Writing Boolean search strings is typically a quick and simple affair, as most search engines and databases won’t let you construct anything longer than a few hundred characters.

However, if you’re not constrained to a fixed limit on search terms (such as Google’s 32 words) or characters, it’s no longer a simple matter of “this OR that.”

I wrote an article not too long ago in which I illustrated some of the serious limitations associated with using industry filters when searching LinkedIn (or any site, for that matter) for people with specific industry experience. In that post, I demonstrated that when accessing LinkedIn with a free account, there are no search string length limits, allowing you to enter long OR statements with 100’s of companies.

Building large OR strings can be very tedious and time consuming work. Thankfully, John Turnberg graciously commented on my article (thank you John!) and detailed how to use Excel to make quick work of creating large OR strings.

I am not an Excel wizard by any means, so it may have taken me longer than most to take John’s Excel advice and get it to work. If you’re not handy with Excel and would like a turn-key solution, I’ve saved you the effort of trying to build it yourself – you can download a basic Excel Boolean OR builder here: Continue reading →