How to increase scoring of item ?

[tomos]

apologies if this posted before - the usual dilemma - what to search for..

I tend to use FARR out of the box & havent messed around with settings much
If I want something to go up the list/be favoured, I right-click & select "Add rule for this item"
I type, say, "+200" in score - sometimes it adds to actual score of item - sometimes the score is even reduced in spite of the "plus"

What's going on - do I have to change some of the heuristic scoring settings? (if so, which? )

[mouser]

you are just adding a score for the item, not setting a fixed score for it regardless of what you type.  but it should never ever result in a reduced score.  try setting it to something very high like 5000 and see the effect.

[tomos]

mouser,
do I add to the score or do I type in what I want the new score to be?

e.g. FSViewer always comes in above IE - prob cause I hardly use IE
So I type +200 in "IE" score, that sticks but I realise it's not enough so I again type +200 but that doesnt make any difference..
On next farr launch I type +200 again for IE - again it doesnt stick - so I type +2000 and that sticks

I have to say it's very confusing!

[lanux128]

i don't understand much of this myself but i think your problem is connected to items in "Heuristic Scoring" tab such as "History File Bonus" and "Leftmost Match Bonus"? e.g. if you want to want IE to come over FSViewer (which you use a lot) then try increasing the score for "Leftmost Match Bonus" as well.

[tomos]

I know there's been a lot of talk about FARR & direction etc lately
I would think that this should/could(?) be simplified -
not wanting to remove the more advanced scoring options but if lanux doesnt fully understand it I reckon I dont have a chance 

Does "leftmost match scoring" favour letters at the beginning of the word?

[lanux128]

don't worry about me, i more or less have got comfortable with the way i have set-up Farr. that's why i hadn't the need to change the heuristics scoring. but since the option is already available,  i suggest you fiddle with it until you are happy with it.

• Online Help - Heuristic Scoring.

[tomos]

don't worry about me, i more or less have got comfortable with the way i have set-up Farr. that's why i hadn't the need to change the heuristics scoring. but since the option is already available,  i suggest you fiddle with it until you are happy with it.

• Online Help - Heuristic Scoring.

as usual I forget to  TFM 

[mouser]

So I type +200 in "IE" score, that sticks but I realise it's not enough so I again type +200 but that doesnt make any difference.. On next farr launch I type +200 again for IE - again it doesnt stick - so I type +2000 and that sticks.

i think your problem may be in a misunderstanding of how this is working.

when you add a score in this way, what's happening is the FARR is simply helping you make an entry on the tab called "Pattern Scoring" in the options.  so go check out that tab to see what your scoring patterns look like.  you aren't adding 200 each time, you are setting it to 200 each time.

[tomos]

so go check out that tab to see what your scoring patterns look like.

okay,
problem was:-
shortcuts were only getting 50 points, exe files 150
I now have them the same, I may even favour shortcuts - I mean I always make a shortcut, dont necessarily keep it on the desktop but I have FARR looking where they are kept

i think your problem may be in a misunderstanding of how this is working.

-
I'm afraid I dont have any understanding of how this is working but had better read the online page Lanux linked to before commenting

[mouser]

i just meant that each time you were putting +200 you thought you were adding another 200.  but really there should only be one score for the item that you are "changing" each time.  it's a bit confusing.  you aren't adding 200 each time you type +200, you are simply saying over and over again, give this file a single 200 point bonus during matching.

but i'm glad you found a better more general solution regarding shortcuts vs. exe files.

Another REALLY IMPORTANT thing for people to remember:
FARR gives a big bonus to any program as soon as you launch it once.  so if the file you want to launch comes up not quite first place on your initial search -- it's very likely that after you launch it once, it will be at the top next time, and forever after, without you needing to take any corrective action.  it will also be found much quicker next time because it is in the FARR history cache.

[tomos]

but i'm glad you found a better more general solution regarding shortcuts vs. exe files.

Another REALLY IMPORTANT thing for people to remember:
FARR gives a big bonus to any program as soon as you launch it once.  so if the file you want to launch comes up not quite first place on your initial search -- it's very likely that after you launch it once, it will be at the top next time, and forever after, without you needing to take any corrective action.  it will also be found much quicker next time because it is in the FARR history cache.

sorry, I was getting a bit frustrated with it earlier

I'm starting to understand & I've got to say it's not been a problem for me before - as in if I added to the score it usually sorted the problem
And as you say, if I launch something once that usually raised it to the top of the list, but funnily enough not with IE & the fact that the word vIEwer was being favoured over IE (shortcut name) suprised me as well - this was in ths case partly (at least) to do with exe's being favoured over shortcuts

[kartal]

Mouser, this behaviour does not happen here . I have tried "enter" ctr+numpad,"F keys" and none of them really increases hit. Is there a way to make sure that this works fine? For some files it seems to work for some other it seems to not work. I have certain programs and I keep using Farr to launch them. Everytime I try to launch them I need to wait 4 5 secs until Farr finds them in the directories.

Another REALLY IMPORTANT thing for people to remember:
FARR gives a big bonus to any program as soon as you launch it once.  so if the file you want to launch comes up not quite first place on your initial search -- it's very likely that after you launch it once, it will be at the top next time, and forever after, without you needing to take any corrective action.  it will also be found much quicker next time because it is in the FARR history cache.