Can't search a subject with dots in it

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Ender
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Nov 07, 2007 7:21 pm

Can't search a subject with dots in it

Post by Ender »

Hi! I am trying to use Usenet Explorer for the first time. It took me an hour to get it going because I didn't know that the server name field is actually the address and I couldn't find a way to fix it once it was wrong.

I tried to search for the movie, "The Man From Earth" using the search service bar. I tried "man earth" That didn't find it. I tried "man and earth" That didn't find it. I read the documentation and learned that you have to use an ampersand.

I think that the search term, "man & earth" should find the movie but it doesn't. "man.from.earth" will find it. (I only knew to try that because I used another search service.)

If you cannot search for words separated by dots, it is a pretty big limitation since dots are used more often than spaces in the titles of binary posts.
Josef K
Posts: 534
Joined: Thu Feb 27, 2003 7:29 pm

Post by Josef K »

Using "man&earth" finds what you want. Obviously remove the quotes and make sure there are no spaces between the words and ampersands. Inserting spaces will tell UE to search for:

Code: Select all

man & earth
will return anything with the words "man " and " earth" (includes spaces).
alex
Posts: 4515
Joined: Thu Feb 27, 2003 5:57 pm

Post by alex »

or use wildcard if order matters

man*earth

better read "search examples" at UE home page http://www.netwu.com/ue/help/patterns.htm

if you look for

man earth

you are like looking for the exact phrase.

there was a request to add an option to treat spaces as & when search pattern is non-quoted.
dengle
Posts: 274
Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2003 2:37 pm

Post by dengle »

you can also use the ? character if you know the title, but aren't sure of the separating characters. i.e.:
man?from?earth

will match:

man from earth
man.from.earth
man_from_earth

etc

also, do not put spaces around the &. the search should be man&earth. otherwise, if I'm remembering correctly, it will be looking for
"man "
and
" earth"

without the quotes.
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