search feature

Dave, are we ever going to get the search feature back? Very frustrating not to have it.

Jeanette

You mean the search box in the upper right hand side? Works for me.

So what am I doing wrong? I get no reaponse at all.

It works fine for me as well. What are you searching for? Only thing I can think of is if you're searching for something that has less than 4 letters I know the search won't work, but otherwise it should.

Is there a thread or something someplace that tells about the forum? How to use each thing?

Jeanette

I haven't been able to get it to work either... I just did a forum search for meatloaf and got one article by Palmbob about food related toxins and pets. *sigh*

I just typed 'meatloaf in the upper left hand search box from this page and got 7 pages of threads and that was before I narrowed it down to looking in just the Recipes forums.
I am using the Firefox browser, (as recommended by Dave) , if you are both using Microsoft IE, perhaps that has something to do with it? Don't know, just throwing out ideas. Just seems like IE gives a few folks some trouble. I never use it unless I have a website that just doesn't work with Firefox.

This message was edited Oct 6, 2009 4:56 PM

I'm using Firefox too...weird

Me too.

I just tried meatloaf and got one page of everything from prayer requests, to gardening, lasagne, you name it, it was there.

Jeanette

aha!! big bright lightbulb moment.

I just searched meatloaf again with quotation marks and got a zillion things. Quotation marks are the key. Maybe it should mention that somewhere? Like beside the search box maybe??

When I search from the Home page, I just get one thread and that's the one threegardeners mentioned, the one by Palmbob
When searching for 'meatloaf' from this thread page, I get 122 threads with 'Search through Body of Post' feature and then 12 threads with 'Search through Subject of threads'. From there you can select which forum to limit it to. So it looks like you need to be within the forum discussions to begin with, not the Home page.

Just tried that. I got a zillion things too, including prayer requests, gardening, flower pictures, you name it.

Jeanette

I don't use quotation marks at all, just the word so sorry if the way I wrote it may have confused you. But if that works, great.

If you go up to the search in this screen right here, and tell it to look in recipes, you will get a lot of recipes, and I am sure even tho they say chicken, somewhere in that chicken thread is going to be something about meatloaf. So, it looks like it probably works in any feature if you just tell it what thread to look in. Like recipe.

Jeanette

Maybe there is an index somewhere that tells what each feature is and how to use it????
Guess I am expecting too much.

I use Safari and just did a search for Meatloaf from this page and got six pages of forums ... the first being this one, probably because of Threegardeners mention of the word meatloaf in her above post. The list does show the Prayer Request Forum, Frugal Living, Florida Gardening, as well as bunches of others. I wonder if somewhere in each of those, the word meatloaf was mentioned by someone? Maybe I will check a few of them to see what I find.

Not exactly what you all posted about, but it took me a very long time to realize that some searches "weren't working," because DG Search and Forum Search search different things. I think it's really bad that DG Search doesn't include forums (and maybe other things, like blogs? Haven't checked that.) If that can't be done there ought to be big, vivid alerts that you have to go do a forum search to find things there. DG Search won't do it.

LAS

I noticed that. You have to do searches while you're ON a forum for it to include any forum results. And the DG search seems to include results that seem to have nothing at all to do with what I was searching for.

Each search function looks for the word or phrase you're searching for. From the Home page, the search will look in several areas around the site. From the forums area, it will search all forums, or you can limit it to one forum (or even one particular person who posted that word or phrase.)

From the Garden Watchdog or Go Gardening, the search looks for company names you specify--all or part.

The 'Files (Plant, Bird and Bug) will look for through the scientific and common names to look for words matching your search.

Ditto for journals and tradelists - the search function in those areas is limited to journals or tradelists.

