one dumb question to prevent many more...

[lostinperiphery]

How does one correctly search for two terms on this forum? It seems that when I search for a 'phrase'.... "stetson panama" for a quick example... I turn up with a smattering of threads, some containing "stetson" and others containing "panama"... many more than the ones that are specifically "stetson panama"...

... It really limits what I can search for, just now when searching "knox custom" I turned up like 500 threads... I don't have the patience to sift through every thread relating to knox, just to find some info about the 'knox custom' i just received... this pertains to many other questions i've had as well, but just can't search specifically to find my answers. If I can search correctly, I can avoid asking questions that've already been answered before.

I don't doubt I'm doing it wrong, but I have better luck on other forums that seem to be running the same forum software... what am I doing wrong here?

thanks!

 

[billyspew]

How does one correctly search for two terms on this forum? It seems that when I search for a 'phrase'.... "stetson panama" for a quick example... I turn up with a smattering of threads, some containing "stetson" and others containing "panama"... many more than the ones that are specifically "stetson panama"...

... It really limits what I can search for, just now when searching "knox custom" I turned up like 500 threads... I don't have the patience to sift through every thread relating to knox, just to find some info about the 'knox custom' i just received... this pertains to many other questions i've had as well, but just can't search specifically to find my answers. If I can search correctly, I can avoid asking questions that've already been answered before.

I don't doubt I'm doing it wrong, but I have better luck on other forums that seem to be running the same forum software... what am I doing wrong here?

thanks!

Use google!

In the google search box use site:thefedoralounge.com and your term e.g. "stetson panama" to find pages within threads that contain your terms e.g.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site%3Athefedoralounge.com+%22stetson+panama%22

or

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site%3Athefedoralounge.com+stetson+panama

 

[lostinperiphery]

wow, i had know idea you could do that, and would never have figured that out on my own.... thanks!

 

[Corky]

I think all Internet searches are much the same, so...

The search term you want to use would be (+) (the Plus Sign, just to the left of the Backspace key) and the term you wish to include and it should be entered as:

Stetson +Panama

Similarly, if you wanted to exclude a term (like if you wanted to find info on a Stetson Panama, but minus the straw versions) you would input your search terms like:

Stetson +Panama -straw

* * * * * *​

More information than you probably ever want or need:

Phrase search ("")
By putting double quotes around a set of words, you are telling Google to consider the exact words in that exact order without any change. Google already uses the order and the fact that the words are together as a very strong signal and will stray from it only for a good reason, so quotes are usually unnecessary. By insisting on phrase search you might be missing good results accidentally. For example, a search for [ "Alexander Bell" ] (with quotes) will miss the pages that refer to Alexander G. Bell.

Search within a specific website (site: )
Google allows you to specify that your search results must come from a given website. For example, the query [ iraq site:nytimes.com ] will return pages about Iraq but only from nytimes.com. The simpler queries [ iraq nytimes.com ] or [ iraq New York Times ] will usually be just as good, though they might return results from other sites that mention the New York Times. You can also specify a whole class of sites, for example [ iraq site:.gov ] will return results only from a .gov domain and [ iraq site:.iq ] will return results only from Iraqi sites.

Terms you want to exclude (-)
Attaching a minus sign immediately before a word indicates that you do not want pages that contain this word to appear in your results. The minus sign should appear immediately before the word and should be preceded with a space. For example, in the query [ anti-virus software ], the minus sign is used as a hyphen and will not be interpreted as an exclusion symbol; whereas the query [ anti-virus -software ] will search for the words 'anti-virus' but exclude references to software. You can exclude as many words as you want by using the - sign in front of all of them, for example [ jaguar -cars -football -os ]. The - sign can be used to exclude more than just words. For example, place a hyphen before the 'site:' operator (without a space) to exclude a specific site from your search results.

Fill in the blanks (*)
The *, or wildcard, is a little-known feature that can be very powerful. If you include * within a query, it tells Google to try to treat the star as a placeholder for any unknown term(s) and then find the best matches. For example, the search [ Google * ] will give you results about many of Google's products. The query [ Obama voted * on the * bill ] will give you stories about different votes on different bills. Note that the * operator works only on whole words, not parts of words.

Search exactly as is (+)
Google employs synonyms automatically, so that it finds pages that mention, for example, childcare for the query [ child care ] (with a space), or California history for the query [ ca history ]. But sometimes Google helps out a little too much and gives you a synonym when you don't really want it. By attaching a + immediately before a word (remember, don't add a space after the +), you are telling Google to match that word precisely as you typed it. Putting double quotes around a single word will do the same thing.

The OR operator
Google's default behavior is to consider all the words in a search. If you want to specifically allow either one of several words, you can use the OR operator (note that you have to type 'OR' in ALL CAPS). For example, [ San Francisco Giants 2004 OR 2005 ] will give you results about either one of these years, whereas [ San Francisco Giants 2004 2005 ] (without the OR) will show pages that include both years on the same page. The symbol | can be substituted for OR. (The AND operator, by the way, is the default, so it is not needed.)

http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=136861

 

[Lefty]

of course, you could also use the thread designed for quick questions

 

[Cracker]

This is great info, I've been having the same problem.

Another question: is there a way to search on this site such that it shows the specific post (or even the page) on which the search term occurs? My search results give me the whole thread, but I really don't have the time to flip through all 500 pages of it to find the one post containing my search term.

 

[scotrace]

(Thanks Corky)

 

[Tango Yankee]

This is great info, I've been having the same problem.

Another question: is there a way to search on this site such that it shows the specific post (or even the page) on which the search term occurs? My search results give me the whole thread, but I really don't have the time to flip through all 500 pages of it to find the one post containing my search term.

If you use the forum's search function by clicking on it, below the white box you'll see "Advanced Search". Click on it. That search gives you the option to have it return threads or posts.

HTH!
Tom

 

[Cracker]

If you use the forum's search function by clicking on it, below the white box you'll see "Advanced Search". Click on it. That search gives you the option to have it return threads or posts.

HTH!
Tom

Aha! Thank you, sir.

 

[lostinperiphery]

The search term you want to use would be (+) (the Plus Sign, just to the left of the Backspace key) and the term you wish to include and it should be entered as:

Stetson +Panama

Similarly, if you wanted to exclude a term (like if you wanted to find info on a Stetson Panama, but minus the straw versions) you would input your search terms like:

Stetson +Panama -straw

This had actually occured to me, and I looked up these search techniques to refresh my memory in fact.... however, they don't seem to have any affect on the forum search funtion, unless I'm doing it wrong... a search for "stetson panama" turns up just as many as "stetson +panama" and "stetson +panama -straw".... 500 results each... oh well!

 

[Lefty]

click

 

[lostinperiphery]

click

aye! thats what billy mentioned... I've been using that technique since... very useful bit of knowledge!