Search functionality

[Tim Kowal (b) 43]

I am searching for a note. I know its tag is "Contacts". So I bring up the tag "Contacts" by pressing Ctrl+Alt+3 and finding "Contacts". Now I need to search for my contact's name. It is Fred. So I click the Search bar and type "Fred". But the search drops the "Contacts" tag and is now searching across all notes.

Perhaps Ctrl+Alt+3 needs to display the tag as a "filter" so that further search refinements may be made. At any rate, this is a problem.

 

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, Tim Kowal (b) said:

So I click the Search bar and type "Fred".

You can type     Fred tag:Contacts

[Mike P 2,641]

11 hours ago, Tim Kowal (b) said:

I am searching for a note. I know its tag is "Contacts". So I bring up the tag "Contacts" by pressing Ctrl+Alt+3 and finding "Contacts". Now I need to search for my contact's name. It is Fred. So I click the Search bar and type "Fred". But the search drops the "Contacts" tag and is now searching across all notes.

Perhaps Ctrl+Alt+3 needs to display the tag as a "filter" so that further search refinements may be made. At any rate, this is a problem.

The way that "search" and "filter" interact is confusing until you get used to it. There is an added complication in your workflow because if you have a nested hierarchy of tags selecting a tag in the sidebar slects that tag and all the child tags. So it only finds notes tagged with the parent and all the children.

The key principle is start with search and filter from within search or use the filter menu later.

There are two approaches that would give you what you want. I'm going to search for the text "issues" in notes tagged $current

1. Just use search

When you search you need to approach it in the order "filters" and then text. In this case I need to add a filter for the $current tag. I start typing $current and the tag comes up in the search results within the search box

Clicking the filter then gives me:

I've now got a list of other relevant filters  which I could also add if I want to. There is no option to filter for notes containing pdfs for example, because there are no notes tagged with $current that contain pdfs

Now I can add the text ("issues") and my final result is:

 

2. Search then filter

You can search for the text first and then use the filter menu to narrow down your search

Unfortunaely I get the complete tag hierarchy not just the relevant tags. I can search for the tag within the hierarchy if I want to or just browse. In the end I get exactly the same result.

As @DTLow says you can always use the advanced search syntax but you don't have to in this case. There are a few cases where you do need the search syntax particularly if you want to find notes with any of a list of tags (rather than all). It's also annoying that you cannot save a search constructed using filter even if it does exactly the same thing as one constructed using search.

 

 

 

[Tim Kowal (b) 43]

Option 1 only works if the tag you are looking for appears in the results in the main search bar. As it only returns about two tags, and as I do not always know exactly what tag I am looking for, this will not work reliably for me.

When I have filtered for a tag, I simply need the search bar to acknowledge that I already have a filter applied, so that I can continue refining my search. As you can see in the screen cap below, I do have a filter applied in the notes column, but the search bar does not recognize this. The search bar needs to get wise.

 

Option 2 could work. But it is cumbersome. I hope it is offered as a temporary workaround and not as Evernote search orthodoxy.

[Mike P 2,641]

2 hours ago, Tim Kowal (b) said:

Option 1 only works if the tag you are looking for appears in the results in the main search bar.

Agreed. This was raised in the beta. I don't know why it is such a small number. It should be all the tags that meet the search text added so far.

 

2 hours ago, Tim Kowal (b) said:

When I have filtered for a tag, I simply need the search bar to acknowledge that I already have a filter applied, so that I can continue refining my search.

EN only allows you to search then filter. You can't use the filter menu and then the search menu. It assumes you want a new search. It's not consistent because if you add filters using the search box you need to add filters before search text. As I said right at the beginning of my post the interaction between search and filter is confusing.

[Tim Kowal (b) 43]

49 minutes ago, Mike P said:

EN only allows you to search then filter. You can't use the filter menu and then the search menu.

