Choosing the right search terms is the key to finding the information you need.

Start with the obvious – if you're looking for general information on rigging, try rigging.

But it's often advisable to use multiple search terms; for example - rigging a model ship, may return more results. And rigging a friendship sloop may produce a specific (or, depending on your perspective, not so specific) results. And if you know the name of a member or author, you can get really specific.

Examples:
rigging
rigging a model ship
rigging a sloop
rigging a friendship sloop
rigging a friendship sloop by palmer

You can also search by member name.
For example, tom, tomse3, or tom articles, tomse3 articles. Reversing the order of the words usually will not make a difference.  articles tomse3 returns the same results.

As you can see, the more specific you get, sometimes the fewer and better results. However, don't get too specific! For example, "How do I paint the railing of a fully rigged ship" Try, paint railing fully rigged ship. Search queries do better without the more common words like, a, do, the, of, etc.

A computer can't read your mind and they have trouble with "context" of words. You should also be careful with your spelling. A good site for spell checking is Spellcheck.net. Just copy and paste your search terms and it will check for correct spelling.

Searching when viewing a post.
See this post, Threading a Bullseye, as an example. In the post the member is asking about reeving bulleyes. At the bottom of every post you will see - Can't find your way? Searching for something? See Search Tips, Or: Do a "Quickie" - Google that is! All you have to do is mouse over (highlight) a word in the post, let's use - reeving, as the example. Right click and use 'Copy', then hit the link - Quickie. Now 'Paste' the word reeving into the search box and hit the 'Search' Button. And here are the results - Search for reeving. Results for deadeyes. This search feature from Google will search thru the Forum's Posts as well as other sections like Articles, Links, etc. Even in the Photo Gallery (look for the search term - deadeyes in the photo's description). Of course you can enter any search term you want. Just hit the Quickie and type in a term!

Main Search Page.
Right next to 'Search Tips' is a link for the Main Search Page. Here you can do searches of the different sections within the Forum, including "Mega Web", "Amazon", and "Google" Search Boxes.

The Forum endeavors to give good search engines for it's site. But no search engine is perfect. Try one or two words at first, if the results are too many, then try and add more specific words to the search terms.

Hope this little tutorial is of help. If you are really having trouble searching the site, contact the Administrator.