Help - Search Tips

The Search Box at the Top of Every Page

How It Works:

The search box at the top of every page allows you to search the Plaid site by "keywords" that are associated with the product, project, FAQ, or Article for which you are searching. To use the search you must enter one or more "keywords" and then choose an option from the drop-down menu that will limit your search to the Entire Site, Products only, Projects only, FAQs only or Articles only. Remember: Each keyword that you enter in the box will continue to narrow your search results. "Red" will bring back more results than "red paint"; "red paint" will return more results than "red outdoor paint"; "red outdoor paint" will return more results than "red outdoor paint Apple Barrel".

An Example:

Let's say you are looking for an Apple Barrel product that is a paint color called "Bright Red". If you just entered Apple Barrel into the search box and pressed the Go! button you would get search results for the entire site - all products, projects, FAQs and articles that involve Apple Barrel.

A better solution would be to type in Apple Barrel Bright Red and then choose Products from the drop-down menu. This would assure you that you would only get Apple Barrel products related to Apple Barrel Bright Red.

An even better solution would be to search using the Item # of the product if you have it. Searching by Item # will return the most accurate results.

The Quick Browse Products Menu on Every Page

How It Works:

The Quick Browse appears at the top right of every page and allows you to quickly choose a product category from the menu. Upon choosing a category from that menu, you will be taken to a "browse page" so you can further narrow your choices. For example, if you chose Stencils from the Quick Browse menu, you would be presented with a list of categories such as Animals, Fruits & Veggies, Shapes, etc. Choose one of these product "sub-categories" will allow you to find the types of products that you need,

An Example:

Let's say you are decorating your kitchen with a fruit and vegetable theme and you know you want fruit and veggie type stencils but you don't know if you should look in the Home Decorating Department or the Stenciling Department. You could choose Stencils from the Quick Browse menu and then choose Fruits & Veggies from the sub-category page for a listing of all of the Stencil products that are categorized as Fruits & Veggies.

The Advanced Search

How It Works:

The Advanced Search allows you to narrow your search criteria for Products, Projects and FAQs. Each drop-down menu in each individual search form will narrow your search results.

An Example:

Let's say you really like ivy and you want to do a craft project that includes ivy. To see all of the craft projects that include ivy, you could simply enter the word "ivy" (no quotes, please) in the keyword box for Projects and press the Search! button. If you saw Jane Gauss on TV making an ivy stencil project you could enter the following to get the proper results:

Keyword: ivy
Author First Name: Jane
Author Last name: Gauss
And check the As Seen on TV checkbox
Press Search!

Or, if you saw the project on TV but you can't remember the name of the Author, you could just enter the keyword as ivy and check the As Seen on TV checkbox.

Not Getting Any Results at All? General Searching Tips…

• If you aren't getting any results, you may be narrowing your search too much. Just try using a few keywords. Just remember, the more keywords you use, the smaller your search results.

• If you typed in the word "painting" try searching without the "-ing" using the word "paint" instead.

More Search Examples

Let's say you want to order some paint that can be used outdoors.

If you know what color you want, such as red, the best option would be to use the keyword search found at the top left of every page. Enter the words "red outdoor paint" (no quotes, please) into the search box and then choose products from the drop-down menu and press Go!

If you don't know what color you want, you could enter "outdoor paint" into the keyword search box and then choose products from the drop-down menu. Or, if you prefer to Browse subjects, you could choose Paints from the Quick Browse drop-down menu and then choose Indoor & Outdoor from the list of sub-categories.