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The Sifter Tutorials
To register and create an account on The Sifter, select Login/Register from the navigation menu.
The Login popup opens. To register, select Sign up here.
The Registration page opens.
Complete the required information.
Complete the text fields (optional).
After reading the Terms and Conditions, check the box signifying that you agree.
Select SUBMIT.
The Success popup opens.
Click OK. After receiving your email, click the here link in your email. The last Success popup opens.
Click OK to open the home page.
Open the Sifter website home page, thesifter.org.
To login, select Login/Register from the navigation menu.
The Login popup opens with your credentials. Click SUBMIT.
The home page opens.
When logged in, your username will display in place of the Login/Register button.
To log out, hover the cursor over your username. A drop down with a selection for Logout opens. Click Logout.
If you forgot your password, you can reset it with the following steps:
To browse a table category, click that title on the sidebar navigation.
The principal tables are:
The example below is a search for Authors.
A page with a list of authors opens.
To download the search results as an Excel spreadsheet, select Excel Export.
The file is downloaded to your computer.
To download the search results as an Excel CSV file, select Text Export.
To see detailed information about an Author (for example), select an Author by highlighting that row in the list. Name the file and save it to your computer.
Turn Form View On.
The page below opens.
Scroll down to see the complete list of information
If desired, adjust the text size by clicking the appropriate button.
The Sifter includes multiple locations throughout the website for searching and browsing the database. You can access the search functions on The Sifter from both the Home and Browse/Search pages. Search options are based on whether you are using the database as a guest (not logged in) or as a registered user (logged in). Registered users also have access to multiple options such as saving a search (for future use or reference) and adding, editing, or deleting search records.
Example #1
Enter your search term, for example, recipe.
Click Search.
Scroll down to see your search results.
Example #2
Using the Multi-Search feature on the Browse/Search page, type a recipe into the search terms text field. Casserole is used in the example below.
Select to launch the search. Any recipe or mention of “Casserole” in the Sifter database populates the search results. Categories searched include Authors, Works, Sections, Details, Items, and Item Translations.
The page below shows the Works section. Click See All to display the entire list.
The page below shows Sections and Details.
In Sections, click See All to expand the list of titles.
In Sections, you can click the Author for detailed information.
Scroll down to see all the text fields.
Or click See All to view results in a table.
A list of casserole recipes opens.
To save your search results, you must be logged in to your user account. To save, click . The popup below allows you to name your search and save it.
You can also Run a Saved Search or Delete a Saved Search.
To perform another search from this page, enter your term in the text box, then click . You can also access this search page by selecting the Advanced Search button or by selecting Browse/Search from the main navigation.
You can search any table category in the sidebar on the Browse/Search page. Select a category, then click the Search button.
A page opens showing the Basic Fields option selected.
Use Basic Fields to search for example, Last Name, First Name.
Use All Fields for searching multiple search criteria (filters), such as Title, Organization, etc. Choose the option that is most appropriate based on the amount of information you have.
In the search example, create your search criteria by selecting from the dropdown lists, completing the text fields, and selecting .
When Last Name Smith and Language English were selected; the search results are shown below.
To sort a list, click the dots.
You can click to add Works, Sections, Details, and Items sections to the list. Scroll down the page to see them.
You can click to add Works, Sections, Details, and Items sections to the list. Scroll down the page to see them.
Use Search for quick searches using a keyword or phrase (put phrases in quotes). Use Advanced Search to specify any number of criteria across all tables.
You can search any, as well as multiple categories, by selecting them on the sidebar. A tab for each selected category shows on the top of the page. The page below shows all the selected tables.
When searching for items or recipes in the database, you may want to save a specific search for future use or reference. To save a search, you must be logged in to your user account.
Click .
The popup below allows you to name your search and Save it.
Click .
The popup below allows you to select the Saved Search name.
After making your selection, click to retrieve the search results.
Click .
The popup below allows you to delete the Saved Search name.
After making your selection, click .
Select .
A blank search page opens.
The following are quick, specific examples on how to use the Search feature on The Sifter.
Using the Multi-Search feature on the Browse/Search page, type a recipe into the search terms text field. Casserole is used in the example below.
Select to launch the search. Any recipe or mention of “Casserole” in the Sifter database populates the search results. Categories searched include Authors, Works, Sections, Details, Items, and Item Translations.
The page below shows the Works section. Click See All to display the entire list.
The page below shows Sections and Details.
In Sections, click See All to expand the list of titles.
In Sections, click the Author for detailed information.
Scroll down to see all the text fields.
Or click See All to view results in a table.
A list of casserole recipes opens.
