Tweet
Tips on Searching the AMCA Forum
There are basically three programs or utilities that can help you search the AMCA forum. They are:
1) Use the search feature within the forum software, vBulletin (vBulletin is the product application AMCA uses to operate the forum).
2) Search for information using the Tags system, also a part of vBulletin.
3) Use the power of Google and their web indexing system to search for specific info on the AMCA forum.
Each of these three will be discussed below in a separate thread. Following that, some general tips on how to search regardless of the approach.
======
AMCA Forum Search Utilities - Global Search - Advanced Search - Forum and Thread Search
Within the AMCA Forum there are 3 different ways to search the forum. These are:
1) global search
2) advanced search
3) search within a forum or thread
Global Search
In the upper right hand corner of the main forum page is an open box with a magnifying glass next to it. By entering a word or phrase into this box and selecting the magnifier, the entire forum will be searched for this word or the words in the phrase. Results will be returned which lists the threads where the words are either in the title of the thread or buried somewhere within the thread. Click on the image to enlarge
Screen Shot 2018-09-20 at 10.21.01 AM.jpg
Before you do a search consider what your keywords are for the area of research. Keywords are the foundation of your search and can be defined as a significant word from a title or document used especially to find information. For example, an AMCA member said, “I want to find information about Indian Head Gaskets.” Its a simple statement but you will have the search function of vBulletin looking for every word in that statement so you want to break it down into the essential few keywords needed for the information search, in this case Indian head gasket. Note that the process used by the vBulletin search function treats the space between each keyword as if you wrote the word and - so it would be like this Indian (and) head (and) gasket. vBulletin does not have a search feature to restrict the words searched so it will give you any threads or posts where the keywords Indian and head and gasket appear. So you will get Indian head gaskets if they appear together in a thread or post, or you will get posts and threads with Indian (and) head (and) gasket appear. In global search vBulletin gives you the threads where a the keyword is found. The keyword will be highlighted in the thread so scroll down until you locate the highlighted text.
It is recommended that members get some experience using global search before going on to Advance Search.
========
AMCA Forum Search Utilities - Advanced Search
The second of the AMCA Forum search features is the Advanced Search which is just below the global search box discussed above. Advance Search can be triggered by hovering over and clicking the word Advance Search with your pointer. Click on image to make larger.
Screen Shot 2018-09-20 at 6.38.12 AM.jpg
From the main forum page, clicking on this link brings up the window as shown below. Click on image to make larger.
Screen Shot 2018-09-20 at 10.34.38 AM.jpg
Typically, the Search Single Content Type tab is displayed and used. The key features that are used here are in the Search For section as well as the Additional Options section.
In Search For, you again type in the Keyword(s) (ie, your word or phrase) you want information for. Note that the same limitations on phrases exists as described previously. To the right of the this box is a choice to search in Entire Posts or Titles Only. This can be handy if you remember that what you want is in the title of a thread/post and this will eliminate other search results which finds the keyword within the post.
In the User Name area, you can filter results or look for posts by a member's user name. Begin by typing that user's forum name into the box. As you type, matches to that user name will being to show. Once you've typed enough of the letters and you see the user's forum name, just click and it will fill in the box. Or of you just know the user's forum name, type it in directly. If you want to have exact matches only, make sure the box is checked.
For now, we'll skip of the Tag section and discuss it later on in another thread.
At the bottom under Additional Options, there are options to select a time period to search (and either before or after that) as well as sort the search results according to a preferred order.
Note that you can save your search preferences by choosing that feature.
======
AMCA Forum Search Utilities - Within A Forum or Thread
AMCA Forum also has the option of searching just within a Specific Forum or Thread. This is activated by clicking on the link Search Forum in the upper right hand portion of each forum. When you click on the link, a display similar to below will be shown. Note the two radio buttons on the left. You can choose to display results either as threads or by the individual posts. If you choose to display the results as threads, your search word/phrase could either be part of the title or within the thread which would mean you would have to open that thread and navigate around until you find the specific post you were interested in. If you choose to display the results as posts, then each post with the word or phrase will be listed. Click on image to make larger.
Search Forum
Screen Shot 2018-09-20 at 10.49.13 AM.png
Search Thread
Screen Shot 2018-09-20 at 10.51.51 AM.png
=======
Click here to go to AMCA Forum Search Utilities - Using Tags to Search [under development - pardon our dust]
There are basically three programs or utilities that can help you search the AMCA forum. They are:
1) Use the search feature within the forum software, vBulletin (vBulletin is the product application AMCA uses to operate the forum).
