search criteria

[Maurice Arney]

How can I search for a phrase? I've tried the typical "enclosing in quotes" but that doesn't seem to work. For example; A search for "fore plane" brings up every post that has the word "plane" in it, but searching for "foreplane" brings up only three instances (because fore plane is two words) Maybe I'm doing something wrong but this is a huge obstacle when trying to search for anything other than a single word.

[Steve Wurster]

I entered "fore plane" with the quotes into the search box and the first 3 pages of results all had the phrase "fore plane" (without quotes) highlighted. I didn't check beyond the 3rd page.

[Maurice Arney]

I entered "fore plane" with the quotes into the search box and the first 3 pages of results all had the phrase "fore plane" (without quotes) highlighted. I didn't check beyond the 3rd page.

Well you must be searching on another web site then... Seriously, There appears to be no way to specify that a search includes both words. Try searching for "Miter Box." You will get all threads that contain the word "miter" and all threads that contain the word "box. Or "Table skirt." Same thing. It pretty much makes the search function useless.

[Maurice Arney]

OK... I did a "one word search" on this tech support forum for the word "search." It seems that this question has been asked before and for some reason never gets an answer. I can only conclude that the forum software is limited to basic one word searches (Why this question goes unanswered is a mystery). But I did find a "work around" for anyone who is interested. Using Google, you can search for a phrase and use the "site" function. For example, to find "miter box" you would enter this -> "miter box" site:sawmillcreek.org in the google search box. That will limit the search to the sawmillcreek web site. Unfortunately you can't narrow it down to a specific forum, but at least it gives the proper results.

[Steve Wurster]

Are you using the search box in the upper right hand corner? The one with the magnifying glass at the end of it? That uses Google search. All that does is call Google with the site qualifier set to sawmillcreek.org, as you described in your post. If you are getting different behavior (i.e. not a Google search) then you are either doing something different or the forum is behaving differently for you.

[Maurice Arney]

Are you using the search box in the upper right hand corner? The one with the magnifying glass at the end of it? That uses Google search. All that does is call Google with the site qualifier set to sawmillcreek.org, as you described in your post. If you are getting different behavior (i.e. not a Google search) then you are either doing something different or the forum is behaving differently for you.

I did try that one at first but saw that it simply went to google for a search. Since then I have mostly done my searches at the forum level. But now that I discovered the "site" option for google search (which I didn't know existed before) and since you have pointed out that the top level search does just that (a google "site search"), at least I can do a google search without opening a new browser. I've grown accustomed to finding an advanced search option on other forums that lets you specify "contains all of these words" or something to that effect. But at least now I know I can limit google searches to within sawmillcreek which is a far cry better than a one word search. So now I guess I can answer my own question... The site does not have the capability to do specific forum searches (other than a single word) but does provide a convenient google box to scan through all forums.