Weekly Computer Tip # 163
22 July 2006

Searching within a specific website

Thanks to all of you who noticed there was no tip last Friday - I was in Loughborough with my Canadian cousin for her graduation ceremony. And I couldn't send the tip on Saturday either as she joined me for the sponsored walk for "Children of Nepal" - both of us in clogs although hers were the comfy sort (novelty slippers looking like clogs).

Anyway, on with this week's tip ... searching within a specific website. Have you ever found a website that doesn't have its own search engine, allowing you to search within that specific website? Or perhaps you know for sure you once found something on a specific website but cannot remember how you got there?

Well, a lot of the search engines (I know it works in Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, MSN and dogpile) can search only within one specific website by using the site:sampledomain.com syntax in the search box.

Here's how:

1. Launch your favourite search engine
2. Type your search term in the search box, followed by "site:domainname"

For example, to find the University of Cambridge Term dates, type:

"michaelmas term" site:www.cam.ac.uk

Or to find my tip about adding a free Google site search to your website, type:

"site search" site:www.roem.co.uk

Or how 'bout eastenders site:www.bbc.co.uk or ... why not try it out and let me know how you get on. I'd love to hear from you even if you don't like it!! (One of my loyal tip readers - Naomi - wrote following the last tip, http://www.roem.co.uk/tip_162.html on how to copy a worksheet to another workbook, to say "I swear Right-click sheet tab, choose Move or Copy is easier...." We agreed to disagree but in case you didn't find it particularly easy either ... another reason for giving alternative methods is to "make" you think outside how you're used to do stuff normally. I've found that if you try different ways, you get more and more at ease with finding things out for yourself. Teaching a man to fish and all that ;-)

By the way, I successfully completed my sponsored walk; not that I ever doubted it but I can assure you that 5 miles in clogs was hell! It looks like we raised the total of almost 3900 pounds; money that will go a long way in Nepal! So thanks for those of you who sponsored me!!

Until next week.

PS I’m committed to sharing the best of what I know with others so please don’t keep me a secret. If you enjoyed today’s tip, please forward it to anyone you feel may benefit. Alternatively, feel free to reprint it (with full copyright and subscription information) in your newsletters and message boards.

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