Steven Zahm@ linda
RE: Currently, the search by category and search box appear with the template. If I type “california” in the search box, all entries with “california” appear in the search result, not just those in the state of California. Also, if I type “CA” in the search field, all entries with the letters “CA” appear, including in names, cities, etc.
Correct, it is a keyword search which will search many of the fields in Connections for a match.
RE: How do I limit the search?
Navigate to the Connections : Settings admin page and click the Search tab. You can limit which fields Connections will search for keyword matches.
RE: I would like the search fields, in addition to the drop down categories and general search box I currently have, to include separate fields of search by “state”, “city”, “name” and “near me”. Can you help me with how I do this?
I do have an advanced search addon which I offer to those who request it and and have purchased either the Pro Pack or Extension Pack. You can see it on this live third party site.
This site has it configured to search by multiple categories (top three drops downs), zip code radius and keyword. It can be configured to search with a single category and with a state drop down but not a city drop down (on large directories this would not scale well at all). I offer this as is in regards to styling and functionality. Though I can give some CSS to change it color from blue. You would use this in place of the search fields in Slim Plus.
If you are new to WP, configuring this could be challenging because it is embedded on the page with a shortcode and configured with shortcode options.
Not sure if this answer helps, but I hope it does!