Tips for Searching
 

As most of you are aware, it's not uncommon to have duplicates posts pop up around the forums. A lot of the time it's because people simply do not attempt to search first. Other times they might search and not find what they are looking for. Let's face it, this site has tons of information to digest, and it can be quite overwhelming for someone new to Windows Mobile and/or online forums. It's easy for those that have a good grasp on the site to forget how it was when we were new. Patience can be lost when seeing new threads being posted about the same things over and over. At the suggestion of gorillaguzzler here (please give him props as this was his idea), I thought I'd put this together. I know it's pretty basic info, but hopefully it will help someone out.

Before I get started I would like to ask this of ALL members: Please try and remain respectful and courteous to other members who post redundant threads. It does not take long to stop and politely point them in the right direction. Either post the information they are looking for, or direct them to an existing thread on the same topic. I hear a lot of people say they are intimidated to post new threads because they think they'll get ridiculed for not searching good enough. If you try the following recommendations for searching and still cannot find what you are looking for, then you have no need to justify creating a new thread.

Now, for the tips. When you click on the "Search" tab at the top of the screen you will see the following drop-down:

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/2391/...ropdownvk7.jpg


You have a few options here, Simple Search, Advanced Search, and Google Search. If you are having difficulty finding information with one of the search methods, please try the other two as well before posting a new thread.

1. Simple Search
This one is pretty straightforward. Just type in what you want to search for and then click "Go". For what it's worth, I never use this. I have much more success using the other search features.

• If you decide to use this method, you may come across the following scenario. Say you want to search for something for the Touch HD. If you type that in, you'll get an error message indicating that you have not entered the required number of characters. To avoid this, you can use the * symbol as a wild card to complete the minimum character requirements. (Example: Touch HD*)

2. Advanced Search
This is a little better than doing a simple search because you have more options. In addition to searching by keyword, you have the option to search other criteria such as posts made by specific members, date ranges, limiting the search to specific forums, etc. It's pretty self-explanatory once you go in and try it out. Here is a screenshot of what the Advanced Search screen looks like:

http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/8...hscreenkt8.jpg

3. Google Search
This is my search of choice. I've found that I find much more relevant information using this than the basic simple search, and it's equally straightforward. Here are some tips that I use for searching with Google:

• Explicit Search: Let's say you are looking for information on Sprite Backup Errors. Instead of just typing Sprite Backup Errors in the Google search box, you will more than likely be better off searching explicitly for the phrase. To do this, just enclose the search phrase within double quotation marks. (Example: "Sprite Backup Errors")
• Exclude Words: Let's say you want to look for information on TF3D but want to exclude any results containing the term Diamond. To do this, use the "-" character in front of the word you want to exclude. (Example: TF3d -Diamond)
• Similar Words and Synonyms: Let's say you want to include a word in your search but want to include results that contain similar words or synonyms. To do this, use the "~" character in front of the word. (Example: ~modify)
• This OR That: By default, when you search, Google will include all the terms specified. If you are looking for any one of one or more terms to match, then you can use the "OR" operator. Please note that the "OR" must be capitalized. (Example: tf3d OR manila)

There are many other tips and tricks to searching, but these are the ones I find the most useful here on the site. If you have anything else that I missed or you want added to the list, post it and I'll keep this updated. Let's please try and keep this thread clean, positive, and on-topic. Any off-topic and/or negative threads will be deleted.

Re: Tips for Searching
 

The artist formerly known as Tripdub1 doing his thing with the most outstanding idea since the sticky for Reporting Spam Posts. This is so good and essential that this needs to be the sticky of all stickys.

Re: Tips for Searching
 

Nicely done!!! I am glad I finally had a good idea. Glad Hafrust put it together he did a great job.

Re: Tips for Searching
 

Thanks guys. Hopefully people will actually read this and put it to use!

Re: Tips for Searching
 

Nice work my man!

late,
Coz

Re: Tips for Searching
 

awesome.... i hate asking redundant questions.

Re: Tips for Searching
 

+1 for it to get stickied, awsome post bro.

Re: Tips for Searching
 

Upon request, I edited the OP to include information on using wildcard in simple search. Thanks for the positive feedback guys!

Re: Tips for Searching
 

+1 on the awesome post!

Re: Tips for Searching
 

This has been sitting on the back of my tongue for a while now and this is the time to let it out. I personally think the search function of this site is fairly lame. You can type 5 or more relatively strong words and the search still comes back as "The search term you specified is under the minimum word length (3) and therefore will not be found. Please make this term longer." This happens constantly and then to add insult to injury after that happens, you have to sit there and twiddle your thumbs since you can't search again for another minute or whatever length of time it is! I do agree that the Google search is much more efficient, BUT, to my knowledge it isn't available in the thread searches, only in the global searches. Therefore it brings back alot of irrelevant results and further frustrates people who then have the "oh what the heck, I'm gonna post this and see what sticks on the wall." mentality. So, before we continue bashing, mocking and scolding every poor soul who falls victim to posting material that has already been posted, perhaps we should look within here and ask if we might not have a bigger problem. Namely an inefficent searching mechanism. I don't think it's the search engine's fault per se (especially not the Google function), just the entire mechanism around it. For a web site brimming with some of the most talented software development people anywhere in cyberspace, I think it certainly could be better. Ok, my rant is done. Feel free to flame, bash and otherwise mutilate my existence at this point. But hey I said it and I'm glad!

