How do we limit a search to a single forum?

MontanaKarl
MontanaKarl Member, Mac Beta Beta
I must just not be seeing it… but how can we search only within a particular forum, e.g., Product Ideas - Quicken Mac?

Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Ventura 13.6.5 • Windows 11

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Best Answers

  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    edited February 2023 Answer ✓
    It can be done:
    1. Start a search by typing in the search box and click Enter.
    2. Click the Discussions button under the search field. This opens up more search options in the Filter section on the right.
    3. Click in the Category dropdown on the right.
    4. Type "Ideas" in the box
    5. Product Ideas - Mac will be at the top. Click that.
    6. Optionally click the box Search Subcategories
    7. Optionally change Sort by from Best Match to Newest
    8. Click the Filter button
    That's it. 

    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • Jon
    Jon SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Answer ✓
    @MontanaKarl You have to type something in the search field & hit Enter first. Once it's showing you the search results, the Discussions button appears.

    Quicken Mac subscription. Quicken user since 1990.

  • Rocket J Squirrel
    Rocket J Squirrel SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    Answer ✓
    I must be totally blind.

    Time for a new eyeglass prescription.

    Quicken user since version 2 for DOS, now using QWin Biz & Personal Subscription (US) on Win10 Pro.

  • Quicken Kathryn
    Answer ✓
    Hi All,
    I do see what you're talking about--I will report this as a bug to Vanilla--however, in the meantime, there is a workaround.  If you know which category you're like to search, you can type it (or keywords) into the dropdown box, and a more focused list will appear--in this case, I typed in "Quicken on the Web":

    Obviously, this still needs to be fixed--but hopefully this will help in the meantime--


    Quicken Kathryn
    Community Administrator
  • Quicken Kathryn
    Answer ✓
    Hi @MontanaKarl --
    Searching the sub-categories requires one additional step: make sure you use the checkbox below the category dropdown to include everything under that category:



    Please let me know if that doesn't work for you!


    Quicken Kathryn
    Community Administrator

Answers

  • Jon
    Jon SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    I haven't found a way.

    Quicken Mac subscription. Quicken user since 1990.

  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    edited February 2023 Answer ✓
    It can be done:
    1. Start a search by typing in the search box and click Enter.
    2. Click the Discussions button under the search field. This opens up more search options in the Filter section on the right.
    3. Click in the Category dropdown on the right.
    4. Type "Ideas" in the box
    5. Product Ideas - Mac will be at the top. Click that.
    6. Optionally click the box Search Subcategories
    7. Optionally change Sort by from Best Match to Newest
    8. Click the Filter button
    That's it. 

    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • Jon
    Jon SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Thanks! I wasn't clicking on the Discussions button - you don't get those extra search options unless you do that.

    Quicken Mac subscription. Quicken user since 1990.

  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Jon said:
    Thanks! I wasn't clicking on the Discussions button - you don't get those extra search options unless you do that.
    Yup. I guess because "All" includes searching for categories and members. It's confusing because "Discussions" is used in two different ways, one to mean "Posts" and the other to indicate the type of post (Discussion, Question or Idea). It would be better if the button under the search bar would be labeled "Posts" or "Topics" instead of Discussions.
    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • MontanaKarl
    MontanaKarl Member, Mac Beta Beta
    Thanks, @RickO
    i don’t see a discussion button in Safari on my iPad.  Nothing under the search field.  Will have to check my desktop browser later.  Happy that there’s a way…just have to find what you’re describing…

    Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Ventura 13.6.5 • Windows 11

  • Jon
    Jon SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Answer ✓
    @MontanaKarl You have to type something in the search field & hit Enter first. Once it's showing you the search results, the Discussions button appears.

    Quicken Mac subscription. Quicken user since 1990.

  • MontanaKarl
    MontanaKarl Member, Mac Beta Beta
    I must be totally blind.  I've tried Safari and Chrome on my Mac and Edge on Windows, and I never get a Discussions button.

    Could one of you post a screenshot of what you see?  Thanks!

    Given the number of duplicate threads in all of the subforums, I have to think I'm not the only one who can't see this option to filter the search results.  At least it makes me feel better thinking I'm not the only one  :D

    Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Ventura 13.6.5 • Windows 11

  • Rocket J Squirrel
    Rocket J Squirrel SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    Answer ✓
    I must be totally blind.

    Time for a new eyeglass prescription.

    Quicken user since version 2 for DOS, now using QWin Biz & Personal Subscription (US) on Win10 Pro.

  • MontanaKarl
    MontanaKarl Member, Mac Beta Beta
    Argh.   Thanks!  I never press enter because a list of search results immediately comes up as I type in the search box.  Who knew pressing enter would give me something different… the buttons and the filter sidebar.  Every other forum I’m on has a drop down next to the search to restrict the search, so I’ve never seen anything quite like this interface before.

    Live and learn.  Thanks again! 👍🏻

    Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Ventura 13.6.5 • Windows 11

  • MontanaKarl
    MontanaKarl Member, Mac Beta Beta
    Jon said:
    @MontanaKarl You have to type something in the search field & hit Enter first. Once it's showing you the search results, the Discussions button appears.
    I missed your 'and hit Enter' refinement of @RickO's instructions. That was what I was missing...since search results start to appear without hitting Enter.

    Thanks everyone!

    Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Ventura 13.6.5 • Windows 11

  • MontanaKarl
    MontanaKarl Member, Mac Beta Beta
    OK, folks.  I spoke too soon.  This Filter Results STILL does not let me filter based on a forum or subforum.

    I see that the "Category" list is somewhat filtered based on search hits... but isn't complete - it doesn't list all categories/subforums that have results.

    After never seeing Quicken Mac, or any but one or two of its subforums, I searched for something that I know appears in lots of places - "download".  Here's the start of the Category filter I see:



    After that, I have Backup and File Conversion (Mac), the same (Windows), and then dozens of Beta forums.

    Nowhere to be seen is Quicken for Mac as a whole, or any of its subforums (other than the All Things Canadian seen above) - notably "Download, Add/Update Accounts (Mac)" is not listed much less any of the others.

    So, I searched for just "report" (yeah, dumb search, but that's the point of testing here) - and none of the Report (Mac or Windows) forums are available to filter one... but no matter what I search on I still have dozens of beta forums.  I should see Quicken Mac Reports, Quicken Mac > Product Ideas > Reports ... and the same two for Windows (if I don't tag Mac).

    Sadly, while one step forward, back to my usual question:  What am I missing to actually search a specific forum if this list is so randomly incomplete?

    Thanks!

    Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Ventura 13.6.5 • Windows 11

  • Jon
    Jon SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Is that list not scrollable? Because I see the same initial list but I can scroll it to reveal many more subforms than just those 5.

    Quicken Mac subscription. Quicken user since 1990.

  • Jon
    Jon SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    edited February 2023
    It looks like maybe there's an upper limit to how many forums it will display in that list, still playing with it.

    It's starting to look like I get the same truncated list no matter what I search for - it cuts off after "FAQS (Mobile)".

    Quicken Mac subscription. Quicken user since 1990.

  • MontanaKarl
    MontanaKarl Member, Mac Beta Beta
    @Jon yes, it's scrollable, but after the two additional ones I list in my post, I get dozens of Windows beta forums (one per build).  Nothing I do lets me see the Errors and Troubleshooting or FAQ forums that you see in yours.  :s

    Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Ventura 13.6.5 • Windows 11

  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    This is just one of many failures and annoyances of the Vanilla platform. I wish they would switch to Discourse, which is super powerful and just works. I'd hate to see yet another platform transition, but in this case, it would be worth it.
    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • Jon
    Jon SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    And I don't see most of the Mac beta forums on my list at all because they start with M. It looks like I'm only seeing the first 30 & then it cuts off. 

    Quicken Mac subscription. Quicken user since 1990.

  • MontanaKarl
    MontanaKarl Member, Mac Beta Beta
    Jon said:
    And I don't see most of the Mac beta forums on my list at all because they start with M. It looks like I'm only seeing the first 30 & then it cuts off. 
    And I see 20 completed Windows beta forums... and only one old (6.10) Mac beta.  This is just really bizarre and sad.  I'd never heard of the Vanilla platform before @RickO's post.  Will be interesting if Quicken Inc can customize this to fix this at all - but I read through the docs on the Vanilla site, and it seems really limited vs Discourse.  :'(

    Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Ventura 13.6.5 • Windows 11

  • Quicken Kathryn
    Answer ✓
    Hi All,
    I do see what you're talking about--I will report this as a bug to Vanilla--however, in the meantime, there is a workaround.  If you know which category you're like to search, you can type it (or keywords) into the dropdown box, and a more focused list will appear--in this case, I typed in "Quicken on the Web":

    Obviously, this still needs to be fixed--but hopefully this will help in the meantime--


    Quicken Kathryn
    Community Administrator
  • MontanaKarl
    MontanaKarl Member, Mac Beta Beta
    edited February 2023
     If you know which category you're like to search, you can type it (or keywords) into the dropdown box, and a more focused list will appear--in this case, I typed in "Quicken on the Web":

    Aha!  Thanks for the workaround, @Quicken Kathryn

    The forum names auto-suggest as I type, helping with this workaround...and I was able to search under "Quicken for Mac"... (I had to open a separate browser window to know what the names of the forums are so I'd know what name to enter...)

    But that leads to the next surprise / Vanilla bug? / disappointment...

    I searched for the phrase "hidden categories" knowing that it occurs many times in the Mac forums.  But no results showed.  Apparently filtering by "Quicken for Mac" does not search the SUB-categories.  I had to search "Errors and Troubleshooting (Mac)" to find 45 of the posts.  I would hate to have to manually select  each of the other 15 Quicken Mac sub-categories to do a full search of the Mac forums.    Surely that's not how it is supposed to work vs recognizing the hierarchy of forums?

    Thanks!

    Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Ventura 13.6.5 • Windows 11

  • Quicken Kathryn
    Answer ✓
    Hi @MontanaKarl --
    Searching the sub-categories requires one additional step: make sure you use the checkbox below the category dropdown to include everything under that category:



    Please let me know if that doesn't work for you!


    Quicken Kathryn
    Community Administrator
  • MontanaKarl
    MontanaKarl Member, Mac Beta Beta
    Hi @MontanaKarl --
    Searching the sub-categories requires one additional step: make sure you use the checkbox below the category dropdown to include everything under that category:
    Thanks / sorry. Saw that earlier, and totally forgot about it once you gave the workaround of typing the forum name  :(  I'm not easily distracted  :D:D

    Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Ventura 13.6.5 • Windows 11

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