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Author Topic: ~USING THE FORUMS SEARCH FACILITY~  (Read 5554 times)

Roadrunner

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~USING THE FORUMS SEARCH FACILITY~
« on: December 17, 2010, 10:25:28 am »

Im Going To Attempt To Aid Others With This Thread 'How To' In Using The Forums Search Facility.

It seams to be common place for others to get confused by what should be a relatively simple operation. Im also hoping that this will also reduce a lot of 'common questions' that are asked frequently because of the lack of knowledge on how to use the 'search'.

So Here Goes!

First Things First.

Start On The Home Page. That's The Button Marked 'Home'



Next Up A Basic Search.

Now Your On The Home Page You will See a 'Search Box' Above The Home Button. In This Box You Should Type A Keyword Or Words Your Looking For So Example May Be 'Fittings' Or 'Brass Fittings'


Now Once You Have Entered The Key Words Your Looking For In The Search Box Click The 'Search Button' Next To The Search Box

Now If You Did It Right You Should Get A List Of Topics With The Keyword(s) Highlighted In Yellow. To The Right Hand Side It Will Show The 'Relevance' In A %, Date & By Author This Should Help You Narrow Down Your Search, But All The Topic's Will Have Some Relevance But Many Will Just Have The Word Your Searching For, Its Up To You To Read Through And Decide If That's What You Were Searching For By Opening Each Topic.



What You Should Not Do Is Use The 'Search' While Already In A Topic, Any Keywords Will Be Searched Within That Topic! However It Is Handy If The Topic Is Very Long To Track Down A Particular Area You Wish to Read, Commonly This Is What Happens With Member's Who Are Not Familiar With The Search Facility Using The Search While Already In A Topic, Leading To The Common Place Confusion!


Using The 'ADVANCED SEARCH' Facility


Using The Advanced Search Is Much The Same As Using The Normal Facility, But Will Allow For A More In Depth Search.
You Should Start At The Home Page As Normal. This Time You Will Want To Click On The Underlined Text 'Advanced Search' Which By Now You Should Have Spotted Is By The Search Button.


Upon Clicking In The 'Advanced Search' Words You Will Be Redirected To A New Page That Looks Like This...



On This Page You Have Quite A Few 'Search Criteria' The first Being 'Search For' Which Act's The same Way As A Normal Search. But You Also Have The Option To Select Between Matching 'All Words' Or 'Any words' Using The Drop Down Selector To Its Right  



Next To The Search Box On The Right Is Also The Option To Search Via a Forum User Name.

This Allows You To Search For 'keywords' Written By A Particular User.



Under That You Have The Options To 'Show The Results As Messages' And 'Search In Topic Subjects Only' (Which Means The Topics Title Not The Topics Text Body) Click The Boxes That Apply To Your Search.



Next To The Right Of The Tick Boxes Is An Age Search this allows You to Search Over A Period Of Time 9999 Being The Beginning Of The Forums Life Just Enter How Many Days Old You Think The Topic Is Between. Generally You Would Leave This As Its Pre-set To Maximise Your Search Potential.




Nearly There I Promise!

Next Up Is A Results Display Order, By Using The Drop Down You Can Select The Order In Which Search Results Will Be Displayed, Its Self Explanatory At This Point.



Lastly Before Hitting That Magic Search Button Is Where To Search!, The Default Mode Set Is 'All' Which Is Displayed As A Tick Box Marked 'Check All' However You Are Able To Select A Section Or Sections In Which You Wish Your Search To Take Place, TO Aid In Narrowing Down The Relevance, To Do This You Click The > Arrow Next To The Words Marked Choose a board to search in, or search all

In Pressing That Arrow It Will Bring A Rather Large Drop Down With All The Forums Topic Sections Each With There Own Tick Box.


Each Topic Section Has A Tick Box , If It Is Ticked By The Topic The Search Will Take Place In That Section Or Sections.
 If It Is Un-ticked It Will Not Search In That Section, Use Your Mouse To Select The Section Or Sections You Wish To Search By Clicking On The Boxes To Tick Or Un-Tick them.




Now You Have Done All That Hit The Search Button Below (Bottom Left) And Look Through The Results! Now You DO NOT Have To fill In Every Detail Within The Advanced Search But The More You Enter The Better The Outcome Generally.

Well I Hope This Helped In Some Way If There Are Any Incorrect Parts Please Post The Correct Way Of Doing It, I Have Been Known To Get It Wrong On Occasions!



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Martin (Admin)

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Re: Using the FORUM SEARCH FACILITY
« Reply #1 on: July 08, 2012, 06:22:52 pm »


Hi All - just rehighlighting this guide that Roadrunner put together for us some time ago...  :-))




Now also here:  http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/Common/seach_forum.htm

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Martin (Admin)

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Re: ~USING THE FORUMS SEARCH FACILITY~
« Reply #2 on: February 06, 2017, 08:17:41 am »


Search screen changed slightly with SMF 2.0

Best search results are done form Forum home page.
1. Type your search request
2. For first search, I find best results when checking [Search in topic subjects only]
3. Default search age is 730 days (can't seem to change), extend as you wish.



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