Need advice on how to search

Discussion in 'PriusChat Website Questions' started by windstrings, Dec 16, 2005.

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    windstrings Certified Prius Breeder

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    Many times new members are scorned for asking questions without fully researching first and searching for themselves.

    I would like to address this deliema I have found.

    When going to the search tab and placing a word or phrase, it brings up a ton of threads.
    1. No where do I see that the key phrases or words in question are highlighted, nor is there direction as to how to find them.
    2. If you use the "find" feature in IE or FF, you still have to bounce thru tons of pages to finally find a link.
    It can be very exasperating and time consuming wading through tons of irrelevant issues.

    Suggestion:
    It would be really nice if we could have a feature that did the searching through all the threads and would say... "There are X numbers of results from your search".. See below.....

    And then have a way to find each one directly by clicking on it?

    Is there something I am missing that is already in place?

    Thanks for input from those who know how to navigate the forum well.
    windstrings, Dec 16, 2005
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    tripp Which it's a 'ybrid, ain't it?

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    I usually start by searching only the titles. If nothing comes up I try searching in the most likely forum, especially if I think it's likely that the keyword phrase is pretty common. There's nothing worse than trying to wade through I huge list of posts looking for something specific.
    tripp, Dec 16, 2005
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    Kiloran New Member

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    Kiloran, Dec 16, 2005
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    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator

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    Oh I agree with this snippit. Here is what I've started doing and it seems to help.

    *Ff = Firefox

    First of all, if you're using Ff and not using the tabs, start using the tabs. After you've done your search, click the more promising hits while holding the [Ctrl] button. They will load in new tabs.

    Next, the "Find" function in Ff is universal across all tabs. So go ahead and open it up with [Ctrl]+[F]. Enter the key word you are looking for in the thread. While you're at it, click [Highlight all]. Now, every occurance of word will show that word in bright yellow. Don't see the highlighted word? Simply click [Find Next] (or [Alt]+[N]) and Ff will scroll to the word. Still don't see the word, check the search bar because it might say "Phrase not found". The word might be on another page of the thread. Click to go to the next page of that thread and move on to the next tab/thread.

    If you're a keyboard person like I, then you will quickly get the hang of [Ctrl]+[Tab] to switch tabs, [Alt]+[N] to find occurances of the word, and [Ctrl]+[W] to close tabs. Before you know it, you'll be playing Firefox like a piano and whipping through your search results.
    TonyPSchaefer, Dec 16, 2005
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    DanMan32 New Member

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    The search engine on this software is seriously lacking.
    The one that PriusOnline uses would be much better, but the index is messed up and seems to only search posts since the last crash, though the posts/topics you are looking for still exist.

    One way to avoid search results overload is to allow for a date range in the search.
    DanMan32, Dec 18, 2005
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    QED New Member

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    Also agree. I probably don't use the search as often because of its lack of robustness.

    BUT...Great tips for effective use of Firefox tab feature!!! This will be useful for all kinds of internet searching. Thanks.

    Gotta show it off to my wife as soon as she gets home (she's more of a keyboard person! :lol:
    QED, Dec 18, 2005
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