Re: Tips for Searching
 

There will be no bashing or flaming for sharing your opinion. Everyone is entitled to theirs. I understand what you are saying about searching specific threads. I was looking for something today within a thread and it took me a while. You mentioned the problem of not meeting the length requirement for search terms. I mentioned a way to circumvent this issue in the first post. You can add an * as a wild card to meet the minimum character requirements. For example, searching for Touch HD will give you the error. Searching for Touch HD* will not. I know the basic search funtion is less than perfect, but it is what it is and we have to do the best we can with it. I agree with you 100% that people shouldn't be chastized for not finding info after searching. But, I at least expect people to try finding information using several different search methods before posting. If someone does that and still doesn't find an answer, no one should hassle them about it.

Re: Tips for Searching
 

Great job! Searching can sometimes be overwhelming and frustrating. There is so much information on this site to digest.

Re: Tips for Searching
 

should make this a must read for ALL members, It gets real old having the grouchy peeps on here barking at you ...Great job thank you.

Re: Tips for Searching
 

I completely agree!

Is there anyway possible that the original post could be sent as a mass private message to ALL members?.....just a thought.

-Keir-

Re: Tips for Searching
 

Hafrust, I would like to say THANK YOU for saying that, because i was scared to post something and I have looked and searched all over and wasn't getting anywhere. THANKS to Keir333 and Selders59, they were very understanding, helpful, nice and the responce time was pretty fast. I'm beginning to love this site more and more. Being nice goes a very long way.

Re: Tips for Searching
 

Thanks for the support guys! I don't know about sending it out as a mass pm, but it is here in the site rules forum, which I know everyone reads before posting.....lol. Just try and remember to pay it forward and help someone else out when you can.

Glad to see you get your feet wet! I'm sure you'll find it's much more fun around here when you feel free to get involved. There are so many intelligent people around here who are really eager to help, so don't be afraid.

Re: Tips for Searching
 

Thanks!

this is very helpful for this ole newbie

Re: Tips for Searching
 

I have been searching for help on searching for over threee months and just now got these results...

Seriously though, nice work bro :)

Re: Tips for Searching
 

+1 on the awesome post!

Re: Tips for Searching
 

Fantastic post. I'm really glad you asked people to be courteous when responding to repeat threads. I swear some people do it just to up their post count. Others are just jerks. If a post annoys you, why do you want to invest the time into replying just to tell OP to SEARCH? Just ignore it. Better yet, be polite, and at the very least link them to this thread. Best, link them to this thread AND link to the redundant information.
Berating new members (or even older ones) about double posts creates an elitist mentality that is going to slow down the spread of information even more than redundant threads themselves.

Re: Tips for Searching
 

OK I will try this one

Re: Tips for Searching
 

Thanks

Re: Tips for Searching
 

I use this to specify a particular forum in the Google search bar. For me its the Touch Pro. If we go to that form and look at the url, it is:

http://www.ppcgeeks.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=63

Well Google has a neat little feature for searching called inurl

To specify searchine for alternatives to manila in that forum, I enter in the Google search bar:

manila alternatives inurl:f=63

And voila...only search results from that forum is displayed. The "inurl" command will instruct the google search engine to restrict the results to documents containing that word in the URL

Lets say that I wanter to search multiple forums such as "HTC Touch Pro" and "Pocket PC Software". Well, we already know that the forum id for the HTC TP is 63 and going to the Pocket PC forum, we see in the address that the forum id is 23....so I would enter this:

manila alternatives inurl:f=63 OR inurl:f=23

Repeat and expand as necessary. It is not the best solution but it narrows the searches down to what you want.

Hope that helps some of you.

Cheers
John

Re: Tips for Searching
 

I've decided I like this post so much I am going to add it to most introduction welcome messages I send. Thanks!!!

When I get a bunch of hits, how can I see them in full and in context?
 

I have a beef with most forum search engines, including this one. I don't blame you, since I have the same problem with other forums I belong to.

OK, here's the beef: I do a search, and it returns a bunch of promising-looking excerpts from posts.

But there's no way to go to them to see them in full, since the only link in any of them is to the name of the thread, which takes me to the first page of the thread the post is in!

What am I missing?

Re: Tips for Searching
 

once you are taken to the page, look at the top right corner and you will see the pages, click on last one......

is that what you're missing?

"These aren't the droids you're looking for. Move along."
 

Going to the last page of the thread is no more useful than going to the first page of the thread, if what you're looking for is buried somewhere in the middle!

However, poking around some more, I found a solution that's totally counter-intuitive: Click on the link labeled "Re:"

The "Re:" label says that it's a link to the post being responded to by the post found by the search, not to the post the search found.

However, it in fact does take you to the post found by the search.

Perhaps Obi Wan Kenobi is at work here:

"This isn't the post you're looking for."

Except that it is!

Re: Tips for Searching
 

http://www.webcam-steamate.com/cookies/42/b/happy.gif

Often, you want to search a specific website for content that matches a certain phrase. Even if the site doesn’t support a built-in search feature, you can use Google to search the site for your term. Simply use the "site:somesite.com" modifier.