Saturday, March 21. 2009Searching the Forums for Answers
User discussion forums are a great way to find answers to your problems. I've searched forums for help with updating operating systems, fixing the washing machine, and selecting new plumbing fixtures. In all cases, the forums have been helpful and I never posted a single question. I just looked at the other questions, comments and opinions. I found most of these resources using search tools.
I look at the SAS discussion forums daily. Judging by the number of views for some of the posts, it looks like a lot of you are just looking for answers and opinions too. You can do that by scanning the posts on a regular basis, which is what I do, but I'm just looking to make sure that the forums are moving along nicely. Scanning the forums is not an effective way to locate more targeted information. Searching is what you want. Keep reading for hints on how to search the discussion forums for just the right piece of information. New! Forum content is included in the site search Starting in early March, we included the content of the discussion forums in the overall site search. This enables you to use the content of the discussion forums to help you solve problems without specifically visiting the forums. Just issue your search from the search box at the top of every page. You can easily recognize a forum post in your search results. Each forum result is preceded by SAS Discussion Forums: as shown in the image below. Read these posts for more searching tips Using the extending search The discussion forums have their own search feature. You can search all of the forums from the entry page (support.sas.com/forums) or you can click to the forum most likely to contain your answer and search that forum using the search box on the right. But let me introduce you to the extended search. You can access the extended search by selecting the Search link next to the search box on any page. The extended search page displays as shown below.  Just use the entry fields and selection lists to search all or some of the forums, look for posts from your favorite poster, or search posts within a certain date range. If you frequent the forums, you'll want to give this a try. You may also want to set watches so that updates are delivered to you. Do you have a tip for how to use the discussion forums to learn more? Trackbacks
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I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading.
Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often. www.studysas.blogspot.com |
ABOUT THIS BLOG Welcome to the blog about SAS online support. Renee Harper (that's me) will keep you up-to-date about new and updated content on support.sas.com, as well as support services and software releases. I'll try to include relevant examples you can use -- sample programs and information about how others use SAS. I’ll be able to do this better if you join me – this is a place to share your ideas, successes, and frustrations.QuicksearchCategoriesSyndicate This BlogThe blog content appearing on this site does not necessarily represent the opinions of SAS. Your use of this blog is governed by the Terms of Use.
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