>Frm the one search I seldom get any hits at all, even when I'm sure I should
That's the one I'm talking about. Make sure you set the time range and then change your search scope to suit on the left (assuming you want to - if not leave it as 'All forums'). You can restrict the forum searches really well with the keywords (eg., by using the 'advanced search tips'), so just pick 'Newer than 3 years' or something and maybe up the results format to 50 so you don't have to sift through hundreds of pages - bob's yer uncle.
> it gripes me that when I return to the search page all the entries have been deleted
That's a feature, didn't you know:-) Most browsers are set to cache field input so that you need only to type the first letter letter of the word. That doesn't help for pages with radio buttons and the like though.
