Searching

[casterle]

Is there a way to search only this forum? The search box at the top of the page seems to search all forums.

[walt.farrell]

When you click in the Search... box you should see an option list appear below it. Just choose "This Forum" from the options. (Note: I assume in writing this that you're using a browser on your computer. If you're viewing the forums on a phone or tablet the options will present themselves differently.)

[casterle]

On 2/23/2019 at 12:20 PM, walt.farrell said:

When you click in the Search... box you should see an option list appear below it. Just choose "This Forum" from the options. (Note: I assume in writing this that you're using a browser on your computer. If you're viewing the forums on a phone or tablet the options will present themselves differently.)

Thank you, but that's not what I'm seeing. The dialog I get looks like this:

Here's how I got to the search dialog above. Is this how you searched?

[Old Bruce]

I don't see that but I am logged in when I search, are you? Also on the first of your images is a tab marked Member Search, try that one.

[walt.farrell]

The top of my browser window looks different from yours. I have a search box:

Are you on a phone or tablet? Or do you have a narrow browser window? The site uses a responsive design that gives a different appearance, and different capabilities, depending on the available screen space. On my phone I get a search icon like you showed, and I also get that if I narrow my desktop browser window enough. And in that situation (phone/tablet or other narrow window) your searching capabilities are more limited.

[casterle]

This is nuts. Yesterday when I was on the forum I saw the same search options as you guys - with a search text box rather than a magnifying glass. Today I'm back to the magnifying glass!

Yesterday I logged out as an experiment and still saw the search text box while logged out so it doesn't seem to be a matter of whether I'm logged in or not.

I'm using Chrome on Win 10 x64.

When I first started visiting this forum I bookmarked the link. That is how I always arrive here so that can't be what's causing the difference in search options.

[Alfred]

19 minutes ago, casterle said:

This is nuts. Yesterday when I was on the forum I saw the same search options as you guys - with a search text box rather than a magnifying glass. Today I'm back to the magnifying glass!

How wide is your browser window? In the screenshots you included in your previous post, it looks tall and narrow.

[Old Bruce]

57 minutes ago, Alfred said:

How wide is your browser window? In the screenshots you included in your previous post, it looks tall and narrow.

Valid comment, I have to reduce the width of my browser to about 2/3rds of what I consider 'normal' to get the same "no search box, only the magnifying glass" result.

[casterle]

1 hour ago, Alfred said:

How wide is your browser window? In the screenshots you included in your previous post, it looks tall and narrow.

 

9 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Valid comment, I have to reduce the width of my browser to about 2/3rds of what I consider 'normal' to get the same "no search box, only the magnifying glass" result.

Thank you! That was it. I had to stretch my browser wider than I normally have it to see the 'good' search box. 

I can't understand why the UI is designed this way - there is no need to swap to a different control on the narrower screen. But even if the designer thought there was a good reason, why change the functionality of the control? Unless the goal is to confuse the user, then the design is outstanding...

[dominik]

On 2/26/2019 at 7:40 PM, casterle said:

why change the functionality of the control? Unless the goal is to confuse the user, then the design is outstanding...

Sorry, I can't help myself: it's the search box. You have to search for it 

d.

[Pšenda]

On 2/23/2019 at 8:01 PM, casterle said:

Is there a way to search only this forum?

Yes, but I personally use Google (site: forum.affinity.serif.com anything).
It gives more relevant results.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Pšenda said:

Yes, but I personally use Google (site: forum.affinity.serif.com anything).
It gives more relevant results.

But can you restrict that search to a particular forum (e.g., to "Suggestions for the Affinity Suite of Products") within this site as one can with the built-in search (assuming one's window is wide enough to show the search box and its options)?

[Pšenda]

I do not need to restrict my search to any particular forum - I usually do not know him.
And I'll find the right information in the most unexpected place :-)

 

Edit: Just a sample of the "Quality and Ability" of a forum search - try to find something about "3D".

Not to be Google, so I will not even know, that 3D is being discussed here very often :-)

Edited February 28, 2019 by Pšenda

[Alfred]

2 hours ago, Pšenda said:

I personally use Google (site: forum.affinity.serif.com anything)

You must make sure not to include a space after the ‘site:’ filter.

By the way, the same trick also works with other major search engines such as Bing, Yahoo!, and DuckDuckGo.

[casterle]

7 hours ago, dominik said:

Sorry, I can't help myself: it's the search box. You have to search for it 

d.

[casterle]

Here's a relatively recent list of Google search operators (in the context of SEO, but you can just skip down to the list): https://tinyurl.com/yb7638og.

 

[Alfred]

16 minutes ago, casterle said:

Here's a relatively recent list of Google search operators (in the context of SEO, but you can just skip down to the list): https://tinyurl.com/yb7638og.

Why the obfuscation? Many users dislike clicking on shortened links.

If I go to https://preview.tinyurl.com/yb7638og it tells me that the above URL redirects to

https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-advanced-search-operators/

which isn’t such an enormously long URL anyway.

[v_kyr]

Well Google also has/offers an advanced search feature. Beside that common things to know when searching with Google.

[casterle]

3 hours ago, Alfred said:

Why the obfuscation? Many users dislike clicking on shortened links.

If I go to https://preview.tinyurl.com/yb7638og it tells me that the above URL redirects to

https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-advanced-search-operators/

which isn’t such an enormously long URL anyway.

Sorry, I've never had anyone complain before. I'll avoid that in the future. 

[Alfred]

52 minutes ago, casterle said:

Sorry, I've never had anyone complain before. I'll avoid that in the future. 

Just to be clear, I wasn’t complaining! I was merely curious, since there didn’t seem to be any obvious benefit to ‘cloaking’ the link.

[Pšenda]

6 hours ago, Alfred said:

You must make sure not to include a space after the ‘site:’ filter.

Interestingly.

That's what Google has offered me (with a space), and this way (with a space) it works for me.

[Alfred]

6 hours ago, Alfred said:

You must make sure not to include a space after the ‘site:’ filter.

By the way, the same trick also works with other major search engines such as Bing, Yahoo!, and DuckDuckGo.

 

2 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

Interestingly.

That's what Google has offered me (with a space), and this way (with a space) it works for me.

A quick check here indicates that you’re correct about Google, but other search engines behave differently.

[Pšenda]

1 hour ago, Alfred said:

but other search engines behave differently.

I do not understand the context of my post.

10 hours ago, Pšenda said:

use Google (site: forum.affinity.serif.com anything).

 

[casterle]

1 hour ago, Alfred said:

Just to be clear, I wasn’t complaining! I was merely curious, since there didn’t seem to be any obvious benefit to ‘cloaking’ the link.

It's an old habit that I should probably break. 

[- S -]

3 hours ago, Alfred said:

Quote

Interestingly.

That's what Google has offered me (with a space), and this way (with a space) it works for me.

A quick check here indicates that you’re correct about Google, but other search engines behave differently.

You were right in your original post: there shouldn't be a space after the colon and this applies to not only Google, but also other search engines—including Startpage for example, who use Google results behind the scenes.

With a space, it can also return results for other Serif subdomains, as well as non-Serif sites.  Without a space, it only returns results for the specific forum.affinity.serif.com subdomain. 

Google without space:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?&q=site%3Aforum.affinity.serif.com+exif

Google with space:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?&q=site%3A+forum.affinity.serif.com+exif

Startpage without space:
https://www.startpage.com/do/search?&query=site%3Aforum.affinity.serif.com+exif

Startpage with space:
https://www.startpage.com/do/search?&query=site%3A+forum.affinity.serif.com+exif