need granular search: what are all the ways evernote can search? onenote has fuzzy search (bad)

[evernotehard 2]

need link

need highly specific search

need granular search: what are all the ways evernote can search?

onenote has fuzzy search (bad)

cant find relevant notes/info cos of bad search

--

please just link to a guide/doc/wiki that has the relevant steps

that has pictures or gifs (gifs are far better)

-

web desktop version

[DTLow 5,736]

Evernote has an extensive search feature documented at  Evernote Search Grammar 

No pictures, but here are examples of my use

• Project List        tag:!Type-Project -Tag:!Archive   
• Current Task List based on reminder date    reminderTime:* -tag:!Archive -reminderTime:day+1 -reminderDoneTime:*

[DTLow 5,736]

21 minutes ago, evernotehard said:

looks like you cant search specific/exact terms like you can on google

"monkey"

or 'important #1 thing'

can someone confirm this is the case?

I gave you the link to the search documentation which provided these exampls

• potato 
  • matches: "Sweet Potato Pie" 
  • does not match: "Mash four potatoes together"
• Ever* 
  • matches: "Evernote Corporation" 
  • does not match: "forevernote" 
• "San Francisco" 
  • matches: "The hills of San Francisco" 
  • does not match: "San Andreas fault near Francisco winery"
• -potato 
  • matches: "Mash four potatoes together" 
  • does not match: "Sweet Potato Pie" 
• ham 
  • matches: "green eggs&ham." 
• "eggs ham" 
  • matches: "green eggs&ham."

[evernotehard 2]

on http://dev.evernote.com/doc/articles/search_grammar.php

this is a broekn link

http://dev.evernote.com/doc/cloud/chapters/searching_notes.php

 

 

[gazumped 11,658]

Thanks for the headsup..

Google may be your friend in situations like that  - https://dev.evernote.com/doc/articles/searching_notes.php

[evernotehard 2]

 

a good search would have

* [checked] searching ‘only within titles’

* [doesnt seem possible] searching within specific parts of the content (such as tagging within content, but tagging adds additional tho it seems needed)

* [doesnt seem possible] search results shows the title an the relevant content of the note,

* [checked] search results should be fullscreen (not a tiny box where relevant info is hidden like onenote)

* [checked] links has to be editable to not clutter up search (for example dynalist can’t do this)

unless there are better ways of getting to the same end goal instead of the above ways

good search is important and seems to still be the biggest failing point among many things

[AndyDent 97]

Note that the search grammar as documented here is now out of date - the specific restriction it reports about exact matching hasn't worked for some time and I just logged a support ticket asking them to either acknowledge it as a bug or update the grammar.

They say potato will only match potato and not match potatoes but it not only does do the partial match, it highlights it (Mac and Windows desktop highlight, web matches but doesn't highlight the partial word).

[gazumped 11,658]

41 minutes ago, AndyDent said:

I just logged a support ticket asking them to either acknowledge it as a bug or update the grammar.

I'm not sure where the bug is - you'd expect "potato*" to match 'words starting with' and "potato" just to match that exact word;  but while I can't define exactly what the difference is,  searching for potato with and without quotes makes a difference between 472 hits (without quotes) and 243 (with).  See below for the difference.  The search explanation is basically the same.  I'd certainly recommend having that window active when you're searching.  That part of the explanation certainly needs updating.

[AndyDent 97]

Upgrading in one fell swoop from 6.11 to 7.1 has trashed the search experience. Quotes may make a difference however I have also on multiple occasions now had different search results from two Macs sitting side by side, neither getting all the notes they should find.

Your example is interesting but adds to my suspicion of deep bugs - for example "potato" should still match potato soup if it is using word matching.

[John in Okie Land 0]

I have the app on my Win7 PC, and I use it a lot more via the online web through Firefox browser via several laptops, and I have it on my Samsung Note 4 cellphone.

 

In all cases, the search will show up a list of "topics" but it is NOT plain as to which ones actually contain the search term.

My  big frustration with it, is that it used to Popup in each topic direct to the Search Term.....

now it don't.... When it upgraded a few years back, the experience was so lousy and features disappeared, that I deleted the new version and reinstalled the old version on the Win7 PC.

I don't have that option on the cellphone, nor is there anyway to control the online access.

 

Anyone know how to configure it so that the Searched For Term will popup immediately in a particular topic?

[jefito 5,589]

3 hours ago, John in Okie Land said:

In all cases, the search will show up a list of "topics" but it is NOT plain as to which ones actually contain the search term.

I don't understand what you mean by "topics" here. If the search succeeds, then the notes that are returned should contain the search term.

3 hours ago, John in Okie Land said:

My  big frustration with it, is that it used to Popup in each topic direct to the Search Term.....

Again,  what you mean by"topic" is unclear. Do you mean "Evernote note"? And are you saying that the first occurrence of the term should be made visible on search of literal terms (i.e., not, say tag: or other attribute-based search terms)?

