of the various Search parameters that are available for Searching Deviations.



Simple Search:

fish
Returns Deviations that have the word "fish" in the their title, description or keywords


Searching for Multiple Terms:

fish cat
Returns Deviations that have BOTH "fish" AND "cat" in their title, description or keywords


Searching by size:

For information on searching by size, please click here for more details.


Matching Multiple Terms:

fish or cat
Returns Deviations that have EITHER "fish" OR "cat" in their title, description or keywords - but with an emphasis towards Deviations that contain both


Using Parentheses:

dog (fish or cat)
Returns Deviations that have "dog", plus EITHER "cat" OR "fish", in their title, description or keywords


Category Searching:

in:photography
Returns Deviations from the Photography category and its subcategories

fish in:photography
Returns Deviations from the Photography category and its subcategories, that have "fish" in their title, description or keywords

in:photography/architecture
Returns Deviations from the Architecture subcategory in Photography

fish in:photography/architecture
Returns Deviations from the Architecture subcategory in Photography that have "fish" in their title, description or keywords


Searching Multiple Categories:

fish (in:photography or in:digitalart)
Returns Deviations from either the Photography or the DigitalArt categories, or their subcategories, that have "fish" in their title, description or keywords


Excluding Search Terms:

cat -fish
Returns Deviations that have "cat" but not "fish" in their title, description or keywords

cat -fish -dog
(Returns Deviations that have "cat" but do not have "fish" and do not have "dog" either, in their title, description or keywords)


Excluding Categories in Searching:

fish -in:photography
Returns Deviations that have "fish" in their title, description or keywords, but aren't in the photography category or any of its subcategories


Searching by Deviant:

by:hexentanz
Returns Deviations that have been submitted by $hexentanz

fish by:hexentanz
Returns Deviations that have been submitted by $hexentanz and have "fish" in their title, description or keywords


Searching a Deviants Favourites:

favby:hexentanz
Returns all deviations that have been favourited by $hexentanz's

Please be advised this is a stand alone search term and cannot be combined.

Shop

Simply change the drop down menu from "All Deviations" to "Shop" and enter your keywords.. Searching for Shop items are very similar to Searching for Deviations and most parameters that work for deviations also works for Shop Searching.

News

Simply change the drop down menu from "All Deviations" to "News" and enter your keywords to search for news articles.


Searching by Deviant:

by:hexentanz
Returns all news articles that have been submitted by $hexentanz

Chat

Simply change the drop down menu from "All Deviations" to "Chat" and enter your keywords to Search for Chatrooms. The search terms you used will be located in Chatroom names and the descriptions.

Forum

Simply change the drop down menu from "All Deviations" to "Forum" and enter your keywords to search for posts containing these words.


Searching by Deviant:

by:hexentanz
Returns all Forum posts that have been submitted by $hexentanz

Journals

Simply change the drop down menu from "All Deviations" to "Journal" and enter your keywords to search for Journal posts containing these words.


Searching by Deviant:

by:hexentanz
Returns all Journals that have been submitted by $hexentanz