The Sifter contains a thorough database of Authors associated with food history and food recipes. To quickly search and find any of the hundreds of Authors within the database, type an author name into the text field on the Multi-Search page (accessed via Browse/Search). Select to launch the search. A list of matching Authors and their Works displays.
You can search for certain types of publications by type or genre. To search, type the work (book title, for example) into the text field on the Multi-Search page (accessed via Browse/Search).. Select to launch the search. A list of matching Authors, their Works , and Sections displays.
You can launch a search for Works or items by their section type. To do this, access the Multi-Search page (via Browse/Search) and type a term into the text field, for example, a “Section ID.” Select to launch the search. A list of matching terms displays.
When using The Sifter, you can search for types of material used in food history, cooking, or cookware. From the Multi-Search page (accessed via Browse/Search) type an item in the text field, for example, “ingredient.”. Select to launch the search. A list of matching terms displays.
To search for items that are written or translated into a specific language, type the language name into the text field on the Multi-Search page (accessed via Browse/Search). For example, type “French.” Select to launch the search. A list of matching entries in the Authors, Works, Sections, Details, Items, and Item Translations are listed.
In addition to Sifter database access, you can edit information listed in the database. Note: This feature is accessible to logged-in users only. You must register with The Sifter and be signed into your account to access this feature. A reason to edit a search table may include, correcting spelling and/or grammar, adding a new record to the database, duplicating a record, or deleting a record.
To edit an entry:
To edit an item, locate the item in the row and column and click the row. The row highlights in blue and you can make edits in that item row. For example, click under the First Name column to open a text box. Change “M” to “Mary.” Click out of that text box. A Confirmation popup opens.
Select . Continue making any other edits.
After all your edits have been made, select Stop Editing.
Select Save Changes.
Once editing is complete, select the Stop Editing button to return to view-only mode.
To add an item to the search database records, select the desired category or table. Click Add new record.
A new blank row is added at the top of the table. Select each field and type the information into each field. Note: Some fields are required before the new entry can be saved. Required fields will vary based on the category. You will be notified if any required fields remain when attempting to save. Once the new record is complete and all desired/required information is filled in, complete the entry by selecting Save Changes.
If an item has been edited and NOT saved, the fields will display a small red flag in the top left corner of each text field. This indicates the field has been edited but not saved.
Once adding is complete and editing is complete, select Stop Editing to return to view-only mode.
To delete a record in the database, select the check box for the record you want to delete.
Then click Delete records. A Confirmation popup opens.
To continue with the deletion, select Yes (or Cancel to stop the process and return to the table in edit mode). If you answered Yes, a warning Confirmation popup opens. Select Yes, No, or Cancel. Once the confirmation is confirmed, the selected row will be deleted. If finished editing, select the Stop Editing button to return to view-only mode.
To duplicate a record within a table, select the check box next to the desired record and select the Duplicate record button.
The record duplicates itself at the top of the list. Again, a Confirmation popup opens.
Select Save Changes. The Confirmation popup below opens.
Click OK.
When all your changes are completed, select Stop Editing.
Selecting the Stop Editing button returns you to the view-only mode.
To browse a Lookup Table category, click that title on the sidebar navigation (for example, Cities).
The page below opens.
In this particular search, there are 16411 results. Page 16 of the results are displayed. You can scroll through the results using the left and right arrows.
To download the search results as an Excel spreadsheet, select Excel Export.
At the bottom of the window, turn Form View On.
The page below opens.
Scroll down to see the complete list of information. Click the buttons to adjust the text size.
To browse the States category, select States in the navigation column. The page below opens.
To browse the Countries category, select Countries in the navigation column. The page below opens.
To browse the Regions category, select Regions in the navigation column. The page below opens.
To browse the Item Categories, select Item Categories in the navigation column. The page below opens.
To browse the Item Sub-Categories, select Item Sub-Categories in the navigation column. The page below opens.
You can search any table category in the sidebar on the Browse/Search page. Select a category, in our example Cities. Click Search. The page below opens. Select your search criteria. In our example, Name Contains New York.
Click . The page below opens.
Select a category, in our example States. Click Search. The page below opens. Select your search criteria. In our example, Name Contains California.
Click . The page below opens.
Select another category, in our example Countries. Click Search. The page below opens.
For Name, select Contains United States.
Click . The page below opens.
Select another category, in our example Regions. Click Search. The page below opens.
For Name, select Contains Europe.
Click . The page below opens.
Select another category, in our example Item Categories. Click Search. The page below opens.
For Name, select Contains dessert.
Click . The page below opens.
Select another category, in our example Item Sub-Categories. Click Search. The page below opens.
For Item Cat, use the dropdown list to select, in our example, Fruit.
Click . The page below opens.
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