How to Search CR4

A timely thread, I sometimes find myself trawling through posts to try to find some vagely remembered thread which holds a nugget of information I'm after.
Del

Don't know if this will be clear enough, but here goes;

Nope !

I often use the thing you can't see above - go to google advanced search, slot in whatever, then specify domain as "cr4.globalspec.com".

Plenty of ways to build you own search engine with google widgets etc.

Any benefit to searching directly off CR4's search box ?

Whatever the case, that's a useful post, Savvy. Hope you put it in the FAQ or someplace obvious for new members/visitors. Being a lazy so-and-so, I occasionally pm somebody to ask where the <whatever> thread was()

Kris,

Google is another option and may be a little easier to navigate than CR4's search. However, CR4 provides some options that Google does not, such as only searching words within the thread title vs. including words in the body of the post. You can also include or exclude comments and choose to only look for posts written by certain users. I'm not sure if that functionality is available with Google.

Thanks, Savvy.

It's maybe possible to meet those criteria with a search method other than that available on CR4, but point well made - it's not necessary.

I recall a few tips that mgaulin had given before about how to navigate threads (key combinations to hop about threads etc), and even a little aside (I think by Chris) as to how one can refresh the 'quote for the day'. If anybody can find those snippets, it would be neat to have them here on this thread.

There was also a very good tip I got by PM (private message) about how to manage PM's better (display fewer/more messages at a time). Alas forgotten, and not much chance of finding it since I'm a bit remiss in deleting old messages - it takes about 2 minutes to load now (). The reason for non-deletion is the many 'keepers'. I've pleaded before but if time ever allows it, can Mark arrange so we can copy a message over to our registered personal e-mail ? Cut'n'paste is a bit laborious - a simple 'forward to self' button would do the trick.

Whilst I'm pestering you, it might be fun to test the CR4 system ; suggest an obscure passage/topic within the annals of CR4, and see how easily people can locate it (and by what method they use). CR4's search facility works fine, but it might be interesting to proof test it (?). A lot of good info is posted off-topic within threads that have ambled off course. When time allows, I shall endeavour to see if I can test an example (as much as BBT scares me )

All good suggestions. I'm not aware of the keyboard shortcuts but if I come across them I'll write another blog entry on that topic.

Feel free to test everything out! I mostly wrote this blog entry as a reference point for some of our newer members. I thought this post might be a kinder way to share some of CR4's historical information with them.

Cheers - I found the 'refresh qoute of the day' tip here. Trivial maybe, but fun.

Just an observation, people get treated kindly if they've searched <whatever> (and let people know) when they ask a previously answered question. CR4 is a lot more user-friendly than most tech sites - I wouldn't dare ask a question on many computing dedicated sites , and many of the general tech/science places can be blunt to say the least.

I'll shaddup and let others post useful info for site navigation.

One other thing to mention: If you "hover" over links in the Title/Forum column, it will give you a pop-up of a line or 2 of text. I use that quite a lot when I am searching for a particular answer in a thread.

Nice teaching post. Milo

Unfortunately, we all take things for granted. I've been using CR4 for over 10 years now, long enough that I don't remember exactly how I got started... Your first paragraph starts with: "The way to begin any search on CR4 is from the homepage.", but it does not say how to get to the home page, nor provide a link to get there.

I don't know that I even knew there was a home page, 'till I started to read this post, and had to look to find how to get there... I never look that high on the page I'm using, so had to scroll up to see the Tab.

I've never been satisfied with my searches of CR4, so thanks! I will try to follow your steps. I definitely have some searches to do!

BTW, I preferred the previous toolbar (currently using Firefox 47.0 on a MacBook Pro), partly because it had some color. Also, previously, when I clicked on a "Reply" button, I could immediately start typing as soon as the reply window opened up. The cursor was automatically placed in the Reply field. Now I have to first click in the reply field before I can start typing. Otherwise it either ignores my typing or does other strange things.

...and what is the significance of the "p" just below the edit field?

Yep! It just happened again: I clicked on the reply button and started typing, but nothing happened.

Please fix that!

I'm clearly NOT an expert when it comes to searching. I'm trying to find out about "

efficiency of rotary vs reciprocating air compressors"

When I typed that into the search box and pressed Return, I saw a little number indicating 18 thousand or so possibilities, but only 2 were shown, neither of which had anything to do with my search, except that they included the word "efficiency".

What should I do next?

I just noticed that the "p" I asked about changed to "p >> span" What is that about?

This time I remembered to click before typing...

I went back a third (or was it fourth) time to try to follow your tutorial, and only now did I notice that you had selected the "Engineering Community" Tab, not the "Home" Tab. It is NOT inherently obvious that "Engineering Community"refers to CR4!

It's getting late. I'll try again in the morning...

Most regular visitors to CR4 know how to get here and are not navigating from elsewhere on the Engineering360 website.

It was decided that the tab on the navigation bar would be called Engineering Community because most people who don't know what CR4 is would find that name meaningless.

I would love to see the tab be called CR4 Engineering Community, but unfortunately, I don't think it would fit.

Why not name it "CR4.globalspec" which is identical to the URL?.

Your search is too specific. CR4 search works better with keywords rather than phrases.

I searched rotary vs reciprocating air compressor and found two results apart from this thread. The first result served to me explained the difference.

CR4 home is simply http://cr4.globalspec.com. I edited the body of the blog post because the search bar actually appears at the top of every page now. So Home no longer relevant for search purposes.

The p beneath the text editor is telling you the format that's being applied to the text. It's part of the editor but not anything you need to worry about.

Got it. I'm not sure whether I usually navigate to a point where the top of the page is not visible, or whether I simply haven't paid attention to it...

The most important thing I got from your tutorial is the fact that the default is only to search recent threads. Since I've been here ten years, I've seen a lot of stuff from quite a while back.

Now I just tried it again, and looked at search options, which default to any date for both older than and newer than. I interpret that to indicate it should search the entire history. Do I interpret wrong?

Thank you.

Very informative.