How To Use The Search Function

[FunkMasterFLEX]

maybe this could help so that our boards are not so cluttered with redundant questions....






How To Use The Search Function

I am not sure if someone has already made a distinctive manual on the Search Function of these boards....so hopefully this is important enough to be a sticky or whatnot.....

~The first Section is An overlay of the Screen and buttons/functions.....
~The second Section is tips for getting the results you may want...

~~~~Using The Search Function~~~~

"I am new, I have questions, I need answers" Does this sound like you??Well do not fret because here at Bodybuilding.com WE DO have answers, help, and suggestions.However You are most likely not the first to ponder on whatever question it is your pondering on. So SEARCH! How do I effectively search you ask? Well hopefully this will give you some idea of what needs to be done to get what you want to come up!




~BEGGINING~

~~How do I begin?

*BEGGINING-The Search button is located on the Upper Right hand portion of the screen. It says "search". Clicking this would be the first step towards enlightenment.The buttion is light bluish.

~~Ok I found the button NOW WHAT??

*KEYWORD-You may search by KEYWORD....That means enter in a word or group of words, or phrases which describe what you may want to know...you can type in a whole question if you wish.

~~What the Hell it wont let me search cause The search term I specified is under the minimum word length (4) and therefore will not be found.

*4 LETTER RULE-The forum system does not allow words under 4 letters to be typed, so you cant search for "abs", "DNP", "T3" or any other word which is less than 4 letters! If you wish to search for a term such as "Abs" you must use a WILDCARD. To use a wildcard you type in "Abs*" . The asterik is your wildcard. It will allow you to search for words which are less than 4 letters long. If you wish to search for something such as "T3" you could try "*T3*" this will work as well. One note on using a wildcard....you will not bring up all threads with those words...so if you can think up a different word for the same thing,try that...such as "cytomel" instead of t3.

~~Searching by USER NAME??

*USERNAME-Well lets say you want to read articles by "Big Cat" because you read his awesome steroid profiles and want to see some of the advice hes given. Well you would type in "Big Cat". If all you know is part of his name lets say "Big C" well then just type in "Big C", and then click "match partial name". Pretty basic right?? Well lets say you want an article by "Big Cat" but you only want it if it is about steroids, well then you put "Steroids" in the Keyword box, and "Big Cat" in the Username box, and there you go click Perform search and you got it.

~~Search Options?-- Why the hell do I need more things to click and fill in??

*SPECIFIC SEARCH OPTIONS-The first Pull down bar lets you choose to search in a specific Forum.So you can either just leave it alone which will run your search through all open forums, or you can choose a specific forum.

Underneath you get four more options these options are.....

-Search Entire Post ----Self Explanatory? I hope so....This will bring up all threads which contain your Keyword somewhere inside them.
-Search Titles Only-----Self Explanatory? I hope so....This will bring up ONLY threads which contain your Keyword IN THE THREAD TITLE.
-Show Results as Posts---- This will show your results as individual posts. As in NOT THREADS. After the search you can choose to only read the individual post or entire thread.
-Show results as Threads----Will bring up results as Threads, therefor you may have to go through the post to find your Keyword.

*Dates-Then you can choose specific dates to search your post from. The default setting is Any date. However you may select to search posts from a certain date (this is the pulldown menu), and then you choose to search from that date and newer, or that date and older.

*Sorting Results- Now you get too choose from the pulldown menu to sort results by:
-title
-number of replies
-number of views
-last posting date
-poster
-forum

and then you decide whether the results show up in ascending order (going up) or descending order (going down).

*LAST STEP- Well now all there is to do is search and hopefully find threads that may hold the answers to the questions you may have.





Feel free to help me update this section by sending suggestions

~~~~TIPS TO A PRODUCTIVE SEARCH~~~~

-Use basic words for basic searchs...Wanna know more about creatine....use "creatine"

-Use detailed searches for detailed results...Wanna know more about the affects of creatine on acne?...Well then use the Keywords "creatine" and "acne"

-there is no point in typing in anymore useless words such as "a", "if", "i", "or", "why", etc.... These will only bring up the damn screen telling you that your words are too short.

-If your word is too short, try finding another word for it which is not too short.....EXAMPLE..... instead of "t3" use "cytomel"

[CreatineMan]

funny article, this should go in the supplements section, it might help

[bluehazard]

Maybe this should be a sticky for all the forums?