[Editor’s note: This post relies on and links to the 17th edition of CMOS.]

We know The Chicago Manual of Style is big. The new 17th edition weighs in at over three pounds and is 1,146 pages long. Something we hear in emails to our Q&A is “I know it’s in there, but I can’t find it!”

So here’s a valuable searching tip: use CMOS Online. Anyone—whether they have a subscription or not—can use all the search functions in the online edition to find what they need in the printed book. Subscribers can click through to the online content; others can note the paragraph number and then go to the same location in the printed book.

Here are three excellent ways to find what you need in the Manual.

Search Box

In the upper-right corner at http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org, you can type a word or phrase into the Search box and get results in separate tabs from the The Chicago Manual of Style and the Chicago Style Q&A. If you are an individual or group subscriber with access to the My Manual features, you will also see results from your Notes and Style Sheets and from the Users Forum.

Tips on choosing good keywords and using refined searches are at the Search Tips page at CMOS Online.

Tables of Contents

Let’s say you want to use a colon in a sentence but don’t know for sure whether it would be correct. Go first to the main table of contents at CMOS Online, and scan down the chapter titles. Chapter 6, “Punctuation,” looks promising, so click on that for the detailed chapter 6 table of contents. There you can browse through the section on colons to find exactly what you need:

• Colons
  • 6.61 Use of the colon
  • 6.62 Space after colon
  • 6.63 Lowercase or capital letter after a colon
  • 6.64 Colons with “as follows” and other introductory phrases
  • 6.65 Colons to introduce quotations or questions
  • 6.66 Colons in formal communication
  • 6.67 Some common misuses of colons

Index

Many users are unaware of the searching power provided by the free online “back of the book” index identical to the one published in the print edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, with clickable links to all the locators. The index is invaluable when you aren’t sure which keywords to use in the Search box. In many cases, the index listing is even more detailed than the table of contents listing.

The “Go to Index” link at CMOS Online appears above the Search box.

Let’s say you have another question about using a colon but aren’t sure how to narrow your search with keywords. You can browse the index instead:

• colons, 6.61–67
  • and capitalization, 6.63
  • common misuses of, 6.67
  • em dashes instead of, 6.85
  • marking manuscript for, 2.93
  • marking proofs for, 2.132
  • other punctuation with: ellipses, 13.54; parentheses, 6.98; quotation marks, 6.10, 6.65
  • spacing with, 2.9, 6.62, 14.116, 14.152, 14.177
  • uses: captions, 3.24; with dates in titles of works, 14.93; direct address, 6.53, 6.66; double or multiple numeration, 1.57; glossaries, 1.61; indexes, 16.19, 16.20, 16.25, 16.95; introducing lists, 6.129, 6.130; non-English languages, 11.116; overview, 6.61; with page numbers for journal articles, 15.9; path names, 6.112; with publication details, 14.127, 14.177; with quotations or speech, 6.10, 6.63, 6.65, 13.16; ratios, 6.62, 9.58; scriptural citations, 9.26, 14.239, 14.241; tables, 3.60, 3.78; table source notes, 2.31, 3.77; between titles and subtitles, 1.19, 8.164–65, 14.89–91, 14.96, 14.151, 14.169; transcriptions of discussions or interviews, 13.48; twenty-four-hour system of time, 9.39, 9.40; between volume and page numbers, 14.23, 14.116, 14.152, 14.177, 15.23, 15.48
  • See also punctuation; semicolons

Once you’ve used the three search methods, you will begin to get a feel for which is the fastest way to find what you need.

Top photo courtesy the Digital Artist via Pixabay.

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