Re: To any Flare Users out there-A Searching Question

[Jan Cohen <najnehoc -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Hi Barbara, Frank,

See the info at the following link.  It might come in handy when describing the use of the boolean operators associated with Flare's search functionality:

http://kb.madcapsoftware.com/Content/Flare/Outputs%20-%20Targets/Web-based%20Help/OUTW1011F_-_Using_Booleans_in_Search.htm

jan cohen

----- Original Message ----
From: Frank Dissinger <dissinger -dot- cgs -at- gmx -dot- de>
To: TechWrite List <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Friday, August 31, 2007 3:20:13 AM
Subject: To any Flare Users out there-A Searching Question

Hi Babara,

Thank you for the hint with the Bolean operators. I am currently 
evaluating Flare and have also found the default behavior of the help 
search function little useful for me. It's good to know that you can 
narrow the search by adding AND.

I'd also prefer the search function worked like that of Google. Just 
enter two words and you only get help topics which contain both of these 
words. If you really wanted to aggregate, you could just perform two 
searches, one with the first word and one with the second.

I've also found out that, like in Google, you can search for a compound 
by enclosing multiple words in double quotes. If you enter "system 
variables", for example, you only get topics that have exactly this term.

Regards,
Frank


Barbara Vega wrote:
> When we perform a search in Flare, the more terms we add to a search,
> the broader the search gets. For example, if you put in Forms, you get
> Forms results. If you put in Forms Documents, the word Documents does
> not serve to limit your search to only the results for Forms which also
> have the word Documents on them; instead it aggregates, giving you a set
> of results for Forms, and adding to it a set of results for Documents.
> In short you get Forms + Documents. If you add the word Databases, you
> get Forms + Documents + Databases.
> With most other search engines, it is the opposite, Adding search terms,
> narrows your search. Additional words serve to lessen the search results
> you get to only those results with the additional word on them. For
> example, with Google, Yahoo, Lycos, etc., if you put in Forms,
> Documents, Databases, you get only the results that have all three of
> those items on them. 
> The only way to get Flare to narrow your results and behave as Google
> and those do, you must add the Boolean operator AND. For example, if you
> put in Forms AND Documents AND Databases, you will get only the results
> that have all three of those items on them. 
> To summarize, this opposite behavior of Flare is causing problems and
> confusion with our users, as it is counter-intuitive. We are getting
> many comments from users that they find it hard to find things in the
> Online User Assistance because they get too many results. They add extra
> terms to narrow down the search, as they would in Google, and instead
> they broaden the search and inadvertently make things worse. 
> Do any other Flare users out there get this behavior? If so, what do you
> do about it? Any suggestions on what we can do about it?
> Thanks. Anyone on HATT, if you could ask on there, I would appreciate
> it. I am not on that list. I don't have time to read it these days. 




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