2) Search for information using the Tags system, also a part of vBulletin.
3) Use the power of Google and their web indexing system to search for specific info on the AMCA forum.
Each of these three will be discussed below in a separate thread. Following that, some general tips on how to search regardless of the approach.
======
AMCA Forum Search Utilities - Global Search - Advanced Search - Forum and Thread Search
Within the AMCA Forum there are 3 different ways to search the forum. These are:
1) global search
2) advanced search
3) search within a forum or thread
Global Search
In the upper right hand corner of the main forum page is an open box with a magnifying glass next to it. By entering a word or phrase into this box and selecting the magnifier, the entire forum will be searched for this word or the words in the phrase. Results will be returned which lists the threads where the words are either in the title of the thread or buried somewhere within the thread. Click on the image to enlarge
Screen Shot 2018-09-20 at 10.21.01 AM.jpg
Before you do a search consider what your keywords are for the area of research. Keywords are the foundation of your search and can be defined as a significant word from a title or document used especially to find information. For example, an AMCA member said, “I want to find information about Indian Head Gaskets.” Its a simple statement but you will have the search function of vBulletin looking for every word in that statement so you want to break it down into the essential few keywords needed for the information search, in this case Indian head gasket. Note that the process used by the vBulletin search function treats the space between each keyword as if you wrote the word and - so it would be like this Indian (and) head (and) gasket. vBulletin does not have a search feature to restrict the words searched so it will give you any threads or posts where the keywords Indian and head and gasket appear. So you will get Indian head gaskets if they appear together in a thread or post, or you will get posts and threads with Indian (and) head (and) gasket appear. In global search vBulletin gives you the threads where a the keyword is found. The keyword will be highlighted in the thread so scroll down until you locate the highlighted text.
It is recommended that members get some experience using global search before going on to Advance Search.
========
AMCA Forum Search Utilities - Advanced Search
The second of the AMCA Forum search features is the Advanced Search which is just below the global search box discussed above. Advance Search can be triggered by hovering over and clicking the word Advance Search with your pointer. Click on image to make larger.
Screen Shot 2018-09-20 at 6.38.12 AM.jpg
From the main forum page, clicking on this link brings up the window as shown below. Click on image to make larger.
Screen Shot 2018-09-20 at 10.34.38 AM.jpg
Typically, the Search Single Content Type tab is displayed and used. The key features that are used here are in the Search For section as well as the Additional Options section.
In Search For, you again type in the Keyword(s) (ie, your word or phrase) you want information for. Note that the same limitations on phrases exists as described previously. To the right of the this box is a choice to search in Entire Posts or Titles Only. This can be handy if you remember that what you want is in the title of a thread/post and this will eliminate other search results which finds the keyword within the post.
In the User Name area, you can filter results or look for posts by a member's user name. Begin by typing that user's forum name into the box. As you type, matches to that user name will being to show. Once you've typed enough of the letters and you see the user's forum name, just click and it will fill in the box. Or of you just know the user's forum name, type it in directly. If you want to have exact matches only, make sure the box is checked.
For now, we'll skip of the Tag section and discuss it later on in another thread.
At the bottom under Additional Options, there are options to select a time period to search (and either before or after that) as well as sort the search results according to a preferred order.
Note that you can save your search preferences by choosing that feature.
======
AMCA Forum Search Utilities - Within A Forum or Thread
AMCA Forum also has the option of searching just within a Specific Forum or Thread. This is activated by clicking on the link Search Forum in the upper right hand portion of each forum. When you click on the link, a display similar to below will be shown. Note the two radio buttons on the left. You can choose to display results either as threads or by the individual posts. If you choose to display the results as threads, your search word/phrase could either be part of the title or within the thread which would mean you would have to open that thread and navigate around until you find the specific post you were interested in. If you choose to display the results as posts, then each post with the word or phrase will be listed. Click on image to make larger.
Search Forum
Screen Shot 2018-09-20 at 10.49.13 AM.png
Search Thread
Screen Shot 2018-09-20 at 10.51.51 AM.png
=======
Click here to go to AMCA Forum Search Utilities - Using Tags to Search [under development - pardon our dust]
Comment