Adam K (moved)I have a bunch of friends from Twitter joining Mastodon tonight so I made a quick guide to how the site works. Making it public so anyone can see/boost it if it's helpful. If you have any questions feel free to ask!
Corax (ze) 
@adamk678 is there a way to for search toots (on just your instance or globally) that contain a certain word or phrase, or does the search function only find hashtags?
@Corax Right now search features are kinda up in the air, varying between instances. Some instances only let you search hashtags and users, some let you search your own toots. Most don't let you search other people's toots as a way to avoid targeted harassment. Search is still being worked on so what's available has been changing a lot lately as instances update. I'd get in touch with the admin of your instance to ask what is currently available in terms of search functionality.
@adamk678 thank you!