For OP and other newbies: Use quotation marks to be accurate and keep it not-too-specific,
And you must go to the board or topic where you want to search before typing any word, or else, it will search the whole forum.

By default, the forum search bar will take all the words and search topic containing those words in any order,
for specific search, enclose the phrase inside quotation marks so 'search' would search for that phrase instead of individual words.
And it will only search within the board or topic that's currently open (displayed in the URL), not in the entire forum.

For example, if you want to check if someone posted a similar topic here in Beginners' Board:

• Go to 'Beginners and Help' board: /index.php?board=39.0 (Open in new tab)
• In that tab where Beginners and Help board is open, type "Search Bar" (including the quotation marks "")
• Click "Search".

Generally, the default search bar is as powerful as the forum's search page, it's just on intuitive since there's no visible options to toggle.