1. The abbreviation search interfaces work for all sorts of abbreviations and acronyms.
   
   
2. Select a search technique  and click on Find (Altavista is automatically opened and the search string inserted in the search box).
   
   
3. Replace "keyword" at the beginning of the search string in Altavista's search box with your own abbreviation or acronym in lower case letters.
   
   
4. Your keyword must be the actual term you are looking for (e.g. unesco, wipo, ttfn, wysiwyg). Then, in Altavista, hit Search.
   
   
5. Leave "Language:" set to "any language".
   
   
6. Look through the URLs of your results: IGNORE those pages that do NOT contain a designation of a list of abbreviations or acronyms either in the title or the url.
   
   
7. To increase your results
   
   A) Check your spelling!
   B) Use lower case in order to be sure to find all possible variants, e.g. unesco (finds: UNESCO, Unesco, unesco, UNesco etc.);
   C) If you are still getting no results, try adding dots after each initial (e.g. s.w.i.f.t., m.t.b.f.)
   
   
8. To limit/finetune your results:
   
   A) If you are obtaining TOO many pages from the same site, select "One result per Web site" in Altavista;
   B) Consider specific spelling (UNESCO or Unesco instead of unesco);
   C) Set "Language:" in Altavista to the language of your search criteria;
   D) Add another keyword (word or abbreviation) relating to the field in question (which you would expect to find on the same page) using AND. Examples:
      ... gprs AND wap
      ... gprs AND mobile
      ... PDA AND palm
   
   
9. If the search criteria in one language fail, use search criteria in another language, for example English.
   
   
10. Some lists of abbreviations include definitions; Some contain foreign language equivalents: play around with the languages listed above: e.g. search for wto (WTO=World Trade Organization) using French search criteria to find the French language equivalent (OMC=Organisation mondiale du commerce).
    
    
11. Once you have opened a page, locate your term with CTRL+F (or Edit/Find).

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