I will see, but I think the easiest way is a separate index.

if it's problematic ohilipp, i think perhaps an auto-script that will search a string for each section and then produce the results for all of them in seperate tables, or same table but with a field saying whethers it's a file, news, review, etc, might be a quick fix solution that still looks and navigates well?

i'd like this.

Here a search block with drop down menu:

<form action="contentteller.php" method="post" id="searchform">

<strong>Search for:</strong><br />

<input name="input_search_for" size="20" /><br />

<strong>in:</strong><br />

<select size="1" name="faction">

<option selected="selected" value="news_dosearch">News</option>

<option value="content_dosearch">Content</option>

<option value="articles_dosearch">Articles</option>

<option value="files_dosearch">Files</option>

<option value="knowledgebase_dosearch">Knowledgebase</option>

<option value="compatdb_dosearch">Compatibility</option>

</select>

<input type="submit" value="Search" />

</form>

Yes. The search box above is for the files section. For the news section you need to change:

<input type="hidden" name="faction" value="files_dosearch" />

to:

<input type="hidden" name="faction" value="news_dosearch" />

For the files section?

To add one:
Blocks => Add New Block => "or click here to create a HTML/PHP code based block" and copy of the following in the HTML part field:

<form action="contentteller.php" method="post" id="searchform">

<strong>Search for:</strong><br />

<input name="input_search_for" size="20" /><br />

<input type="hidden" name="faction" value="files_dosearch" />

<input type="submit" value="Search" />

</form>

Does this add a search box on the frontend of the website?

And for the next version it would be a good idea to revert to the unified index of ST.

I will possibly release this later as add-on but not as part of the main distribution.

Another completely different alternative is using Google search instead.

As you can imagine, I'm not really happy with this. People will notice and it doesn't look professional, having someone else do the search for you.

The best thing that I could do is to implement a drop down menu to select the section in question.

Well you might want to use checkboxes or radio buttons instead of a dropdown.
Or consider some mod that will allow searching all sections at the same time. I
And for the next version it would be a good idea to revert to the unified index of ST. Don't take this the wrong way, but I can't see why you thought it would be a good idea not searching all (or multiple) sections at once. A lot of people favor search over a site's navigation, and Google's success is proof of how essential search is.

The main problem here is that each section have it's own tables. The best thing that I could do is to implement a drop down menu to select the section in question.

Another completely different alternative is using Google search instead. Google offer as part of AdSense also search ads that fit into your website.

Yeah, but this isn't really good. Can't I have somebody search both news and files or any combination of sections at the same time? You know how dumb most regular users are, having a searchbox on the frontpage for each section is confusing, and to those who are computer savvy, it would be strange as well.
Separate index and no search box by default in the templates? This seems like a big mistake to me.

Why is there no search box by default on the frontpage or any other page for that matter? How do I get one?

For the files section?

To add one:
Blocks => Add New Block => "or click here to create a HTML/PHP code based block" and copy of the following in the HTML part field:

<form action="contentteller.php" method="post" id="searchform">

<strong>Search for:</strong><br />

<input name="input_search_for" size="20" /><br />

<input type="hidden" name="faction" value="files_dosearch" />

<input type="submit" value="Search" />

</form>

And why does each module have its own search (one search for news, one search for files, etc)? Why not make a search box like in ST where you could choose where you wanted it to search (although you could improve on it to allow searches in multiple sections at once by using check boxes, instead of only one at a time with dropdowns)?

Because each module is fully independent in Contentteller. Storyteller used a single search index for all modules.