Filtering by speaker or author

When you want one person's words, add their name to the query as a filter. SPEAKER: and AUTHOR: are one filter under two names. Use whichever reads naturally, and results come only from documents that person gave or wrote.

How to write it

Put the name right after the colon, with no space. A single word needs no quotes. A name of more than one word goes in double quotes; straight or curly both work. The operator can sit anywhere in the query, and capitals do not matter, so speaker:holland works just as well.

How names are matched

• Part of a name is enough. The filter looks for your text anywhere inside a person's name, so SPEAKER:Holland finds Jeffrey R. Holland.
• Titles such as Elder, President, Sister and Brother are ignored, and so are periods and commas. You can type the name with or without them.
• Up to five names count in one query, SPEAKER: and AUTHOR: together. A document by any one of them is kept.
• A name that matches nobody gives an empty page. Check the spelling, or try a shorter piece of the name.
• The scriptures, Gospel Topics and the Apocrypha carry no speaker or author, so a person filter never returns anything from them. Hymns are credited to their authors, and the other libraries behave as usual.

Picking a name from the suggestions

As you type, a dropdown under the search box lists people whose names contain your text, shown without their titles. Choosing one puts SPEAKER:"Name" in the box in place of the words you had typed, and no search runs yet. Type what you are looking for after the name, then press Enter.

Each name in the query shows as a pill under the search bar, labeled Speaker or Author. The pill's X removes that operator from the box. It does not run a new search, so press Enter or Search when you are ready.

Related

TOPIC: narrows by subject in the same way, and the two combine well: TOPIC:Faith SPEAKER:Uchtdorf. On a topic page, the names under "Most frequent voices" run exactly that kind of search. The operator cheat sheet lists every operator on one page.