FT.com: Financial Times

via the Web

Introduction

The Library has a "level 1 FT in-depth" subscription to the FT.com database, which means access to the last five years of the Financial Times newspaper. The subscription also includes the following features:

  • Frequently updated Lex column
  • Industry-specific insight and analysis
  • Surveys/in-depth reports - industries, countries and business trends
  • View print edition - exclusive previews from the Financial Times newspaper
  • News by email - News summaries and alerts direct to your email inbox

Other newspapers are available via the NewsBank database.

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Access to FT.com

FT.com is available from any PC on the campus network. For access off campus, see the instructions for connecting to the Virtual Private
Network (VPN).

You can go directly to http://news.ft.com/home/uk or access the database via MetaLib:

  1. From the University's home page follow the links:
    Student home | Library | MetaLib gateway (under Quick Links)
  2. Click on the tab Find Database
  3. Search for Financial Times
  4. Click on the link Financial Times (FT.Com - last five years)

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How to search

From the introductory FT.com page:

  1. Click on Services & tools in the left hand menu
  2. In the FT Tools section, click on Search
    FT.com search

  3. Click on the Power search link

The next screen has several sections.

Type your search word or term into the Search terms box.

FT.com search terms

Note that there are drop-down menus with options for making your search more targeted. In the above example, "This phrase in article" has been selected to help find articles containing the exact phrase; "sort by relevance" has been chosen instead of "sort by date" because date is not important to the searcher.

If you want to search for company or industry information, the Index terms option is very useful. Click on the feature you wish to search on in the Look up list:

FT.com look up list

This will take you to a Select index terms screen, where you may select a name of an industry, company, etc. Click on the term you want from the list displayed, then click on the Add button. Here is the Industry selection screen:

FT.com industry selection

Make your selection, click on the Add button, then on Save and return to search. You may add more than one selection, for example, the "Banking" industry and the "Barclays PLC (United Kingdom)" company. You may also select, for example, two or more different companies.

Date range

You may choose to search a particular date or range of dates, by selecting from the Date range drop-down menu. FT.com date range

Sources

You will only find the full articles from the FT; the Library's subscription does not permit access to the full text of other sources listed. Choosing any other option in the Sources box will find articles but will not show you the full text of them. FT.com sources

Once you have made all of the choices to target your search, click on the Start search button.

FT.com start search button

This will perform the search and display the results.

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Search results

The title, author, date and first sentence of each article will be shown. If there are more than ten results, only the first ten will be shown; click on the next button at the bottom of the list to see the next ten.

To modify your search, if the results are not what you are looking for, click on the Modify search link at the top of the list, to go back to the search screen.

To see the full text of any article, click on the title. To go back to the list of search results from the full text, click on the Back button of your Internet browser.

You may print the full article by clicking on the Print article link at the bottom of the full text of the article.

Alternatively, you may email the article to yourself, using the Email article link.

 FT.com results

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Registering to use enhanced features of FT.com

Some personalised features in FT.com, such as the portfolio, require you to register in order to create your own FT account. There is no charge for this. You will be required to complete a registration form and to choose a unique user name and password. The registration process should take about three minutes to complete.

To register, go to the front screen of the FT.com site, and click on Services & tools in the left hand menu

Scroll down to the section Customer services and click on Register on FT.com

FT.com customer services

Some of the features you can access when you have registered

  • News summaries and News alerts - News summaries give daily email updates on many subjects. News alerts update you with news on topics and companies specified by you as soon as it is published on FT.com.
  • Access saved searches - Save your search strategy to re-run it at a future date
  • View print edition - check the different front pages of the Financial Times editions from the US, the UK and Asia
  • Your own FT portfolio - Track your investments!
  • Discussion lists - Discuss finance topics with other subscribers
  • PDA access - You can download FT content to your PDA, Palm, I-Pag or other handheld device.

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Closing FT.com

If you have registered and logged in to your portfolio, click on the Log out link at the top of the front screen, before closing the FT.com window. If you have not logged in, you may just close the window.

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Help

For an overview of the services available on FT.com, go to the main Help page at:

http://www.ft.com/servicestools/help

There are Help links throughout the FT.com interface, with customised information on the section you are using. For further information, email lib-enquiry@york.ac.uk, or contact your Academic Liaison Librarian.