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This menu item chooses what engines will be used in searches, and also sets 2 parameters used during searching and processing.

By default, iMetaSearch will use all engines for every search. If you do not want to use an engine during searches, then uncheck the engine using this menu option and it won't be used.

The two parameters that iMetaSearch uses during searching and processing that you can set are:

·

Seconds to Search - Normally iMetaSearch will request the appropriate number of results from each engine, wait for results, process them, and display them. However, if it takes longer than this number of seconds, then iMetaSearch will abort the search process and just display the results that it has found so far. The default cutoff time is 30 seconds. On a cable or DSL connection getting 100 results takes about 5 seconds, but over a dialup connection you may need to extend the cutoff time to 60 or even 90 seconds.

·

Words per Phrase - this parameter sets an upper limit on how many words can be in a phrase. The default is that phrases may consist of up to 7 words. The other constraints on phrase are that phrases cannot extend over punctuation such as commas and periods and phrases cannot start or end with a word in the StopWords.txt file of common words.

There are two other parameters that control general behavior.

·	Show tips on startup - determines whether tips are shown when iMetaSearch is first started. Check this option to show tips, uncheck the option to not show tips.

·	Trace level - used by our support team if we need to gather more information about a problem that occurs.