Using the Search Facility

[ValencianNails]

Using the Search Facility

The Search Option should be your best friend as there is a wealth of information at your fingertips, but it’s no good having the information and help at your disposal if you don’t know how to find it in the first place.

Easy Search

If you’re looking for info on something like 'over exposure' then your first stop should be the ‘easy search’, click on Search and a dropdown menu appears with a search box, type in the words ‘over exposure’ and click Go, the results will display ALL posts containing those words, but you will probably get a mixed bag of results due to there being two words in your search.
There is an easier way to get a more refined search…

Advanced Search

Click on Search, on the dropdown menu click Advanced Search (http://www.thenailgeek.com/search.php), you can tailor your search not only to different forum categories but also for posts/threads from different Users on the site.

On the Advanced Search page type in the word/s or phrase in the Search By Keyword box, underneath there is the option of searching in all posts or titles of threads, decide which one would suit your search best.
On the right hand side you can search by User Name and whether you want to search by posts or threads from a particular Geek.

If you are looking for one thread in particular then you can refine your search even more…
On the left you have Search Options where you can look for threads by the number of replies they’ve received, how long ago they were posted, relevancy, number of views etc.
You can even choose a particular forum to search in, so if you know that a thread was definitely in Site Assistance (for example) then you can search solely in that forum.

When you’ve finished entering the info click the Search Now button at the bottom of the screen and the search results will be listed for you look through to get the info you need.

[Zingara]

Another good one Sandi! Should prove very useful for the new geeks, as it took me a while to descover the advanced search!

[ValencianNails]

bumping this one up for new Geeks to have a read :wink2:

[Snugglepuss]

Can you believe this Sandi - I was sat here having a quiet mo, thinking about all the previous days post and thought - should I do a thread about the HANDY LITTLE TOOL CALLED THE SEARCH FACILITY? because with exception of critique and new research and technology (oh and now the beauty side), everything is there somewhere in the thousands of posts - tutorials and articles - so what did I do?

HIT THE SEARCH BUTTON - top of the list was your thread - no need for another thread to be created - all the fab info there - so geeks - give it a go - you will be pleasantly surprised at what you find :green:

[lotus blossom]

snadi, you are soooo clever,!!!

this is a really helpful thread especially for newbies and oldies alike LOL!!!







ps i did mean to put snadi!!!!

[Posh Paws]

thankyou this information has been especially helpful to me xxx

[ValencianNails]

you're very welcome... the advanced search should help you (re your other thread).

[littlegrohl]

Thanks so much for this.. last night (very late) couldnt sleep and i was floating about the site.. when i came across a tip to straighten brushes.. I thought YEA! i can finaly straighten one of my fav brush's that i couldnt bring myself to part with.. when i woke up this morning i remembered that it had something to do with soap.. but that was it! Not wanting to wreck it any further i thought i would re-check but for the life of me couldnt find the thread!
as i am usualy arse about face i finaly went to the "how to use this place" thread and found your tips on using advanced search!
Typed in "soap" and after a second of looking found the little GEM written by NailZoo..
So Thankyou so very much.. from me and sable.. ((my brushs name)) and thanks NZ for a triffic bit of info!

[Bagpuss]

Just bumping this up for our newer members...:)

[redsadie]

Great little thread :)

The only thing that bugs me a little is that I use the search function a lot :)before asking a question, but I can't find a way of narrowing down if you are looking for a specific term. I mean when you put something into a search engine like Google, and type in a search term eg: nail forms, it brings up the most relevent and searched for sites which contain the term you have put in (there are 7 which contain this term in that order) but if you put it in quotation marks, it will narrow the search to just those words in that order (so now, at least the first 10 on the first page have this phrase in that order). On an American jewellery wholesale website, if you are searching for a particular item, all you have to do is put ' in front of your search term and 99% of the time it'll give you exactly what you are searching for.

My point is :rolleyes::) I love the search function, it is easy to use, but I get frustrated when I put something such as nail forms in our search function and about 20 million threads pop up that actually have nothing to do with nails forms but do contain those words, so I'll get things from the Biz Geek about what forms do I need to fill in? Or which nail tip do you prefer? Or something like that (this is just an example). Is there a way of narrowing down the search so I can find the actual phrase I'm looking for if I don't know which forum in might be in?

Sorry for the waffle and I hope you get what I mean?

Sarah. x

[Ditzy]

Great little thread :)

The only thing that bugs me a little is that I use the search function a lot :)before asking a question, but I can't find a way of narrowing down if you are looking for a specific term. I mean when you put something into a search engine like Google, and type in a search term eg: nail forms, it brings up the most relevent and searched for sites which contain the term you have put in (there are 7 which contain this term in that order) but if you put it in quotation marks, it will narrow the search to just those words in that order (so now, at least the first 10 on the first page have this phrase in that order). On an American jewellery wholesale website, if you are searching for a particular item, all you have to do is put ' in front of your search term and 99% of the time it'll give you exactly what you are searching for.

My point is :rolleyes::) I love the search function, it is easy to use, but I get frustrated when I put something such as nail forms in our search function and about 20 million threads pop up that actually have nothing to do with nails forms but do contain those words, so I'll get things from the Biz Geek about what forms do I need to fill in? Or which nail tip do you prefer? Or something like that (this is just an example). Is there a way of narrowing down the search so I can find the actual phrase I'm looking for if I don't know which forum in might be in?

Sorry for the waffle and I hope you get what I mean?

