[nutmeg]

I've only got a couple of minutes... I have to sign off FR until probably Sunday night...

Jim Robinson gave me some invaluable instructions on how to deal with the new system last night. Please do a search on my or Jim Robinson's posts to see his comments:

Type this in the search box (upper right): by:JimRobinson

Then click on the "Full" tab to see his full comments.

Two other good tips I learned last night:

Search by TITLE (I think right now it sorts on KEYWORD only, which is a pain): Type in: title:Nuptials (I was looking for the “Nuptials for the Warrior Nurse” thread)

This is a good one: Delete all wording in the search box (you probably see posts:* there now) and hit Go. (In other words, make the search box blank and hit Go.) You will be pleasantly surprised to see the old FR search box that we all know and love, with the drop-downs.

[Vision]

I think you're giving into the dark side.

[Revel]

Another way is to click on anyones user name to go to there home page. Enter the name of person you are looking for in box in the upper right hand corner to go to there home page. Then click on “In Forum”.

[STARWISE]

Thanks for taking time to pass along more tips,
nutmeg. I appreciate it.

I finally did learn how to mostly search.

Searching for titles is still confusing to me
and I don’t know if I’m truly getting accurate results
by searching for title:article when I want to post
a new thread.

I tried your tip to leave the top right search
box blank and hit go ... and it brings up the
same search format you get at the bottom of
the page.

What I miss THE MOST and really want to see
back is the simple search dropdown box for title,
poster, or keyword that we used to have at the top
of the Forum front page.

That was a breeze, and I’m not understanding why we
would get rid of that effective tool and replace it
with additional confusion and steps.

Hopefully, the tweaking continues ... ;)

[MinuteGal]

I think I'm pretty much squared away on the drill now, thanks to freeper friends, Nutmeg and Syncro. A friend in need is a friend, indeed. Thanks, guys.

I still don't care much for these changes, though. And think about the newbies trying to figure out what to do. WE know what to do, but they don't. I'm afraid they'll just drop out.

It was fairly easy to dope out what to do when I joined up almost 10 years ago and even a computer dope like I was able catch on very quickly because features were clearly marked. Now, the "search" box doesn't even say "search".

Good luck to all potential and/or newbie freepers who are not on the "inside" of how to navigate.

Leni