Steve has added a convenient way to configure your browser to search the Directory Opus Resource Centre forums and downloads.
If you are using Firefox or IE7 (or Opera, probably) and visit the Resource Centre then you should see the search field indicate that search plugins are available. Click on the drop-down and you can install them.
There's one search plugin that searches using the forum's own search features (which are not brilliant for complex searches but give you a better overview of the results) and another that searches the forums via Google (which is better for complex searches, but shows results in a worse format).
In Firefox (version 3) you can tell a page is offering a search plugin by the way the search field's drop-down arrow glows blue:
Still in Firefox, note that after you install a search plugin you can assign keywords to it. These let you search the site via the address bar. In my example below, if I typed d activex into the address bar in Firefox I would search the Opus forums for "activex", via Google.
Things are similar in Internet Explorer 7. When a page offers a search plugin the drop-down arrow on the search field turns orange:
IE then lets you use those search plugins temporarily via the drop-down menu, and lets you add them permanently via the sub-menu shown below:
You can also create keyword searches in IE, although I think it requires some registry editing (or Tweak UI if you are using Windows XP).
19 June 2008
Opus Resource Centre search plugins
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4 comments:
very cool. i wasn't aware of the "glowing blue arrow" thingy... i'll be sure to look for that from now on.
As with most things DOPus, the instructions for this are opaque. They may work if you have a bog standard Firefox installation.
I see no sign that the "search field indicate that search plugins are available".
How is it opaque when I've provided screenshots with red circles around things to make everything blatantly obvious?
Are you viewing through an RSS reader that excludes screenshots? If so I suggest Google Reader (for example).
If you've modified your Firefox configuration to remove the search field then you won't see any sign that there are search plugins (AFAIK), but if you want to complain about that go complain to the people who make Firefox. Or add the search field back since it was you who removed it.
It's also possible that it's only Firefox 3 that indicates new search plugins are available and you're using an earlier version. I haven't checked. I mentioned "Firefox (version 3)" in the post so that should be a clue if you are using an earlier version and don't see the same thing.
I just checked with Firefox 2 and it makes the icon in the search field glow in almost exactly the same way as is shown in my screenshots of Firefox 3.
Presumably, then, you had removed the search field from your Firefox configuration and were complaining that you don't see the search field light up because you don't have a search field. !?!?!
PEBKAC
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