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Difficulty searching for lenses on forum "Search"

PostPosted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 11:24 am
by georgie
Hi,

I am having difficulty finding posts about different lenses under the search facility. I have read the FAQ and tried different combinations but can't get it to work.

I try for instance "18-200" and I get no results but if I use "200" I get many results with the 18-200 in it.

Any suggestions at all? I am sure I am doing something simple that is wrong..

Many thanks

Re: Difficulty searching for lenses on forum "Search"

PostPosted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 12:11 pm
by Mr Darcy
I am sure you will soon get a reply from some one who actually knows, but many search engines use a simple joining scheme so you can make more complex searches. If this is indeed enabled on this forum,
18-200 would be interpreted as "containing 18, but not 200" exactly NOT what you want
You could try 18+200 which would return threads with both 18 and 200 in them
Also you could try putting the entire string in quotes:
"18-200" which would then match that exact string, but would not find 18 - 200 for example

Re: Difficulty searching for lenses on forum "Search"

PostPosted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 12:15 pm
by ATJ
Mr Darcy wrote:You could try 18+200 which would return threads with both 18 and 200 in them
Also you could try putting the entire string in quotes:
"18-200" which would then match that exact string, but would not find 18 - 200 for example

Greg,

I was going to suggest exactly those so I tried them first. They don't work and I can't explain why. I do understand how the "-" wrecks things, but it appears there's no way around.

I should add that the other problem with search is that it requires at least 3 letters. "18" only has 2 which may be why things don't seem to work.

Re: Difficulty searching for lenses on forum "Search"

PostPosted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 12:21 pm
by ATJ
Using +18 +200 seems to work, but it will match on any 18 and any 200, but only when both exist in the same topic. i.e. it would match on 18-200 but also on "18-70 and 70-200"

Re: Difficulty searching for lenses on forum "Search"

PostPosted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 12:24 pm
by georgie
Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Will give them a go :D

Re: Difficulty searching for lenses on forum "Search"

PostPosted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 3:05 pm
by sirhc55
Using the search function is akin to being in the middle of the Simpson without a compass :shock:

Re: Difficulty searching for lenses on forum "Search"

PostPosted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 3:22 pm
by ATJ
sirhc55 wrote:Using the search function is akin to being in the middle of the Simpson without a compass :shock:

I don't need a compass to watch The Simpsons. :roll:

Re: Difficulty searching for lenses on forum "Search"

PostPosted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 3:56 pm
by dviv
ATJ wrote:I don't need a compass to watch The Simpsons. :roll:


Especially not a moral version :mrgreen:

Re: Difficulty searching for lenses on forum "Search"

PostPosted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 4:37 pm
by photohiker
You might find google advanced search against this site to be a little more powerful

Like this

Of course, as you can see, people putting their gear in their signatures generally stuffs up searches...

HTH

Michael