wow you guys are really on to it! if I find any of the searches I want not covered, I'll let ya know! thanks heaps

No, you're right. I was wrong. Just tested it.

"Rock" *will* indeed find "psychedelic rock" in the search box.

dannyno wrote:Quote marks signify that you want an exact match.

Yes, I think so. But should the search in this case not find any "exact match" of the word "rock" in "pop rock" or "folk rock" or "rock and roll" or "indie rock"? It should not find "pop rok" or "Rock'n'Roll" or "Rockabilly". I'm wrong?

Don't the quote marks make quite a big difference?

Quote marks signify that you want an exact match.

So, if you search for "rock", that would mean you want only the genre "rock" to be returned. i.e. not "pop rock" or "folk rock" or "rockabilly" or "rock and roll" or "indie rock".

If you want any appearance of "rock" to be found, then don't use quote marks.

you're a champion - I just want to make sure my other searches don't work this time and then I'll seek your help, thanks again!

Just let us know your not yet working searches. Maybe we can find a solution together?

you are completely correct MMuser - it certainly is the answer for that example .
so far it is not working for some other AND/OR examples I am trying. I won't bore everyone here, I'll keep working on it
thanks again very much for your help - I never thought the search window could do a job that advanced search cannot do!

Do you get the same wrong results if you enter the search string in the searchbar (normally in the top right corner), not in the search pop-up window?
If yes, I can't tell you another solution, sorry. Maybe someone else?

thanks so much for the new message! MM currently doesn't seem to return correct results for me.
almost all my songs have multiple genres - for example, "rock, rock and roll, pop-rock" or "alternative rock, indie rock, rock"
MM currently offers multi-choices of genres in the advanced search - but each option is exactly as it was written in the entry
therefore, if my search is for 2 genres that appear in different files, it won't be returned
I'd like to ask MM:
list all my songs which have
1) the year XXXX
and
2) the sub-string "rock" in the genre OR the sub-string "folk" in the genre (or any other sub-strings I choose)
that would give the search total flexibility
hope that's a little clearer

What do you receive as result, if you enter as search string?
Do you get wrong or too much or to less results?
Could you please provide some more specific results that you want to find or to exclude?

thanks MMuser - sorry but I'm still learning so much about MM. In fact I'd already checked that page and it doesn't quite answer it

what I should have asked is how to find songs that have
year/date 1988
AND
genres which have sub-string "rock" OR sub-string "folk" since my genres fields invariably have more than 1 in each

You should have a look to this wiki page: http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.p ... Search/4.0

I would try:
year:1988 AND genre:"rock" OR "folk"

how to mix AND/OR in advanced searches?
for example
list all songs that are
1 - the year 1988
AND
2 - have the genre "rock" OR "folk" ?
thanks