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Searching Topics & Posts 101

Searching Topics & Posts 101

The search feature is designed to allow you to quickly find topics and posts that contain the keywords you enter.

There are two types of search form available, simple search and advanced search. You may switch between the two using the 'More Options' and 'Simple Mode' buttons.

Simple Mode

All you need to do here is enter in a keyword into the search box, and select a forum(S) to search in. (To select multiple forums, hold down the control key on a PC, or the Shift/Apple key on a Mac) choose a sorting order and search.

Advanced Mode

The advanced search screen, will give you a much greater range of options to choose from to refine your search. In addition to searching by keyword, you are able to search by a members username or a combination of both. You can also choose to refine your search by selecting a date range, and there are a number of sorting options available. There are also two ways of displaying the search results, can either show the post text in full or just show a link to the topic, can choose this using the radio buttons available.

If the administrator has enabled it, you may have a minimum amount of time to wait between searches, this is known as search flood control.

There are also search boxes available at the bottom of each forum, to allow you to carry out a quick search of all of the topics within that particular forum.

Posts and Topics Searching

I've tried both the Google and site's searches and they do give varying results depending on what I'm looking for. I noticed if the word I'm looking for is less than 4 letters its better to use the Google search for it.

Searching Topics & Posts 101 Feedback & FAQ News Community

Something I've meant to do but never got around to it was to put a search box for searching within a single Thread. This is especially useful for very long Threads with many Posts and you want to find one Post in particular.