After searching, how do I clear the search highlighting but stay on the current note?

[chadbaldwin 7]

Version: Web version, Chrome browser (latest version), Windows 10.

After searching for a particular phrase or keyword and you open the note you were trying to find...how do you clear the search while keeping your selected note open? Currently, if you clear your search criteria, then it takes you back to where you were before, and doesn't keep the current note open.

I do realize that if you make a change to the note, then the yellow search result highlighting throughout the note goes away, but it does not clear from the title of the note. And the search results are still highlighted. Since the interface is basically all grayscale, that yellow highlighting is distracting for me.

My "fix" has been to make a small change to the note I want to work on and then undo it. Then I clear the search and now that note is at the top of the list because it was the most recently edited note.

It's a trivial task, and if that's just the way it is, then that's fine, I get it (as a software developer, I realize, you can't make everyone happy haha), but if there's a way to not have to do that, it would be nice to know.

[gazumped 11,663]

Hi.  Sounds like you already know the options - there are no other choices that I know of....  

[sjul 3]

+1 This is a major nuisance!

Not only is the edit-delete-edit technique tedious, it renders the recent notes list  *useless* if you are just referencing older notes. The other option is to open the note you're looking for in its own window. But then you end up in window management purgatory.

[Jonathan H. 3]

+1, as I run into this issue (of losing my note after clearing a search) on a near-daily basis.

[gazumped 11,663]

If,  in your current version of Evernote,  and on your current device,  you can open that note in its own window,  does that help?

[rojharris 0]

+1 for this from me too. The highlighting is really, really annoying when you're trying to read through the found notes. We don't need it. Just find the notes for us, don't highlight all the words. That would be great!

[ae.titov@ya.ru 0]

+1 from me too, it's really annoying 

[Jaemaz 2]

+1. Very annoying

[PinkElephant 8,098]

We have other threads where users ask for highlighted search results in all notes found, because they may need to review several of them.

It seems there is no clear opinion about it among us users.

[dbvirago 502]

I've needed both sides of this argument at different times for different reasons, but if I want to work on the current note without highlighting as the OP asked, I simply open the note in its own window as a few people have suggested. I have no idea what "window management purgatory" is. I have multiple windows of everything and many open tabs in browser windows most of the time. That's what Windows is for. Otherwise, I'd find me a good used 286 machine and run DOS.

[PinkElephant 8,098]

Additional Input: When you have searched, and the note open you were looking for, simply hit the "X" in the search field to clear it.

The note stays selected, but the highlighting is taken away.

[dbvirago 502]

5 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

Additional Input: When you have searched, and the note open you were looking for, simply hit the "X" in the search field to clear it.

The note stays selected, but the highlighting is taken away.

Doesn't work for me in Windows. If I clear the sort, the selected note reverts to top of the list. But since a lot of other software works the same way, I never saw it as a problem. 

[dotBob 0]

One the web interface, clearing the search to eliminate the highlights results in the first note in the currently selected notebook to be displayed.

If clearing the search would instead keep the viewed found note open, I think it would satisfy most, if not all, use cases.  That's how OneNote functions.

 

[gazumped 11,663]

14 hours ago, dotBob said:

That's how OneNote functions.

Good for them.

In this case - copy the URL and open the page in a new tab? Open the page in its own window? Get the note link from the three-dots menu?  There are work-arounds...

[BeEfficient 44]

+1. Very annoying

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,954]

It is annoying, though there are work-arounds. I've never quite understood why clearing the search should be taken to mean "OK, I'm done here." To me, it means I'm done with the search and found what I need, not done with the note. Of course, if one can stand to look at the search highlighting while working, it's less of a problem.

[gawkla 15]

The more annoying thing is when you try to use keyboard shortcuts to search. Every time I press my shortcut, I expect the search box to be cleared. But not in new EN. This is the only program I know where I have to manually clear the search box before making a new search...

[Mike P 2,641]

46 minutes ago, gawkla said:

The more annoying thing is when you are trying to use keyboard shortcuts for search. Everytime I pressed my keystrokes I expect to have search box cleared. But not ion new EN. This is the only program I know where I have to manually clear search field before made new search...

I agree that clearing a search is not as easy as you would expect. Text searches are not too bad but the blue tag and other filter lozenges are a pain. I find going to Home first works well. So alt+ctrl+1 followed by alt+ctrl+F

[ln899 13]

+1 for me as well. Extremely annoying. I note that it is now well over a year since this issue was raised.

[PinkElephant 8,098]

On a Mac use cmd-J to open the quick switch dialogue, which is a search box without highlighting. Use it to find the note - there will be no highlighting.

Similar on Windows, I just don't remember the shortcut.

[Dave Green 210]

I think the cmd-J on Windows is ctrl+Q but I am also on the mac.  I find this shortcut to be my goto for most needs.

Also, it may be quicker to clear the search box (when you are in it) to use cmd+A or ctrl+A to select everything and as you start typing the original contents will disappear.