[jefito 5,589]

On 4/10/2018 at 12:26 AM, AndyDent said:

Your example is interesting but adds to my suspicion of deep bugs - for example "potato" should still match potato soup if it is using word matching.

A search for "potato" will match "potato", not "potato soup" (though it will match a note containing "potato soup"; in this case, the "soup" bit is irrelevant). It's not clear what the bugs you suspect are. Maybe you could clarify?

Windows client users should know that a search for potato (without quotes) is actually performed as if it were potato* (i.e., with the wildcard appended). A search for "potato" (with quotes) is performed as potato with no wildcard.

[John in Okie Land 0]

12 minutes ago, jefito said:

I don't understand what you mean by "topics" here. If the search succeeds, then the notes that are returned should contain the search term.

Again,  what you mean by"topic" is unclear. Do you mean "Evernote note"? And are you saying that the first occurrence of the term should be made visible on search of literal terms (i.e., not, say tag: or other attribute-based search terms)?

 

By Topic, each note that is created is " a topic " so if you want to argue terminology, that is what I mean...

I have over 500 notes in my Evernote....

when I search for WiFi up comes a bunch of "Topics" or "Notes" whichever you prefer that are listed in the left-hand Window Pane, the right side shows the text starting at the Very Top of each note. That is a PITA, it should popup the Search Term in each note immediately so that I can see if that note is relevant to my particular "WiFi"  lookup...

I work in Electronics, and keep a huge amount of notes on everything by "Topic" and I damn well mean "Topic"... ie,

Linux - WiFi adapter installs

Linux - WiFi adapter types, how to find out what it is

Linux - WiFi got lost, how to repair the connection

 

and when I search for "WiFi" I want the notes that show up in the right window pane to immediately popup the term "WiFi"  so that I don't have to search through more than a 1,000 words in that particular note.... it is a super PITA to scroll down thru a huge note, looking for the search term...

Evernote used to do that when I first started using it, and now it don't.

[AndyDent 97]

2 hours ago, jefito said:

Windows client users should know that a search for potato (without quotes) is actually performed as if it were potato* (i.e., with the wildcard appended). A search for "potato" (with quotes) is performed as potato with no wildcard.

This is contrary to the search grammar docs. I logged a bug report and was told they are going to update the docs.

The docs walk through an example showing that the default is not a wildcard.

Quote

 

potato

• matches: "Sweet Potato Pie"
• does not match: "Mash four potatoes together"

 

•  

I dislike having to type quotes for most of my searches but can live with it. 

[jefito 5,589]

6 hours ago, AndyDent said:

This is contrary to the search grammar docs. I logged a bug report and was told they are going to update the docs.

The docs walk through an example showing that the default is not a wildcard.

Gotcha; I've read and understand the search docs, which, so far as I know, describe the server search rules, and in general the search rules used in the various Evernote clients. The behavior of the Windows client, (adding the wildcard behind the scenes), is different with respect to the unquoted literal search term; it was a change made intentionally to that client some time ago (I can't speak for other clients; I use the Windows client much more than any other), purportedly as a usability enhancement. I'd have to really dig to find the forum post that discusses that. Anyways, that's  certainlysomething that should definitely be documented, since the Windows behavior is different from the documented behavior.

7 hours ago, AndyDent said:

I dislike having to type quotes for most of my searches but can live with it.

Sure. Fortunately, for me, the default wildcard behavior is usually fine, but I know that I can clamp down to a more specific search if I need to

[jefito 5,589]

9 hours ago, John in Okie Land said:

By Topic, each note that is created is " a topic " so if you want to argue terminology, that is what I mean...

Arguing has nothing to do with it. I'm using the Evernote terminology, "note"; because there are no "topics" in the Evernote architecture. When trying to troubleshoot someone else's problem, it helps to get specific, otherwise you just waste time trying to guess what the other person is saying. If someone comes to you and says "Hey, I'm having trouble with my frobnitz, can you help me?", you're going to wonder what the heck they're talking about, because "frobnitz" is not a usual term in electronics. If you find out that that person uses "frobnitz" to refer to "WIFI adapter", then  you're going to say (I hope) "Oh, OK, now I know what "frobnitz" means to that person", and you can move on.  Anyway, moving on...

10 hours ago, John in Okie Land said:

and when I search for "WiFi" I want the notes that show up in the right window pane to immediately popup the term "WiFi"  so that I don't have to search through more than a 1,000 words in that particular note.... it is a super PITA to scroll down thru a huge note, looking for the search term...

Evernote used to do that when I first started using it, and now it don't.

Sure, that would be nice behavior. I can't really remember whether the Windows client has ever done that (so I couldn't tell you when it stopped), but I do know that the Evernote WIndows client does highlight the occurrences of that search term (or terms if there are multiple) in the notes that it's found in. That's a definite help picking out the matches in a long note, but it would be even better if the first occurrence scrolled into view as well.