Your first search

The box on the home page reads "Search scriptures, talks, and topics...". Type a question the way you would ask a friend, or a line you half remember, and press Enter or the "Search" button. You do not need keywords, and you do not need an account.

While it searches

A status line opens with "Searching..." and changes to a new phrase every couple of seconds while you wait. Below it, three gray cards shimmer where the results will appear. The tool takes one search every three seconds; if you send another too soon, a small message says "Search is busy, retrying…" and it tries again on its own.

What comes back

Up to 20 passages, each on its own card, in a grid that runs three columns wide on a large screen and one column on a phone. Every passage is shown word for word as it appears in the source. Nothing is summarized or rewritten. The closest match to your meaning comes first, reading across the rows.

Above the cards, a line says what was searched, for example "Searched 10 libraries, all years." Its "Change" link opens the filters.

Each card has the same parts:

• A colored header naming the document. The color tells you the library: blue for scripture, pink for General Conference, teal for Gospel Topics, and so on.
• A gray source line under it: who said it, and where and when.
• The passage itself, in full.
• Three small buttons. A bookmark saves the passage to a notebook (that one needs an account); the next copies the passage with a citation; the last opens the original at its source in a new tab.
• A chevron at the bottom that expands the card to show the text just before and after the passage, and the card's topics.

Reading a result card walks through every part in detail.

Choosing where to look

Under the search bar on the empty home page is a row of library chips labelled "in:". Click a chip to turn that library on or off; the change applies at once, and your choice is remembered in this browser. The "More Filters" button next to the chips opens the year range and the number of results. Once results are on screen the chips give way to a "Filters" button above the grid. See Choosing libraries and years.

The address bar

After a search, the page address becomes /?q= followed by what you typed. Bookmark it, or send it to someone. Opening the link runs the same search again, using the library and year settings saved in that browser.

A first look at operators

Plain questions cover most needs. When you want more control, a few operators go right in the box: straight double quotes require exact words, SPEAKER: keeps results to one person, and TOPIC: keeps them to one subject. They are all on one page in the Operator cheat sheet, and Asking by meaning shows how to phrase a query so the best passages surface.