 

[Mike P 2,641]

I've got a little lost about what this thread is about now, so apologies if this comment is not relevant.

There is a way of temporarily clearing the yellow highlighting from the current note without loosing the rest of the search results. In the note you are working in, press ctrl+F to open the Find in note dialog. The search box is pre-populated with your search term. Press delete to remove the search term and all the yellow highligting in the current note is removed. However, you do need to keep the Find in note dialog open, as if you close it, it will repopulate with the search term and the highlighting reappears.

[ln899 13]

1 hour ago, Mike P said:

There is a way of temporarily clearing the yellow highlighting from the current note without loosing the rest of the search results. In the note you are working in, press ctrl+F to open the Find in note dialog. The search box is pre-populated with your search term. Press delete to remove the search term and all the yellow highligting in the current note is removed. However, you do need to keep the Find in note dialog open, as if you close it, it will repopulate with the search term and the highlighting reappears.

Thanks, MIke.  This is interesting.  I'll try it.  But I can't help but think it's far from ideal. Evernote needs to fix this.

[VincentC 266]

To confirm: the Windows equivalent to Mac's CMD is indeed Cntl-Q.  

I use it constantly.

Vinnie

[gawkla 15]

Is the CTRL+Q shortcut global in the new EV? Can it open the search window being inside another application?
If not, it is not the same for me. If I have to activate evernote first and then start searching, it is a big step backwards for my productivity.

In legacy application I have my one shortcut: ctrl+shift+E which allows me to open evernote window from anywhere (this was global shortcut) and just start typing in search box what I wanted.

 

 

[PinkElephant 8,098]

I now will not hand you a fish, I tell you how to catch them yourself:

1. Watch at the left side panel, waaaaay down. See the keyboard symbol: Click it - to the right a list of all keyboard shortcuts will show.
2. The second section are the global shortcuts. These are the ones that are active all of the time. Aha - number 3 looks great, Search in Evernote, Shift-ctrl/cmd-E.
3. If you like the combination, you are done here.
4. If you don't like it, move the mouse over the shortcut. 3 dots appear in fron of the shortcut name. Click them. If there is an "Edit shortcut" option (there is one for this one), you can change the keys. Modify them to your liking, just make sure you have no collision with other global shortcuts on your system.

That's how shortcuts can be accessed and adapted.

And no, this is not the same as ctrl-Q/cmd-J. For this EN must be the active app.

[gawkla 15]

This is the most annoying me behavior of this application. It is completely different of anything I have seen ever.

 

 

[PinkElephant 8,098]

You don’t specify WHICH behavior you mean.

For any behavior the app offers when searching, the thread holds solutions. Among a lot of valuable posts maybe read this one:

 

[gawkla 15]

26 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

You don’t specify WHICH behavior you mean.

For any behavior the app offers when searching, the thread holds solutions. Among a lot of valuable posts maybe read this one:

 

 

For me, the most annoying thing is when you try to use keyboard shortcuts to search. Every time I pressing my shortcut, I expect the search box to be cleared (as in all other apps I know, as in legacy Evernote app). But not in new EN. This is the only program I know where I have to manually clear the search box before making a new search... Every shortcut press merge my new text with previous entered. I have never seen similar behavior...

[Mike P 2,641]

19 minutes ago, gawkla said:

I expect the search box to be cleared (as in all other apps I know

The current behaviour allows you to build up a search so for me not automatically clearing the search bar is essential.

When you open the the search bar the insertion point is positioned at the end of the existing text (to allow further search terms to be added). shift+Home highlights the text and then you can just type your new search term in. An alternative to this approach is to clear the search by going to Home (Alt+ctrl+1) before opening the search bar (alt+ctrl+F)

 

[gawkla 15]

17 minutes ago, Mike P said:

The current behaviour allows you to build up a search so for me not automatically clearing the search bar is essential.

When you open the the search bar the insertion point is positioned at the end of the existing text (to allow further search terms to be added). shift+Home highlights the text and then you can just type your new search term in. An alternative to this approach is to clear the search by going to Home (Alt+ctrl+1) before opening the search bar (alt+ctrl+F)

 

As was stated here many many times: "many users, many workflows, many user causes". Which is good for one, isn't good for other. For me it is step back in compare of legacy version. If They want to extend functionality why They don't provide an option to switch this behavior "new" and "old" ?

[gawkla 15]

50 minutes ago, Mike P said:

The current behaviour allows you to build up a search so for me not automatically clearing the search bar is essential.

When you open the the search bar the insertion point is positioned at the end of the existing text (to allow further search terms to be added). shift+Home highlights the text and then you can just type your new search term in. An alternative to this approach is to clear the search by going to Home (Alt+ctrl+1) before opening the search bar (alt+ctrl+F)

 

Additional keystrokes, complete different "workflow". WHY???
I was fine with legacy version. But They forced me to everything new. As extension, increasing price 2x times...

[PinkElephant 8,098]

You use a new app now. Accept it, or switch to an app that suits you better. 

You are forced to nothing. Nobody will shoot the dog.