(Archived) Search modifiers to include all notebooks

[enur 0]

Hi,

I looking for a search modifier that makes it possible to search in all notebooks, without having to include all notebooks in my search query (notebook:personal notebook:work notebook:travel search_string).

I know that I can just click on All Notebooks before making my search, but I often like to navigate and search using keyboard and without using my mouse.

I am sorry if this is a trivial question, but I have looked and not yet found a solution.

[crane 40]

I don't think that you would even be able to search like you're suggesting, i.e., notebook:personal notebook:work. As far as I know, you can only specify one notebook, at the beginning, of a search.

You need to be in All Notebooks to search all notebooks, but depending on how you're accessing EN, there may be a shortcut key to get there. I vaguely recall some shortcut key discussion, but I don't remember the exact details...

[jbenson2 2,149]

I would strongly suggest you modify the global "Find in Evernote" hotkey to F5

>Tools

>Options

>Global Hot Keys

Even if you have Evernote minimized and are working in another program, F5 will maximize Evernote, select all notebooks and move the cursor to the seach area.

Then whenever you do a search, always press F5 first, then enter your search.

And you won't even have to move your mouse.

[JMichaelTest 19]

I would strongly suggest you modify the global "Find in Evernote" hotkey to F5

I like the idea of having a single keystroke to bring up EN search, but people may want to select some key other than [F5].

[F5] has been the default key to refresh your window for a very long time.

[CTRL]-[F5] is the default to completely reload a web page, including scripts, CSS, etc.

The EN default for "Find in Evernote" is [sHIFT]-[WIN]-F

This is hard to key using one hand.

[CTRL]-[WIN]-F or [CTRL]-[WIN]-S is doable, and is not used as a standard for anything else.

I also like [WIN]-S, but this is the default for OneNote Screen capture. If you don't need that, then this makes for a logical choice to me.

In the end, my suggestion is to pick a key combination that is intuitive for you and not used elsewhere.

[enur 0]

Super! Thank you all for nice tips. I will modify the "Find in Evernote" shortcut - that will solve my problem.

Thank you...

[JMichaelTest 19]

Is there a Saved Search grammar term that will specific all notebooks?

I have searched for an answer, but can't find it:

• 
  [*:1g8gljbr]User's guide
  [*:1g8gljbr]EN API Guide / Evernote Search Grammar section
  [*:1g8gljbr]EN Forums

However, I did find this in the Evernote Search Grammar section:

If no notebook is given, the search will go over all of the user's active notes.

Either the documentation is wrong, or there is a bug in EN Win 4.

If I have a Notebook selected when I click on a Saved Search, the search is limited to the selected notebook.

[Bertrand 2]

If I have a Notebook selected when I click on a Saved Search, the search is limited to the selected notebook.

Could be a bug, as related in this post

http://forum.evernote.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=19615

[steveborgatti 0]

If only the search syntax would allow

-notebook:Reference -notebook:Completed

Why would this be technically difficult?

[jbenson2 2,149]

steveborgatti wrote:

If only the search syntax would allow

-notebook:Reference -notebook:Completed

I ran into a similar issue. Half of my 7,000+ notes are in a notebook named Politics. When I tried to search for personal notes, I would end up pulling in stuff from the Politics notebook.

My work-around was to assign a tag named X to all the notes in my Politics notebook.

So I can search for Nancy by using: Nancy -tag:X (this avoids all the mentions of Pelosi)

A few times during the week, I run a saved search to be sure everything in the Politics notebook is tagged with the x

• notebook:Politics -tag:z

If Evernote does offer a -Notebook search command in the future, all I have to do is delete the tag X with a simple delete keystroke to remove it from thousands of notes.

[JMichaelTest 19]

[My work-around was to assign a tag named X to all the notes in my Politics notebook. . .

Not a bad idea.

To carry that logic one step further, one could create tags named for the Notebook.

You could even have a parent tag "Notebooks" with a subtag for each notebook.

[steveborgatti 0]

That's what I've ended up doing. Everything in a given notebook gets a matching tag. But then why use notebooks? The trouble with using tags is that if notes frequently move (say from !soon to !now to !waiting to !complete) then you have to remove the old tag and put on a new tag. If it were just notebooks, you could drag the message out of the soon notebook into the now notebook. One step instead of two.

[JMichaelTest 19]

But then why use notebooks? The trouble with using tags is that if notes frequently move (say from !soon to !now to !waiting to !complete) then you have to remove the old tag and put on a new tag. If it were just notebooks, you could drag the message out of the soon notebook into the now notebook. One step instead of two.

I agree. Duplicating the Notebook a Note is in with a Tag is only a work-around for now.

We clearly need full, flexible search grammar for multiple Notebooks, including "All Notebooks" and "Not Notebook".

[engberg 89]

If you omit all "notebook:..." parameters for the search, it should search across all notebooks.

[JMichaelTest 19]

If you omit all "notebook:..." parameters for the search, it should search across all notebooks.

That's exactly our point Dave, it SHOULD search across all notebooks. :wink:

But in fact it does NOT in EN Win 4 [106997]. I just tried again to be sure.

So this is a bug?

[engberg 89]

Yes, that's a bug, thanks.