Sarah. x

Totally agree with this, and sad that after all this time it hasn't been answered.

I want to do a search with two words that both come up in the results. eg. if I search for

brush product

it comes up with every thread with just brush, and every post with just product. What I want is to find every post that has BOTH the words.

Any idea how to do this?

[marioned]

I;ve just tried a few ways using quotes, plus sign etc, but not able to do it. Ruth???? We need you!!! LOL

[ValencianNails]

You don't need a techy geek to be able to do an in-depth search... :lol:

Try to think of words (within your search) that are unique/specific to the query.
Make sure you narrow the search down to specific forums as opposed to searching 'all' of the site
If you know of a member who has replied (or is likely to have replied) to a thread about your query then you can narrow the search even more by looking for posts/threads they've made, along with your search words.

ie... if you want to know about "nail forms" then don't use the word "nail", just search for the word "form", narrow it down to the "Nail Geek" forum, if you know it was discussed recently then narrow it down even more by the date...

Simplezzz :wink2:

[Ditzy]

You don't need a techy geek to be able to do an in-depth search... :lol:

Try to think of words (within your search) that are unique/specific to the query.
Make sure you narrow the search down to specific forums as opposed to searching 'all' of the site
If you know of a member who has replied (or is likely to have replied) to a thread about your query then you can narrow the search even more by looking for posts/threads they've made, along with your search words.

ie... if you want to know about "nail forms" then don't use the word "nail", just search for the word "form", narrow it down to the "Nail Geek" forum, if you know it was discussed recently then narrow it down even more by the date...

Simplezzz :wink2:

I already do this, but as we said, wanting to find out about nail forms, if you just search "form", you will get replies about filling in forms, etc. I was searching last night to try and find a thread I saw about a gazillion years ago about product being stuck in your brush. If you search the nail forum for product, millions of results irrelevant to it being stuck in your brush. Ditto if you search brush. That's why it would be good to be able to search for more than one word to be in a post.

Did that make sense?:confused: I know I waffle!

(Bit like searching to compare Meerkats when you're looking to get car insurance:green:)

[marioned]

I know what you mean Sandi, but in a lot of other searches you are able to ensure all words are included. I was trying to work out a way of doing it as I'm sure it would also help narrow down searches :hug:

[ValencianNails]

I already do this, but as we said, wanting to find out about nail forms, if you just search "form", you will get replies about filling in forms, etc.
If you search in the Nail Geek forum you're more likely to get threads about "nail forms" when doing a search for "forms".
I've just searched for "forms" in the Nail Geek forum only and on the whole of the first page there's only 1 thread that refers to filling out forms as opposed to being about nail forms.

I was searching last night to try and find a thread I saw about a gazillion years ago about product being stuck in your brush. If you search the nail forum for product, millions of results irrelevant to it being stuck in your brush. Ditto if you search brush. That's why it would be good to be able to search for more than one word to be in a post.
On searching for the word "stuck" in Thread Titles Only I got the following threads...
http://www.salongeek.com/nail-geek/75198-acrylic-stuck-my-brush.html

http://www.salongeek.com/nail-geek/42191-acrylic-stuck-brush.html

http://www.salongeek.com/nail-geek/29697-help-products-stuck-my-brush.html

If ratio is your problem then these threads should help (found by searching for "ratio" in thread title in the Nail Geek forum...
http://www.salongeek.com/nail-geek/85053-mix-ratio-question.html

http://www.salongeek.com/nail-geek/71875-mix-ratio-too-wet.html

http://www.salongeek.com/nail-geek/70723-my-mix-ratio-terrible-still.html

This site isn't optimised for searching in the same way that Google or Yahoo sites are, it's a teaching site (as you're aware), however, by searching as I just did the threads are there, you just need to go about it differently than the 'usual search engines' iykwim :green:

[Chameleon]

I normally find what i am looking for...if it takes a few pages to get to it,i am patient,and sometimes i have learnt extra bits of info BEFORE i get to what i was looking for...i find it so valuable :)

[marioned]

LOL Gabi, that's one of my problems, 2 hours later I've had a very interesting and informative time, but I'm totally sidetracked from what I was searching for in the first place x

[happysez]

Hi thanks for the info on the serch but how do you find something that you have replied to or that you have left a question to. I am very new to this and am finding out a lot of stuff and putting my little bit in but then don't know how to get back to what I have left a comment on. Sorry if i'm being stupid here.

[ValencianNails]

Hi thanks for the info on the serch but how do you find something that you have replied to or that you have left a question to. I am very new to this and am finding out a lot of stuff and putting my little bit in but then don't know how to get back to what I have left a comment on. Sorry if i'm being stupid here.
You can subscribe to threads :wink2: When they get new replies the thread will appear on your UserCP page which you can find by clicking on "My Profile>>>User Control Panel" at the top of the page.

:right: http://www.salongeek.com/how-do-stuff-site/33674-lost-your-thread-subscribe-them.html :green:

hth's

[happysez]

Ah ha! thank you so much for advice! Now I still can't find the one I put up myself, I did this morning but now I can't. Won't hurt to keep looking.

[ValencianNails]

Ah ha! thank you so much for advice! Now I still can't find the one I put up myself, I did this morning but now I can't. Won't hurt to keep looking.
Click on your profile page, then click the 'statistics' tab, then click on "find all posts by happysez" and it will show you all of the threads you've posted on.

hth's

[happysez]

Thank you so much. I am finding my way and your advice is making it easier.