Martin Brown’s blog shows a pretty good way of navigating the MySQL Reference Manual. It’s worth noting, however, that finding the different topics has been a lot easier since mysql.com started using a Google appliance for its search.

I use the documentation all the time and have been doing so for years (I won’t claim that I can remember +2000 pages worth of ever-changing content). A few years back, I stopped using the search box on dev.mysql.com because the result sets were enormous, with lots of unrelated references. My technique was to do a Google site search:

For replication use the expression: replication site:http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/index.html

The result set was smaller and I would find what I was looking for relatively easily, usually within the first page.

Since the documentation team implemented the Alphabetical Index, it has succeeded the Google search as my favorite way to get the information I needed. Things are easy to find and never more than a couple of URLs away.

With the new search capabilities, I just type any term in the Search Manual box on the left and hit Go. So far it has hit the bulls-eye every single time, saving me a lot of effort getting what I need.

For replication this is the resulting URL: http://search.mysql.com/search?site=refman-50&q=replication&lr=lang_en

This feature has long been on the wish-list of those of us who regularly work with the MySQL on-line manual. Try it out.