A "How to search the forum" tutorial

And before anyone snarks- no, this isn't to tell people not to post questions. It is just a quick tutorial on how to do a search using the advanced search button.

First, click on advanced search.

how to search the forum tutorial By Amandahugandkiss

Next, choose your options. Make it as specific as possible. Say I want to find a thread about glitter, but I don't want to learn about stickles. I want other glitter. So I selected "General Scrapbooking" under forums, and under keyword I typed Glitter -stickles. This is a boolean seach function (more on boolean below).

To narrow my search further, I chose to seach only thread titles, not entire threads.

how to search the forum tutorial By Amandahugandkiss

Now suppose I wanted to just know about Distress Stickles. Since that is pretty specific, I am going to expand my search perameters. In this search I am going to search ALL the forums and I am going to search the bodies of the threads, not just the titles. Note the quotation marks around "distress stickles".

how to search the forum tutorial By Amandahugandkiss

Now a note on Boolean searching.

To search for a 2 or 3 word topic, you will need to put it in quote marks. "Distress stickles" will bring up information on distress stickles; Distress stickles will bring up info on Distress techniques AND stickles.

To narrow your search use the minus sign (-). To search for adhesive, but not Tombow adhesive, type adhesive -tombow.

To broaden your search, use the plus sign (+). To search for both stickles and glitter, type stickles +glitter.

Thanks for reading!

No hand slap intended from me, since I love to learn things. However, even with these hints, the search feature here is not great. I really don't like that it won't go back further than seven pages. At least, I've hit that snag several times. I haven't complained because I think it's awesome that sb.com gives us a free forum like this, and because I've seen so many complaints from others already. I know the sb.com team tries their best to make this the best spot it can be, so I've just dealt with this little inconvenience!

• siameseplease Said:

I agree!!!

I agree too!!

Amanda, a lot of those tips I did not know! Thanks!! I will use them for sure. BUT, it shouldn't be so difficult to do a simple search here. *I am talking to you, sb.com.*

No snark here...this is a very helpful thread!

Walmart also has a TERRIBLE search feature. Not sure why...maybe because it's Walmart. LOL

wow! thanks for the info on the advanced search.

Thanks Amanda, the boolean search always confused me, but you made it make sense

Awesome. I've always wondered about boolean. I never exactly knew what that was.

thanks for the info Amanda ... I'm putting this thread into my faves

You are all welcome.

Awesome Amanda!

I would also suggest, in the advanced search, under the "Result Format" box, select "show topics the search terms were in" rather than "show each post."

What this does, is narrows the search to threads and not individual posts. (Hopefully that makes some sense.) In Amanda's example, the thread titled "Stickles vs. Generic" shows up several times, unless you chose to show topic.

HAPPY HUNTING!!!

Thanks I printed the instructions. Only I forgot I had a piece of cardstock in the tray. so I ruined a perfectly good piece of cardstock because plain computer paper would have been fine. Got to laugh.

This is great. I've tired to search for things that I KNOW are on here somewhere and just can't find them. This will help in the future I'm sure

I could have used this the other day, lol!

Now the question is: how to find this tutorial for using the search feature when I need to use it?

At the bottom of this page under Topic Options, click add to favorite topics. Then you can go to your favorite topics in your profile and always find it!

I'm bumping this thread the the top because some people need to read it.

This is VERY helpful!! I didn't know 90% of that.

Oh, I meant ...Thanks!!! (got excited and forgot my manners)

You are very welcome Jenny.

Thanks for this....saw it, then lost it as it moved down the board...so now I have copied and pasted the original post into a Word doc and saved it. That way I won't have trouble "searching" for it later.

Im still trying to get use to searching for things on here, just started back on here and back in into scrapbooking (never really got out of it just kinda been busy) but i try and find things out before posting, I been looking in past post and alot people ask same question and i like that you get different responses..ideas...ect.

I think we need to pin this thread to the top...

Happy searching everyone!!!

Sorry I just became guilty of not searcing first

Thanks so much. I hate to ask questions when I know they have been asked a million times before.

bump

Oh, for the love of mike. I don't use search here very often because the boolean searches never work. I didn't realize you had to go to advanced search first! This helps, thank you!

bump

Some may need a refresher!

Megan you should make this a sticky!!

It should be Ashley. It really is a genius thread, and whoever started it is truly a superstar.

I agree......

In fact, she's Damm-near "Queen of Everything" !

Completely. She should not only be Queen, but also take over Queen, Princess, First Lady, Rockstar, Superstar and the rest. Cause she is awesome like that

Seriously Meghan, we need this thread stuck on the top!

Here, here!!!

For me, a message board is only as good as its search feature. Boolean search is imperative for me to keep coming back often to a board.

This is not a hand slap to anyone who asks questions...it is questions that keep a board going, but it would be nice if more people did a search...first, then came back to the board and ask a question about something that adds value and additional information than the last thread found in their search.

Thanks for this thread.

Very well said Carol!

Thanks Amanda, that's really helpful.
Sticky please Meghan!

good Tutorial

It really is very helpful.

• kelseymel Said:

I couldn't agree more.

bump

Maybe those who could benefit will SEE this.

Yes Linda. Some people would greatly benefit from this tutorial.

bumperoo

I need to bookmark this topic, lol. I already commented when this was first posted that I needed to figure out how to find the topic again and got the hint of how to put the topics in my favorite topics. I did it, LOL but apparently THAT function didn't stick in my memory, either!

Thank you for bumping!

Bears repeating.

What would happen if this post got reported, and under the reason, it said "please make sticky"? Would that highlight it do you reckon?