[According to a search anthropolist at Google] 90 percent of people in their studies don't know how to use CTRL/Command + F to find a word in a document or web page!..
"90 percent of the US Internet population does not know that. This is on
a sample size of thousands," Russell said. "I do these field studies
and I can't tell you how many hours I've sat in somebody's house as
they've read through a long document trying to find the result they're
looking for. At the end I'll say to them, 'Let me show one little trick
here,' and very often people will say, 'I can't believe I've been
wasting my life!'"
From Alexis Madrigal's column at
The Atlantic.
It wasn't written in the manual.
ReplyDeleteThat's because I use, (apple) f.
ReplyDeletei just learned something. Can't believe it's not more widely known. Obviously more ad money from clicking around trying to find something...
ReplyDeleteI worked with a lawyer who printed pages by the hundred because she "didn't like to read or search on the screen".
ReplyDeleteTelling her about ctrl+f was my contribution to saving the planet.
There are a lot of things I don't know how to do with computers (I am 64, after all), but that's one "trick" I do know, and use all the time. Being a secretary, I've made it a point to learn the things my computer can do that make my job easier.
ReplyDeleteI can search a web page very efficiently by reading it, or I use can google, if I'm lazy.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, I don't use CTRL/Command+F, and I can't forsee that I'll be starting any time soon. It really isn't an issue for me. I wonder if Alexis Madrigal's ever mastered double-declutching?
Some things we ourselves see as vital skills may, for others, just be irrelevant.
Use can google? Damn. I've caught dyslexia.
ReplyDeleteI meant "can use google", Sometimes my fingers misbehave.
I use control-F AND double-clutch (the thought of driving an automatic car scares me). Do I win something?
ReplyDeleteSoubriquet, after you use Google, you should then Ctrl+F for the phrase you were googling (assuming you don't want to read the whole page).
ReplyDeleteActually, you don't even have to do that. On my iMac I can just click anywhere on a page and start typing a word. Try it on this page - click on the empty blank brownish space and start typing "music"...
ReplyDeleteMaybe it is the type of browser you have, because my iMac was not nearly so helpful. I had to press command-f before it would search for anything (Safari 5.1)
ReplyDeletexcentric, it appears to be a Firefox feature -
ReplyDeletehttp://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Accessibility#w_search-for-text-when-i-start-typing
I never use control commands but that doesn't mean I can't search a web page. I find it easier to get find under the edit toolbar. Am I part of the 90 percent?
ReplyDeleteNo, you're fine, they were talking about people who scan the page with their eyes and the scroll bar.
ReplyDeleteI laughed out loud and said, 'hey, honey, "90% of people don't know what ctrl F is"
ReplyDelete"What's ctrl F?"
How do these things slip past the courting process?
LOL.
ReplyDeleteWell, I am still in the 90% group because you didn't tell me what it means to "use control/command+f". It also doesn't help to have the commenters throw in "ctrl+f", "ctrl-f", and "ctrl f". Don't chastise for not knowing what you don't tell us.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteanon, the comment above this one was just a reader's attempt at humor. Ignore it and don't be confused by it.
ReplyDeleteIf you have a Macintosh computer, your keyboard should have a "command" button on the bottom row. If you press that and the letter "f" at the SAME TIME, that should bring up a search dialog box (probably at the bottom of your screen). Type in that box the word(s) you are looking for in the page or document you are viewing, and then click "next" to find the word. Or click "highlight all" to see every one of those words.
On a PC, the equivalent result is apparently achieved by pressing the "control" and the letter "f" keys at the same time.
Thank you, Minnesotan. There have been hundreds of times I could have used this and now will be hundreds of times that I will use it in the future. My problem was in trying to use the plus "+" or minus "-" sign that others had been mentioning. I can now say that more than just being amused or entertained by your site that I have also been educated.
ReplyDeleteGlad to here it; that's why I blog...
ReplyDeletep.s. - to help you remember the command, think of the letter "f" as the word "find."
I think the whole thing is nonsense, precisely because of the ambiguity Piper points out. The article assumes that there are only two types of people: those who don't know how to search a web page, and those whose method for searching a webpage is to use ctrl+f.
ReplyDeleteHow other methods, such as Edit->Find, fit into the 90% statistic is not mentioned, and although we can deduce an answer from a little real-world knowledge (10% of people use keyboard shortcuts? Yeah, right), I can't credit "use ctrl+f" as an acceptible shorthand for "access the Find functionality by whatever means you prefer".