It is only recently I've discovered how to use the new search facilities a little better.
Click on search from the main menu and click on the advanced box.
Go down to the "Search mode" and select the "Fulltext boolean" option.
Now for some fun. Please try the examples.
Click on the search box. We will search for the Plastiki auction. If we entered Plastiki on its own, ten pages would be returned, and you would have to sort through them to find what you want. Instead enter: +Plastiki +auction, in the search box and click on the search function. We now have a single post with the results (both Plastiki and auction) we were looking for, of course we still have to scroll though the post but we have narrowed it down from ten pages.
The minus sign can also be used. When describing how to follow broken links I called the images "Search_link_1.png" through to "Search_link_4.png". If we enter: +Search_link* +cellar, in the search box the post will be returned as a result. Notice how I've used the * as a wildcard so the search returns Search_link and any characters after it. If we change the +cellar to -cellar and search for +Search_link* -cellar, to remove the unwanted term (cellar) no result is returned. We can use this to help narrow our searches.
The last example also highlights something else - we can search for the names of images. In the initial "Welcome" post of the "Gallery section" Michael posted; "For future reference, it would be helpful, whenever possible, if you could post reference numbers for watches shown and calibre numbers for movement images."
For example, search for +3508* don't forget the * wildcard because you don't know if it is a jpg image or a png (as in the example above or something else). If you click on the third result "Show your INGENIEUR!" we can see the image, called 3508-arm.jpg. Notice that we have a result for 3508 even though Heiko has not mentioned it in the text of the post. I encourage you to follow Michael suggestion about naming images.
Phrases can also be searched for, let's look for - results per post. This needs to be enclosed in quotations - "results per post". The search returns the following thread - How to follow broken archive links . Open the thread and in your browser (I'm using Firefox) either click on edit at the top of the screen or hit control and "f", type; results per post, in the find box, click on Highlight all and scroll down the thread. The results per post phrases is highlighed and easily found.
I'm not sure how many combinations of plus, minus, etc can be used but they do help to find what we are looking for.
For those looking for more fuctions please see the MySQL documentation on:
Cellar -almost only a plus, since this effectively allows complex (Boolean) searches. The only minus is that it's neither intuitive nor simple to remember, at least for a while. It also should be usable for the archived posts, which would allow for power searches.
4,733 Discussions and CommentsMember since Dec. 18, 2006
Thanks very much for figuring out all these tips! They sure come in handy.
As for naming the images: I will see if I can get myself to switching to the IWC numbering instead of what I use now (Inge_*; BP_*; PA_*; AT_* and Exup_*).
Click on search from the main menu and click on the advanced box.
Go down to the "Search mode" and select the "Fulltext boolean" option.
Now for some fun. Please try the examples.
Click on the search box. We will search for the Plastiki auction. If we entered Plastiki on its own, ten pages would be returned, and you would have to sort through them to find what you want. Instead enter: +Plastiki +auction, in the search box and click on the search function. We now have a single post with the results (both Plastiki and auction) we were looking for, of course we still have to scroll though the post but we have narrowed it down from ten pages.
The minus sign can also be used. When describing how to follow broken links I called the images "Search_link_1.png" through to "Search_link_4.png". If we enter: +Search_link* +cellar, in the search box the post will be returned as a result. Notice how I've used the * as a wildcard so the search returns Search_link and any characters after it. If we change the +cellar to -cellar and search for +Search_link* -cellar, to remove the unwanted term (cellar) no result is returned. We can use this to help narrow our searches.
The last example also highlights something else - we can search for the names of images. In the initial "Welcome" post of the "Gallery section" Michael posted; "For future reference, it would be helpful, whenever possible, if you could post reference numbers for watches shown and calibre numbers for movement images."
For example, search for +3508* don't forget the * wildcard because you don't know if it is a jpg image or a png (as in the example above or something else). If you click on the third result "Show your INGENIEUR!" we can see the image, called 3508-arm.jpg. Notice that we have a result for 3508 even though Heiko has not mentioned it in the text of the post. I encourage you to follow Michael suggestion about naming images.
Phrases can also be searched for, let's look for - results per post. This needs to be enclosed in quotations - "results per post". The search returns the following thread - How to follow broken archive links . Open the thread and in your browser (I'm using Firefox) either click on edit at the top of the screen or hit control and "f", type; results per post, in the find box, click on Highlight all and scroll down the thread. The results per post phrases is highlighed and easily found.
I'm not sure how many combinations of plus, minus, etc can be used but they do help to find what we are looking for.
For those looking for more fuctions please see the MySQL documentation on:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/fulltext-boolean.html
I hope this helps when searching the Forum.
Cheers from the cellar
cellar@gregsteer.net
Last edited: 4 January, 2013 - 22:35
My compliments, and thanks.
Regards, Michael
mfriedberg@iwcforum.com
Last edited: 5 April, 2012 - 19:53
As for naming the images: I will see if I can get myself to switching to the IWC numbering instead of what I use now (Inge_*; BP_*; PA_*; AT_* and Exup_*).
Kind regards,
Clemens
Last edited: 30 May, 2012 - 20:59
You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf - Jon Kabat-Zinn
Last edited: 9 July, 2011 - 10:40