Entering the position of points, or picking them from the map, is easy if the position or location of the point is known, but impossible for unknown geographic points. Gazetteer Search allows searching for geographic points in the GeoNames open_in_newdatabase. If the Gazetteer Search pane isn't displayed, show it by selecting Gazetteer Search in the Tools menu.

In the Gazetteer Search pane the geographic point to search for can be entered in the Search field. Searches are performed on all data items of a geographic point in the database. This means the search doesn't look at the name only; country, state, administration, alternative names and other data items of a geographic point are also searched.

It is not possible to use wildcards, but a search can be narrowed or widened using various options.

All words: if selected all words in the search field must be present in the result.

Any words: if selected one or more words in the search field must be present in the result.

Exact match: if selected the results must match the entered words exactly.

Starts with: if selected the results must start with the entered words.

At least one search term is part of the name: if enabled at least one of the entered search words must be part of the geographic point's name.
This is particularly useful if one of the other data items of the geographic point, e.g. state, is the same as part of the geographic point's name; it will filter out all other geographic points within the state.
For example, a regular search for Berlin will not only return the city of Berlin, but also every geographic point in the state of Berlin. The latter will be filtered out by enabling this option.

Fuzziness: Use the and buttons to increase or decrease the fuzziness of the search in 10% steps, where 0% equals an exact match.
Fuzziness is useful if there is uncertainty about the spelling of the geographic point searched for.

Restrict to map boundary: search results must be within the current map boundary.

Countries: if the Selected option is chosen the search will be limited to the selected country or countries.

Continents: if the Selected option is chosen the search will be limited to the selected continent.

Features: if the Selected option is chosen the search will be limited to the selected feature class or classes.

Click the Search button to start the search process.
Please bear in mind that searches at GeoNames open_in_new can take several seconds to complete.

Instead of searching using the Search field, it is also possible to show all available geographic points within the current map boundary. Click the Show All Within Map Boundary button to do so.
The Countries, Continents and Features options are taken into account.
Because of the number of available geographic points, the Show All Within Map Boundary button is only enabled when the map is zoomed in far enough; the height of the map needs to cover less than 1°, or 60 nautical miles.

The results of the search will be shown both in the Gazetteer Results pane and as markers on the map, where the selected result is indicated by a pulsating marker.
The colour of the markers indicates the feature class of the geographic points.
The Gazetteer Results pane will be shown automatically when search results arrive, but it can also be shown by selecting Gazetteer Results in the Tools menu.
Check the Gazetteer Results Pane section for a full description of the Gazetteer Results pane.

Example of search results on the map.

The appearance of Gazetteer points on the map can be customised in the Tools Options (see the Options section). By default the Gazetteer colour scheme uses the same colour scheme as GeoNames open_in_new.

Check the Videos and Screenshotspage for a video showing some of the possibilities Position Tools and Gazetteer panes have to offer using examples taken from authentic log-books.