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Mackfam
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Non Nobis
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| Posted: Aug 07 2009 at 9:07am | IP Logged
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Many of you have asked how to add a link, or you might be wondering about a topic which has already been discussed at length and need to search the amazing forums here at 4REAL.
We have so many new members and I welcome all of you to our lovely little digital kitchen table! Grab a cup of tea and read over this very helpful thread which will guide you step by step through some of the technical skills needed to make your experience at 4REAL fuller and richer.
Enjoy 
4REAL - Frequently Asked Questions
The only thing that isn't really covered in that thread are how to search the forums here. I'll offer a brief tutorial on that and just encourage you to spend some time with them!!! I can't tell you how often I search here looking for a book, an idea, a solution...there is a wealth of information saved here!
Before we get started look on your shelves, choose a book - any book. You're going to search for it here. Choose something common, not obscure. If you can't think of anything, choose Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton. Let's see if it has been discussed here before...oh sure, I'm betting probably 90% of the members here have it on their shelves, but how do they use it? Are there any neat ideas?  Let's go see!
To search the forums:
In the upper right corner of the screen you'll see a collection of option buttons. Click the one that says SEARCH.
In the search for field:
Enter some key words to search for here...for our search you might enter one of the following:
**the title of the book
**the author
For our Mike Mulligan search, I'd probably type in {mike mulligan steam shovel burton}...
You also have choices of:
**All Words
**Any Words
**Phrase
For our search I'd choose {All Words} to search for our picture book. Now onto the next field...
(*Note* - You cannot enter apostrophes or quotations in the search field)
Search In
This is the next field to choose from. You can search for your words in:
**topic subject
**username
**message body.
Choose where you'd like the search engine to look for your words.
For our search, I'd choose {message body}...next field...
Search Forum
Now choose the forum you want to hunt in, it's a drop down menu, just click on the little arrows to the right and you'll be able to see all the forum options available. I sometimes do two or three searches just narrowing options here. Most of the time, I select {All Forums}.
For our picture book I'm going to search in {Picture Book Discoveries} first, but then I'll probably come back and search all over again in {All Forums} because I'm betting this book and possibly this author have been discussed elsewhere! Next field...
Posted By
This is handy if you remember that at some time a certain member posted something you want to find. If you remember that member name, enter it here. If you can't exactly remember the member name you can search for the member by clicking on the little magnifying glass search button next to this field on the right. You DON'T HAVE TO enter anything at all here.
To search for my picture book I'm going to leave this blank and move to the next field...
Sort results by
Choose how you'd like your results sorted:
**Last post time
**Topic Start Date
**Subject Alphabetically
**Number of Views
For our search, I'm going to select {Last post time}...now...
START SEARCH
The results of our search narrowing it to {Picture Book Discoveries}...now let's open it up a bit to include {All Forums}...I get a few more results!.
You'll notice that the words you searched for are highlighted in yellow - this should make it much easier for you to look through and determine if there is information pertinent to your search on that thread.
I hope this has been helpful!
I would encourage everyone to read over this extremely helpful thread which really points out all the tricks of searching here!
Search & Rescue: Search Engine Use (7th post down includes another tutorial)
****EDITED*****
Edited to say...   I messed up my own search initially by searching under {phrase} and not {All words}! The results at the end of the search I gave were the result of searching under {All Words} because I forgot to narrow the search to {Phrase} when I went back and entered everything in. If you limit your search to {Phrase} you get nothing...nada...nil...zilch.
Thanks to MaryM for pointing this out to me. She says:
MaryM wrote:
I only use that (narrowing a search by phrase) for very specific phrases I am sure are together in that order because in my experience that is all it will pull up. The "Any Word" option is the most random and pulls up results of every individual use of every individual word, but the "All Words" searches have to have all those words in the thread somewhere, so that is a lot more narrow and gets the best results - especially if the words are not small common words (or part words, iykwim)
For a book title I would put just the title of the book in and select phrase - in case the author wasn't mentioned, otherwise you might come up with no results when it actually had been mentioned. You want to avoid including little words like "and" or "the" when searching in general by any word, but for very specific search like a title, it will help you (as long as you choose "phrase" option). |
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I corrected the tutorial to reflect the CORRECT search parameters! 
Apparently, I needed the tutorial myself!
__________________
Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Mackfam
Board Moderator
Non Nobis
Joined: April 24 2006
Location: Alabama
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| Posted: Aug 07 2009 at 9:57am | IP Logged
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Bumping to say that I edited the tutorial a bit!
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Kathryn
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THANKS!!!!
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Kathryn in TX
(dd 16, ds 15, dd 8, dd 5)
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Angie Mc
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Jennifer, you generosity and good cheer are a blessing to us all! Thank you, thank you  .
Love,
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Angie Mc
Maimeo to Henry! Dave's wife, mom to Mrs. Devin+Michael Pope, Aiden 20,Ian 17,John Paul 11,Catherine (heaven 6/07)
About Me
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4Real Forums : Technical Help!
Topic: A little technical tutorial with your tea
