Forum's Search Vocabulary

[Feirefiz]

Does the forum's search feature search by a particular set of English words, or are all "words" used indexed and thus searchable like in a FM database?

[R MacLANE]

This is probably the most often uttered comment on the FMT forum and often answered by - "Use the Search!" This is all well and good, assuming you know how to use the search, and know how to use it effectively. One of the great things about a forum as old and as big as FMT is that most questions you have... have been answered already but it is up to YOU to find them.

 

So here is my answer in a nutshell:

Always use the Advanced Search Mode:

 

 

Limitations

Minimum Word Length: 3 Characters

Can't search common words

Can't search special characters (alpha numeric only)

 

Basic Search Syntax

• Search multiple words use Boolean operators such as:
  - AND (ex. ajax AND instant)
  - OR (ex. ajax OR instant)
  - NOT (ex. ajax NOT instant) or use the minus sign (-) (ex. ajax -instant)
  
• Search for an exact phrase using quotes:
  - (ex. "instant email")
  
• Search for wild cards using asterisks (*)
  - (ex. *mail)
  

 

If however you get too many results, which I often find to be the case, there are useful tips to help narrow down your search. First, most importantly, search "Titles Only." Seriously, this should be the default search behavior. 90% of the time (a statistic I just made up) what you're looking for will be in a thread title... Next, if you can, limit "All Forums" to something more specific... if it's a FileMaker 14 item search in "FileMaker 14" only, if you know it's an FileMaker 11 specific item... search in "FileMaker 11" only- basic stuff but this makes all the difference from getting 500 results returned on just a useful handful when searching.

 

Make sure you choose your search terms well! FYI: You can use this method to search almost any forum with very good results.

 

HTH,

Ross

[Feirefiz]

It is? I haven't found an answer yet. Really, I was looking for a thread where someone helped me, probably eos (and apparently you can't search for two users at the same time). In this post I may have used the actual field names, which are in German. So I was wondering if I could even search for German words, or whether the search index only contains English.

[Feirefiz]

Ok, I found the post by chance, and used a German word by change to check the search feature. Indeed, non-English words are indexed.

[R MacLANE]

You can search for more than one name...uncheck the "exact name checkbox" and use the and/or operator.

[Feirefiz]

Oh, ok! Thanks! I had just resorted to Google searches of the forum instead.

[Feirefiz]

Odd. I tried this and the result was: "Invalid User specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator"

 

I tried with exact name box unchecked: Feirefiz and eos

And: "Feirefiz" and "eos"

 

It's not pressing, though, since it's possible to get the results with Google.