Queries may be sent both for individual data elements or as combinations.
Place name. The query will find all the names with the given string. E.g. a query sada would yield names Eelsadam, Sadama tee, Sadamneem, etc. Queries are case-insensitive, i.e. names may be written in lowercase characters only.
To query place names simple ASCII characters must be used. This means that all accented characters would have to be reduced to the basic characters without any diacritics. So in order to query names like Ülejõe, Vääna, Ördi one must enter Ulejoe, Vaana, Ordi. If you would like to make your query sensitive to Estonian accented characters, you should use the Estonian query page. Special symbols and punctuation marks (parentheses, apostrophes, double apostrophes, etc.) should also be ignored when querying, i.e. the queries should not contain these symbols.
For more detailed instructions on how to find the basic characters for each Roman and Cyrillic special characters see the appropriate table (in .pdf-format).
Since February 9, 2010 Cyrillic characters may be queried in all query forms (earlier it was possible only on the Russian query page). For simplicity, non-Russian Cyrillic characters are substituted in search strings (for explanation see a table)
For all other name elements (e.g. the administrative affiliation) the inventory of the Estonian alphabet should be used, i.e. including the characters õ, ä, ö, ü and two characters with caron: š, ž. To enter those characters you can use ALT+number combinations:
Language and labels; name source; geographical coordinates; name variants -- the box immediately in front of these elements should be checked to view them in the output, otherwise they will not be given.
To query other elements see also explanations to the appropriate fields.
The query will yield 750 records in maximum.
General recommendation: in the query form it is not recommended to give too many query elements; especially if some of them are not certain. Only those names will be displayed where all the elements match. Therefore it would be better to give less query elements, and leave only those parts that are certain; omit uncertain parts. Example: if it is not certain whether a name is spelled Skagerak or Skagerrak, query only the form Skager: you will see that Skagerrak is used.