We have preserved in a huge archive all the news we have published since our site opened in November 1997.

There are two ways of accessing the archive:

• Fast search - using the SEARCH box on the top right hand corner of our news pages.
• Advanced search - click on the link in the search results page for more tips and options.

Search terms

Because we produce thousands of stories every week, you will probably need to use more than one search word.

• Put in as many words as you like. The more words you enter, the better your results.
• You can enter keywords, but you will get better results by entering longer free text - eg The night of the first Nato bombings of Serbia. You can use mixed case or lower case (Tony Blair or tony blair).
• You will normally want the most relevant results first, but if you are after the latest on a particular story (eg recent BBC stories on Algeria) chose search by date option on the results page.

Advanced use

• Putting double quotes around specific phrases or names may help eg "George W Bush".
• You can use Boolean search terms AND OR NEAR and NOT. They must be in uppercase. For example Tony AND Blair NOT Leo will come up with stories about the Blair's that do not mention their youngest child.
• Use * as a wildcard. Alger* will find stories about Algeria, Algerians etc.