Difficulty / inability to search effectively

[TYA]

Thank you all for your wonderful help.  These screenshots literally comprise hours of frustration with trying to do simple, consistent, reliable, literal searches.  Please... Someone help.

 

There has got to be a better way.  There has got to be a single, simple way to search literally across all texts, uniformly, consistently, and reliably.  If not, then please, please create it for Accordance.

Edited September 16, 2018 by TYA

[jarcher]

TYA, maybe this will work.

 

Try to select the text you want to search from 2Sam 3:39, and right click, then search for inflected or lexeme.

 

That will reproduce a search that is close to what you want in a new window. You can then alter it accordingly or copy/paste it into the Research window (including producing results in BHS).

[Λύχνις Δαν]

The auto-switching which Acc does here is a bit of a problem. There are other examples where it auto-switches the search option from words to verses in some cases too or vice versa. Personally I'd like to be able to disable it at times. Here it is frustrating because what you entered makes a lot of sense and should just work I agree. That said the searches also need to work if this is the case. For example I would have expected a letter search for what you entered to work. I would likewise have expected the asterisk being substituted with ?(לבו) to work also. It doesn't. Now I should note that this limitation is in fact documented :

 

Literal or "Letters" Hebrew Searches

Literal/Letters Searches look for the letters and words as entered and finds matching inflected forms with and without additional prefixes and suffixes. Therefore, prefixes and suffixes do not need to be separated (they are found if part of the entry, but ignored if not part of the entry).

• If any special search characters (such as wild cards) or commands (such as [AND]) are used, the search switches to a grammatical one.
• If the words are not found in the current method, Accordance automatically switches it (unless the words cannot be found in either method).
• If the words cannot be found in either method, a box appears for selecting the correct word from a list.
• Once the search is successfully performed, the hit details in the Search Results area of the Search tab indicate the search method used.

 

I would like to see the first restriction lifted here I think.

 

Thx

D

[TYA]

Try to select the text you want to search from 2Sam 3:39, and right click, then search for inflected or lexeme.

 

That will reproduce a search that is close to what you want in a new window. You can then alter it accordingly or copy/paste it into the Research window (including producing results in BHS).

 

I must thank you because you are always so helpful   But I've done all this... for hours.  I'm comforted, however, by the words below.

 

 

The auto-switching which Acc does here is a bit of a problem. There are other examples where it auto-switches the search option from words to verses in some cases too or vice versa. Personally I'd like to be able to disable it at times. 

 

I'm vindicated!  @Jarcher LOL

 

 

 

Here it is frustrating because what you entered makes a lot of sense and should just work I agree.  That said the searches also need to work if this is the case. For example I would have expected a letter search for what you entered to work. I would likewise have expected the asterisk being substituted with ?(לבו) to work also. It doesn't.

 

Sweet music.  I'm not alone 

 

 

 

Now I should note that this limitation is in fact documented

 

Whoops, I'm busted after all (at least on one point).  I will forgo anymore griping about my search frustrations.  Please, however, seriously accept this post of mine as a feature request for (what I'll call in layman's terms) a reliable literal (letter) search which also allows for wildcards (and yes, to find enfixes).

 

And as to D's point above that the search should work properly, that is the other aspect of this (and related posts).  It would be one thing if Accordance said, "You can never find prefixes or suffixes by including a wildcard character."  But as I've pointed out in other related posts, there is actually inconsistency in what is found and what isn't.

 

It seems almost certain that some distinction is being made between, say, the Talmud, HMT-W4, BHS, Hebrew Peshitta NT, Qumran, and other texts.  I'll find search hits with prefixes in one place but not in others. (Also note, the unicode search seems to allow my literal searches with enfixes, but sadly, unicode isn't cross-searchable with the rest of the texts).

 

And so, I suppose you could combine both aspects of my post here to say, please make a reliable, universal, literal (letter) search that will always find any given string of characters... *and* allow wildcards to find prefixes.

 

Thank you all so much!

Edited September 16, 2018 by TYA

[TYA]

Here is a good example of what I mean "reliable literal search also allowing for wildcards to find prefixes" in the previous post (see attached).  (But again, I haven't been able to find this success in several other time-consuming attempts).  Results are inconsistent.

[MattChristianOT]

Here is a good example of what I mean "reliable literal search also allowing for wildcards to find prefixes" in the previous post (see attached).  (But again, I haven't been able to find this success in several other time-consuming attempts).  Results are inconsistent.

I agree this functionality would be great.

[jarcher]

Quote

 

The auto-switching which Acc does here is a bit of a problem. There are other examples where it auto-switches the search option from words to verses in some cases too or vice versa. Personally I'd like to be able to disable it at times. 

 

I'm vindicated!  @Jarcher LOL

 

 

 

 

TYA, when I said, "I've seen this occur in some of your other threads as well. Accordance never does this without user intervention" I meant that Accordance will never enter data into the search field (as you had in your example of that Deut. verse search) without some intervention on your part (for example, searching from a verse). Yes, Accordance will switch between to words or verses if it thinks you made a mistake and can't find data in one search method.