Search field

Say what? It took you several weeks to find this...

Maybe you need new glasses...

Seriously, you are the first person to ever mention this. The blue toolbar has all the links you need to successfully navigate around our web sites.

Glad you found it.

I wouldn't be too hard on him Rich.

The blue toolbar does not show that information on my screen. I'm using FireFox and the blue toolbar shows the name of the thread being viewed and is otherwise empty except for a small icon at the far left that says "menu" and all the things that are supposed to be in the blue toolbar are exposed on the left side of the screen ONLY when the "menu" icon is clicked.

Probably should not assume that everyone's screen displays the same as everyone else's screen.

Firefox screen shot

John H posted:

Firefox screen shot

Yup. That's the way everyone seems to agree that it should look.

Mine does NOT display like that. The blue bar on mine shows the name of the topic currently being viewed.

Well now we get some serious comments. Thanks fellows. I've been using computers since the early 60's and am a closet systems analyst . My wife has been an IT Prof for 30+ years. Go to any chat group and the battle is always, Search first ask question second. This means it should be in a prominent place on the screen and also clearly on screens that might prompt you to ask a question. All I'm saying is that with a little effort it would be something that jumps out at you. Often in conversations someone will reveal the magic word to search on and picking the right syntax when searching is the key. Blayne

iPad screen shot using Firefox browser.  Roy’s not crazy...  

The screen shot I posted is from Firefox. Widen (or maximize) your browser window and you’ll see the same view that I posted.

For example, here's the view with the browser window set too narrow...

If you widen or maximize the window, this is what you see...

As to color and placement, that is dictated by the forum software. I have no control over where it is placed or what color it is. 

OK. So it happened when I made my fonts a bit larger. Apparently making the fonts larger is the same as making the screen show less than full size.

Making the fonts larger means the screen needs more space to display the same information. So yes, in a way it is the same as making the screen smaller.

the downside i see to the search is it defaulting to relevance vs date.  the relevance sort is not very effective from what i have experienced and 99% of the time i am after the latest posts on a subject, not ones that are years old.  you can get it sorted by date, but only in the advanced search mode and only before you search.  the search results cannot be resorted by date or at least i cannot see that option anywhere.

^ This!

overlandflyer posted:

 the search results cannot be resorted by date or at least i cannot see that option anywhere.

Sure you can, just go to the top link that says Show Search Query, and click on that.  Then switch it to Date and click on search again.

Rich Melvin posted:

Making the fonts larger means the screen needs more space to display the same information. So yes, in a way it is the same as making the screen smaller.

If I zoom the page beyond 130%  in Firefox  at least on my monitor then all the links on the search bar disappear.  I do like to zoom in on web pages if there is a lot of text but this can affect how everything displays not only in Firefox but Chrome and Microsoft Edge as well. As long as I stay 130% or lower everything on the forum displays as it should.        j

the "Show Search Query" only shows up with the advanced search.  my point was that you cannot do a simple search... see that sort is not the one you want then just click on a button that says "sort by date" ... it seems like there are only two choices; by date or by relevance ... doesn't seem like a huge fix.

or just change the default to Sort by Date... if you get one complaint, change it back.

JohnActon posted:

As long as I stay 130% or lower everything on the forum displays as it should.        j

I've solved that issue with a larger monitor.   With 28" of screen, I can zoom in and have huge text and still have everything on the top bar.  Here it is zoomed, my screen is almost 24" wide, and this is the top bar zoomed to the maximum that will keep all the text on it.  It should be readable by most folks, even if they have poor vision.  Obviously the text is pretty large in the posts as well.

Good point, John. Larger monitors can really make computer work enjoyable.

Just as important as screen size is the monitor resolution setting. "Monitor Resolution" is the number of pixels horizontally and vertically that your monitor can display. You can change this in the Windows Control Panel.

1. Open Control Panel
2. Click on "Display"
3. Click on "Adjust Resolution"

You will then see this screen...

I have a dual 28" monitor setup with both monitors set to 1920 x 1080.  There will be settings in this list that your monitor may not be able to display, but don't be afraid to try them. If you choose a setting that your monitor can't display and end up with nothing on the screen, just wait 15 seconds and the monitor will go back to the original setting. Then you can try another setting to see what your monitor does.

This is a huge step up from where we were just a few years ago. The original computer monitor resolution was only 640 x 480 pixels, a very LOW resolution setting. As things progressed the standard became 800 x 600, then 1024 x 768, 1280 x 1024 and on up.

Web sites of today are all designed to display on high resolution screens. If you are still running your monitor at 1024 x 768, you are missing a lot! You should try to see if your monitor will display 1600 x 1200 as a starting point. If you can go to 1920 x 1080 pixels or higher, that's a good thing and will solve a lot of your viewing problems.