How do I find the answer to a question I have? (Using the forum search)

[mawby]

As a new member we appreciate that you may have many questions you'd like answered about the club or the Supra. However, please remember that a lot of those questions will have been asked and answered many times before. After the tenth time of answering the same question, some people get a bit fed up and unhelpfully reply with “Use the search”. This is actively discourage now, but to help you with finding the answer you're after here is a simple guide to using the forums search option.

 

In this example we will assume you want to find out the dimensions of the Supra. Your first option is to use the search in its basic form. To do this simply click the search button on the menu, type in what you are searching for, and then press the Go button. Normal search engine rules apply, so only enter specific keywords and not common words like "Supra".

 

 

The results returned will look like below. It's obvious the first few results are irrelevant, but the fifth result has the answer you are after.

 

 

However, sometimes it is not that easy. You may find no matter what you put into the search you just can't find what you are after. In these situations it's useful to know the different types of searches that are available.

 

The search done above will return all threads which contains a post with “dimensions” in it. This could be the first post to the thread, the last, or any where in between. If the thread is big it can be difficult to find where in the thread the search word exists.

 

In these situation you can tell the search to return a list of posts instead of threads. This is done by selecting the “Show Posts” option on the search box pictured above, and has the advantage that you can see the context around where the search results where found. The disadvantage of this approach is you can get many posts from the same thread, and it may be obvious from the thread title that nothing it contains is relevant to you.

 

 

If you are still unable to find what you are after then your last resort is an Advanced Search, which is linked to from the search box shown in the first picture. The advanced search looks like this:

 

 

The advanced search allows you to fine tune the search results. For this example I made the following changes to the advanced search form:

 

1. Entered dimensions into the “Key Word(s)” field
   
2. Changed the “Search Entire Posts” option to “Search Titles Only”
   
3. I have also specified I want threads with at least 1 reply
   
4. I have stated the results must come from the “mkiv Technical” forum only
   

 

The results of the search can be seen below. The answer to the Supra dimensions question is now returned as result number four, although this is a different thread to that returned in the first search and may prove more or less usefull than the original.

 

 

If at this point you've not found what you are after, or you have found the answer but need more specific or up-to-date information or opinions, then please feel free to ask in the appropriate forum.

[James]

Bump for info.