# How to search the manual more efficiently

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-search-the-manual-more-efficiently/19314>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** documentation, performance\
**Created:** [January 5, 2019, 11:57pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-search-the-manual-more-efficiently/19314 "2019-01-05T23:57:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 13\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bennedich](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/bennedich/32/4894_2.png) [@bennedich](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/bennedich)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 11:57pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-search-the-manual-more-efficiently/19314/1 "2019-01-05T23:57:32Z")

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I find myself using Julia’s online manual a lot, and thought I’d share this simple trick on how to do that more efficiently if you’re using Chrome as a browser:

- Enter `chrome://settings/` in Chrome’s URL bar.
- Scroll down to _Manage search engines_. Click it.
- Click _Add_ next to _Other search engines_.
- Enter the following and then click _Add_:  
– Search engine: Julia Manual  
– Keyword: jl  
– URL: ~~[https://docs.julialang.org/en/latest/search/?q=%s~~](https://docs.julialang.org/en/latest/search/?q=%25s~~) _update:_ now `https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/search/?q=%s`
- Now, in Chrome’s URL bar, type `jl` followed by space to enable searching in the manual.

This way, you can save three, maybe four seconds over if you use a bookmark. Over time, that’s a lot of seconds.

![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/1/4/1422708dd3846223d0cad92f0c161dd7258d8f66.png)

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**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 7:45am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-search-the-manual-more-efficiently/19314/2 "2019-01-06T07:45:25Z")

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Excellent suggestion. Firefox, of course, also has a similar functionality, just right click and “add a keyword to this search”:

 ![search](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/3/a/3a38bb9641e372516565f2941cf95d192a35a632.png)

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**Author:** ![LaurentPlagne](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/laurentplagne/32/10103_2.png) [@LaurentPlagne](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/LaurentPlagne)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 8:47am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-search-the-manual-more-efficiently/19314/3 "2019-01-06T08:47:22Z")

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Nice tip !  
FWIW it maybe more energy efficient (and faster) to link the jl search with local julia doc (JULIA\_PATH/share/doc/julia/html/en/search.html).

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**Author:** ![jlapeyre](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jlapeyre/32/4514_2.png) [@jlapeyre](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jlapeyre)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 9:03am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-search-the-manual-more-efficiently/19314/4 "2019-01-06T09:03:15Z")

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And don’t forget this:

> **[Search Julia documentation](https://steampiano.net/juliasearch/)**
>
> julia

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**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 9:09am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-search-the-manual-more-efficiently/19314/5 "2019-01-06T09:09:34Z")

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I have `jl` for the webpage, and `j` for the local copy.

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**Author:** ![jpsamaroo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jpsamaroo/32/46804_2.png) [@jpsamaroo](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jpsamaroo)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 12:43pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-search-the-manual-more-efficiently/19314/6 "2019-01-06T12:43:36Z")

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And for qutebrowser, add this to your `config.py` (thanks to @ExpandingMan):  
`c.url.searchengines["jl"] = "https://docs.julialang.org/en/stable/search/?q={}"`

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**Author:** ![ffevotte](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ffevotte/32/6587_2.png) [@ffevotte](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ffevotte)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 3:19pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-search-the-manual-more-efficiently/19314/7 "2019-01-06T15:19:21Z")

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I think it would be best if [docs.julialang.org](http://docs.julialang.org) adhered to the [OpenSearch](https://github.com/dewitt/opensearch) standard to advertize itself as a search engine. Most mainstream browsers seem to understand this specification (which is used by Discourse, BTW).

In the meantime, I’ve put together a small webpage to provide OpenSearch specifications for the Julia Reference manual: [http://ffevotte.github.io/juliaOpenSearch/index.html](http://ffevotte.github.io/juliaOpenSearch/index.html)

I you go to the page, your browser should propose you to add a new search engine. In Firefox, it looks like this (in the top-right part of the window):

 ![screen1](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/5/5/555e0effbce263b7c044cc4abaa7e88ec6935e53.png)

Once the search engine is added. You can affect it a shortcut. Again in the example of Firefox, this is performed by clicking the “Change Search Settings” button visible on the screenshot above, or visiting the preferences menu (about:preferences#search)

 ![screen2](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/c/f/cf55a70068247443219a674ac62e130f4ca2dc92.png)

  

PS: the OpenSearch document for the Julia documentation is here, in case you’d want to inspect it beforehand: [http://ffevotte.github.io/juliaOpenSearch/julia.xml](http://ffevotte.github.io/juliaOpenSearch/julia.xml)

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**Author:** ![essenciary](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/essenciary/32/210469_2.png) [@essenciary](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/essenciary)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 7:19pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-search-the-manual-more-efficiently/19314/8 "2019-01-07T19:19:37Z")

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I can’t recommend this enough, I’ve been using it for years with multiple languages (and even multiple Julia documentations, for different versions), the amount of time it saved me is incredible:

> **[Dash for macOS - API Documentation Browser, Snippet Manager - Kapeli](https://kapeli.com/dash)**
>
> Dash is an API Documentation Browser and Code Snippet Manager. Dash searches offline documentation of 200+ APIs and stores snippets of code. You can also generate your own documentation sets.

For platforms other than macOS and/or different pricing options:  
[https://zealdocs.org](https://zealdocs.org) (free)  
[https://velocity.silverlakesoftware.com](https://velocity.silverlakesoftware.com) (nagware)

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**Author:** ![JeffFessler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jefffessler/32/6650_2.png) [@JeffFessler](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/JeffFessler)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 7:21pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-search-the-manual-more-efficiently/19314/9 "2020-09-11T19:21:51Z")

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I have used this wonderful tip for a long time but it just stopped working,  
apparently due to some change in the julia docs.

Replacing `latest` with `v1` in the URL made it work for me:  
`https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/search/?q=%s`

I guess that will be OK until there is a v2?  
(Personally I liked the reassurance of getting the “latest”…)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JeffFessler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jefffessler/32/6650_2.png) [@JeffFessler](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/JeffFessler)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2021, 2:18pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-search-the-manual-more-efficiently/19314/10 "2021-09-03T14:18:09Z")

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@bennedich would you mind updating your original post to use the current URL so that people don’t have to scroll all the way to the bottom of this thread to find it?

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**Author:** ![bennedich](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/bennedich/32/4894_2.png) [@bennedich](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/bennedich)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2021, 3:49am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-search-the-manual-more-efficiently/19314/11 "2021-09-06T03:49:37Z")

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Thanks for bringing this up! As far as I can tell, I’m no longer able to edit my original post. You could perhaps flag the post for moderator attention and ask if they could edit it for us?

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**Author:** ![JeffFessler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jefffessler/32/6650_2.png) [@JeffFessler](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/JeffFessler)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2021, 5:31pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-search-the-manual-more-efficiently/19314/12 "2021-09-06T17:31:57Z")

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ok, i’ve done that and we’ll see if it works!

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**Author:** ![stevengj](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stevengj/32/71_2.png) [@stevengj](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stevengj)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2021, 7:48pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-search-the-manual-more-efficiently/19314/13 "2021-09-06T19:48:46Z")

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I’ve updated the URL in the top post.