Use Prefix Operators instead of Boolean Operators by Chris Hostetter.
From the post:
I really dislike the so called “Boolean Operators” (“AND”, “OR”, and “NOT”) and generally discourage people from using them. It’s understandable that novice users may tend to think about the queries they want to run in those terms, but as you become more familiar with IR concepts in general, and what Solr specifically is capable of, I think it’s a good idea to try to “set aside childish things” and start thinking (and encouraging your users to think) in terms of the superior “Prefix Operators” (“+”, “-”).
Don’t hold back Chris! It’s not good for you. Tell us how you feel about “Boolean Operators.” 😉
Seriously, Chris makes a very good case for using “Prefix Operators” and you will learn about powerful searching in both Lucene and Solr.
Well worth studying in detail.