Yes that is the problem, but there appears no reason for this distinction in behavior. To demonstrate: First, I use the search bar to filter by tag "Contacts", then I click the search bar to refine the search -- you will see it recognizes my "Contacts" tag filter:

 

To compare, I next use the Tag filter (Ctrl+Alt+3) to filter by tag "Contacts". It produces the same results as using the search bar to apply this filter. But now when I use the search bar to refine, it does not recognize the "Contacts" tag filter:

 

There is no reason I can discern for this difference in behavior. I could search by starting with Tags in EN 6.5 (Alt+F2). I should be able to do the same in EN 10. I assume this is an oversight. I hope it is not design.

[Mike P 2,641]

9 minutes ago, Tim Kowal (b) said:

Yes that is the problem, but there appears no reason for this distinction in behavior.

I agree completely. The way search and filter work together is not entirely logical. Another example is that you can construct exactly the same search/filter in both systems but it can be saved if constructed using search but not if using filter. The designer clearly has a fixed idea about how you should go about searching/filtering. I think I can adapt to it but there should be more flexibility.

[potablefog 0]

If I go to a lower level tag, the notes in that tag show up. However, if I go to top level tag (i.e office 365 in this picture) it does not display all the notes from within the tags.

 

Edited November 2, 2020 by potablefog
attachments

[DTLow 5,736]

4 minutes ago, potablefog said:

If I go to a lower level tag, the notes in that tag show up. However, if I go to top level tag (i.e office 365 in this picture) it does not display all the notes from within the tags.

Two known problems 
- all child tags are included   
- this should be an :any search

[Mike P 2,641]

3 hours ago, DTLow said:

Two known problems 
- all child tags are included   
- this should be an :any search

Agreed. Is there anybody who adds every single child tag to a note? This is a ridiculous default. If we had the option to select a single tag and the ability to shift-click to add further tags it would restore the sidebar tag functionaility back to being useable.

[renren 40]

Not sure if this is the correct thread to post into, but there is another way the most recent version of Evernote has materially degraded my search experience.  It used to be that when I was within a folder, there was a search box just for that folder.  This is an extremely common use case, I only want to search in the folder that I'm in.  Now the search is forced to be global every time?  Can you please put the search box back at the top of the notes snippets column?   95% of the time, you want to search in the folder you're currently occupying.  Please?  Attaching image of where it used to be.

[Mike P 2,641]

10 minutes ago, renren said:

Not sure if this is the correct thread to post into, but there is another way the most recent version of Evernote has materially degraded my search experience.  It used to be that when I was within a folder, there was a search box just for that folder.  This is an extremely common use case, I only want to search in the folder that I'm in.  Now the search is forced to be global every time?  Can you please put the search box back at the top of the notes snippets column?   95% of the time, you want to search in the folder you're currently occupying.

ctrl-Q is supposed to be coming back but I don't think we know exactly what it will allow you to do.

Personally I don't have a major problem with the current setup. If I'm in a notebook and hit the search bar there is an option to filter on that notebook. I just click that.

[CalS 5,280]

In addition to composing a search Ctrl+Q displays 5 most recent searches and saved searches at the get go followed by tags/notebook/other recent searches as you type.  You can select one of those or go with your search.  It's quite powerful and does not require the mouse.  PITA without it.

[buzz3 0]

I too only want to search within a particular folder.
Sometimes the folder is from some time back, other times it may be recent. It depends on the work at hand. I don't use tags but organise research by notebooks within the folders.
A search by folder is what is needed.

[Mike P 2,641]

2 hours ago, buzz3 said:

I too only want to search within a particular folder.
Sometimes the folder is from some time back, other times it may be recent. It depends on the work at hand. I don't use tags but organise research by notebooks within the folders.
A search by folder is what is needed.

EN doesn't have folders so I assume from the context that you mean stacks. You can use the search syntax in the search bar

stack:"my stack name"

You can't unfortunately just go to the stack and search from there. No helpful filter appears underneath the search box like it does if you are in a notebook. That would be a nice enhancement to the search system.

[buzz3 0]

Thanks - not folder.  I meant Notebook.

[Mike P 2,641]

5 hours ago, buzz3 said:

Thanks - not folder.  I meant Notebook.

To search within a notebook you can start in that notebook and just click "add filter" which appears underneath the search box

 

[buzz3 0]

Thank you for that.