Using the AF Search Feature

[CivicSpoon]

This one's for the AF newbies out there. I hope to add more searching tip later on, but here are some basics.

First, important things to know. You can not search for words that have less that 3 letters in it, so no searching for "O2 sensor". When you do a search, you will only be given 100 results (4 pages of 25 results each), of the NEWEST posts made about a particular topic. This is yet another important reason to search instead of posting a question that has been covered numerous times. Because eventually all the threads with the real info will be lost through the search feature and you'll only find other threads asking the same question (and usually only see responses such as "Search ya noob").

And here we go. You can go about a search in 3 ways. 1 is to search on the particular sub forum that you are currently looking at (AF being the Forum, and each Category within AF being a sub forum). 2 is to search through all of AF's sub forums at once ("AF in General" all the way through "Other Cars"). 3 is to search in specific sub forums that you select to search through. I'll be covering mostly the 2nd and 3rd options. So let's start by clicking the "Search" circled in red:


To search through specific sub forums, click the "Advanced Search" circled in red. If you want to search through all of AF, then type keywords into the white box and click the "Go" button.


Next you will put your key words into the white box (once again circled in red). The box immediately below that will allow you to search for words within a thread, or you can choose to search through the title of threads only. Searching for titles of threads is more useful if you have already seen a thread and remember a word or 2 of the thread title. Other wise don't change it and just search for words within the threads.


Now you will select a sub forum to search through. Scroll down the the "Search in Forum(s)" box, with the scroll bar circled in red. Then click the sub forum you choose to search in.


Here's a helpful tip. If you want to search through a couple sub forum at once; click 1 and then press and hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and then click additional sub forums to search in. If you select a sub forum that you won't what to search through, press and hold down the Ctrl key (or continues to if you haven't let it go yet) and click that sub forum again. The multiple sub forums I selected have the red circles to the right of them.


Sorry for such huge images, but this is the only way I could get any detail from the poor image quality my screen cap program makes. If anyone has any good tips or info to add, please feel free. But DO NOT ask questions in this thread that are unrelated to searching (that happens constantly because apparently some people can't read).