For best results, you need to meet the search function halfway ;o)

Think of it like looking for an item in your house--if you are looking for a recipe, you probably don't send everyone on a house-wide scavenger hunt and ask them to look in the linen closet and bathroom drawers for it; you'd start with the kitchen. (THEN, if you don't find it, you'd start looking in other likely spots before launching a whole-house search ;o)

Similarly, if you're looking for meatloaf, your best bet would be to go to the recipes forum and use the search box to look for meatloaf,and limit the search to the recipes forum.

If you were looking for a particular plant, you might start with PlantFiles; if that doesn't give you what you're looking for, you might want to also search the journals to see who's growing it and if they have any notes on their experience. If you want to buy the plant, you can look in PlantFiles to see if there's a link, or search PlantScout directly.

OK Terry, thanks. That is what we need. But what would be nice is to have an index directing us to your explanation. :-) So that we don't have to go thru this everytime we need to know something and take up all of your time too.

It might take a lot of time to set it up, but it sure would be a nice feature to have.


I SUGGEST IT TO DAVE. Maybe that is something else we need. A suggestion box. LOL Dave is going to kick me off here

Where can I set up a file to put this in where I won't lose it? Is there such a thing in my profile box?

Jeanette

1) click on the Post # next to my posted explanation - that will expand the explanation to its own "page."

2) While you're viewing that post/page, look for the yellow file-folder in the upper right-hand corner and "tag" it with whatever title you want. That will save it as a tag you can access from your tags (under your tools.)

Whoops, I forgot the tag function. You are so right. Thank you Now that won't put this whole file in my tags will it?

Sometimes I've failed to locate what I want on searches at DG. Then googled...and voila! One of the google results was what I wanted...on DG site.

Without all the other files???

This is wonderful info. Glad I stumbled on it. I've been here since '05 and have always had trouble. LOL Thanks!

my search works fine as long as i'm in a forum. my homepage is a different story. i have the search box and i can type something in there but there is no way for me to get it to search, no place to click. it's always been this way. am i missing something?

Just hit your "enter" key. (You can do that with most search boxes that have a "click here" or "submit" or "go" button, too ;o)

you know, i tried that several times but i guess i just wasn't paying attention. i just did it and happened to glance up and here the page was loading! i guess i wasn't giving it enough time. i was only looking at what i typed and wasn't seeing anything happening. i'm so impatient. lol

thanks!

You're very welcome!

I'm no longer having problems doing searches anymore.

Thanks Jeanette for asking about this ... and thanks Terry for explaining it. Guess I should have already asked, but I thought it was just me. LOL
~Susan

Ok, but, now I forgot how to find the tags. LOL, aren't I the pits? Where are they? Maybe you can tell me lo1.

Jeanette

If you want to create a tag, click on the manilla envelope in the upper right hand corner of the page you want to tag. (underneath the time)

If you are looking for pages you already tagged, go to the 'My Info' link below the tabs at the top of the DG page, underneath the banner. Click on that, and then click on 'View Your Tagged Pages'

Okay, if I did this right ... this should explain it. LOL If not, then I'll come back and edit my booboo. LOL

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=7193693

Ooops, should have previewed! Sorry!
^_^

that's great Joan. Problem is that I tag your explaination but it is in the tags I can't find. LOL

Dumb.

Jeanette

Joan, no matter how many I tag, I still only get 3 when I try to look at my tags.

What am I doing wrong?

What are you doing working this time of night?

Do we keep you there 24/7?

Jeanette

I just opened my post by clicking on the post number underneath my name.

Then I clicked on the manilla envelope

Then I wrote tagging explanation in the line offered and clicked on 'Add These Tags'

Then I got the following message:

Good grief Joan. You should not be working when you feel like that especially when there is so much flu going around. That is down right dangerous now. Go home.

I did not know I had to write explanations on them. I just thought they would all be in one place.

Go home. Nothing is worth your getting sick.

Jeanette

I am home! ^_^

Do you mean that you are working from home?? Now, that would really be a good deal. I think more and more businesses are going that route. And, no reason why you all couldn't do that.

Take care and good health.

Jeanette