Abstract: A technique for incorporating text retrieval into the logic associated with current stem search technologies. The software stem search system positions a highlight bar even if the entered text is not the first word of the highlighted item. The highlight bar is positioned without reducing the numbers of records in the stem search display. The invention utilizes a stem search engine and a database search engine to search a list of entries for a match to a stem inputted by the user for a desired entry. Since the stem search engine can only find a stem starting with the left-most characters, the database search engine is used to locate the stem in other portions of the entries in the list. The match found by the database search engine is then translated to the list of entries by highlighting the desired entry in the list such that the position of the desired entry in the list of entries may be determined from the display by the user.