Occasionally a client wishes to only search specific pages or documents (ie school board policies). A Google Custom Search Engine can be created to look for words, phrases, topics, etc. and can even search within a pdf file. Follow the steps below to add a Google Custom Search tool to your website. You must have a Google account before you begin.
Go to Google Custom Search Engine https://www.google.com/cse and sign in.
Create a new search engine by clicking Add.
Enter the sites to search. For example it would look like this: http://www.yourdomain
If you are creating a custom search with the intent of searching your board policies you can use http://www.yourdomain/cms_files/resources/* to search the PDF documents on your website.
Once you've entered text into the Sites to Search box, additional information will appear. See the next step.
Change the name if you want, to make it something descriptive.
Click the CREATE button.
Click on the Control Panel button.
Choose Look and Feel from the left menu
Choose Results Only and then Save & Get Code.
Copy this code.
Within a Text/Graphic Editor on your website:
- Click Source in the top left corner of the toolbar at the top.
- Paste the code using Paste as plain text.
- Click Source a second time.
- Scroll to the bottom and click Add. (This is not visible in the above screen shot.)
The custom search will appear as shown above. Additional text can be added above the code within the Text/Graphic Editor if you wish.
After the Custom Search Engine has been created, it can be modified by signing in and using Edit search engine on the Google website https://www.google.com/cse