01 May 2013

Finding Things on Philofaxy

It is a common observation... or complaint that people find it very difficult to find things on Philofaxy. Specifically finding a post that contains that 'gem' of information about something that you know has been discussed or written about before, but when was it and what was the post called....

It's ok I have the same problem too! My memory isn't what is used to be. In fact I ended up duplicating a post about the same topic/organisers several months apart without realising it until several months later when I was searching for something else! Sorry there's no prize if you guess which ones they are!

So this monster that is Philofaxy, how do we find anything on it. Well with over 1900 posts published over a nearly an 8 year period it isn't easy to remember an exact date or title. But we have several means of locating things...

1. The Search Box 
Located in the side bar you will find the Search Philofaxy box, type in a word or phase in to there then click on 'Search'


Up will then pop the Search Results in the main column

 
If you click on the image to view it full size you will see that here I've searched for 'Holborn' the first three results contain 'Holborn' in the post title, but the fourth result doesn't contain 'Holborn' in the title, but this one appears in the results because 'Holborn' appears in the text of the post.

This is just page one of the search results there are 7 other pages of results to look at, by clicking on 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 etc at the foot of the search results box

2. Topic Labels
Each post has at least one label attached to it. There are a few exceptions to this rule, very early posts on the blog were not labelled, but we are slowly working our way through these posts to add labels to them. But certainly the main bulk of the posts since 2009 are labelled.



In the image above the label is circled, the label or tag cloud sits in the side bar with all the available labels included, the bigger the text the more posts there are with that label assigned to them.

If you click on a label in the label cloud in the side bar the blog will refresh and only show posts with that particular label, starting with the latest post and then working back from there, clicking on 'Older Posts' at the foot of each page will take you back to the next page of posts.

It is worth noting that some posts have multiple labels. To go back to showing 'all' posts click on header image at the top of the page and the blog will refresh and show the latest post.

3 Posts Archive
All the posts are listed in an archive index that goes in Year and then Month order and then post titles in reverse order.


Click on the year or month to expand or collapse the list of posts. Clicking on a post title will bring that post up in the normal way.

4. Ask Steve
If all else fails 'Ask Steve' normally works but remember his computing power and his limited memory capacity is based on a rather old 1959 design and it prone to lapses and frequent reboots... but it generally finds things on Philofaxy given a combination of all of the above methods!

Just drop him an email at philofaxy at gmail dot com  and I'm sure he will kick his last brain cell in to action and find what ever it is you were looking for!

Any questions? Who am I... what am I doing here... who are you? 

5 comments:

  1. Thanks very much for this post. I printed it out and bookmarked it as well. Philofaxy has just about everything Filofax that anyone wants to know, but sometimes searching for that info, as you said, is a bit daunting.

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  2. There's nothing wrong with the 1959 model! Well nothing that can't be fixed by a memory lapse upgrade solution (called "write everything down in your organiser before you forget"!), improved all round vision (thanks to retrofitted lenses) and a couple of replacement parts (particularly knees - recommended for heavy mileage models).

    Like traditional Filofaxes, even models from the 1950's and 60's - or earlier, can last for many more years if well looked after. The main mechanism can sag over time if not used correctly, but shouldn't affect day-to-day use. Liberal application of Nivea (or other brand) cream will restore even the most neglected specimen back to it's former glory - but needs to be done regularly to avoid the original smooth surfaces becoming too cracked and wrinkled. Other than that, daily use is to be encouraged and older, well-worn examples are still widely appreciated and admired.

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    Replies
    1. My 1955 model is still running fine despite a couple of 'crashes' over the years and trips to the body shop for repair.

      I hear that Stannah are going to introduce an express stair-lift to get the owner upstairs before they forget what they were going there for. That sounds like a real niche product.....but in the meantime, if you have any of that memory upgrade lying around I'll take some.

      And the Nivea.....

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  3. .. and yes, it's my vintage too! I could do with a case of Nivea!

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  4. Great post, Steve. I like the last option - just ask Steve!

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