Filter "Contains" checkboxes isn't working

[S_Hillam 3]

I've created a few checkboxes in some of my notes and would like to select all notes with a checkbox. But when I use the Filter and specify "Contains" checkboxes, no notes are selected. I'm on 10.68.3 for Windows.

[gazumped 11,669]

Are we talking here about checkLISTS or checkBOXES?  https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/208313618

[S_Hillam 3]

Checkboxes - NOT tasks.

But I've figured it out — although it's weird. I was using Shift+Ctrl+C to create a checkbox. And it does. But it's not green. So apparently Evernote doesn't recognize it as a checkbox. I'm now using the Blue + (insert) icon and selecting Checkbox instead and it's working. I tested using the insert checkbox before creating this thread. But I was inserting it directly above the other non-active checkbox, and as soon as I pressed Enter, the active checkbox was converted into a non-active checkbox.

Anyway...I now know to always use the active checkbox if I want to be able to use the checkbox filter.

Thanks

[PinkElephant 8,119]

Very simple: What you created is a checklist, not a checkbox. A checklist is a formatting for lists. It’s meant for several rows of text, with a tickable box at the beginning of each row. If selected it can create a strikeout of the text when ticked.

A checkbox is a special text character in the form of a box, that can be ticked off. It should be used somewhere in between other text, never at the beginning of a line.

Advise: Never try to use checkboxes to build a checklist.

[agsteele 2,951]

As @PinkElephant says plus don't place a checkBOX at the beginning of a line. It will be converted to a checkLIST.

[takewon 0]

This thread solved questions I have on checkboxes/checklists. Force conversion of a checkbox at the beginning of the line is tricky and inconvenient.

I have other questions about checkboxes. 

• When I do a "Todo:Ture" or "todo:false" search, what does the app start looking for? I haven't had any match when I do these searches (on 10.68.3, Windows).
• Can we pick up notes containing checklists using the search bar?

 

[gazumped 11,669]

I believe your question was answered as far as we users know in the link posted above - https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/208313618-How-to-find-to-do-notes-checklists-

[takewon 0]

Thank you for your reply, gazumped! I see that doing the search for "todo:*" is supposed to look for checkboxes.

This search gives me no matching notes for unknown reasons, although I have notes with checkboxes.

I wonder if anybody has had the same problem.

 

[Dave Green 210]

6 minutes ago, takewon said:

I see that doing the search for "todo:*" is supposed to look for checkboxes.

This search gives me no matching notes for unknown reasons, although I have notes with checkboxes.

 

They seem to be gone.

You can use these replacements:

contains:enTodo

contains:enTodoFalse

contains:enTodoTrue

[CLBLAKE 1]

Thank you Dave Green!  This worked!  I've been wondering why my search I've had for years stopped working.  I've submitted a help ticket on this over a month ago, and they said it was escalated.  Of course with the 'restructure' of the Customer Service team I have not received an answer.  I appreciate the information.

[Dave Green 210]

Strangely, today checklists that are unchecked are being found by my search for contains:enTodoFalse

As noted in this thread and elsewhere, this had worked, quit working and now seems to work. 

I hope things stabilize with this result.  The documentation at https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/208313828-Use-advanced-search-syntax has not been updated.

 

10.77.3-mac-ddl-public (20240221121132)
Editor: v177.3.2
Service: v1.93.3
 

[ghon 78]

neither  todo:false nor contains:enTodoFalse

does work for me, unfortunately (testet on EN Web 10.77.3)

[Dave Green 210]

Works for me on web as well (although I am not sure where to see the web version).   I think some of search is a server issue so subject to roll out.

 

[Dave Green 210]

On 2/25/2024 at 9:54 AM, Dave Green said:

Strangely, today checklists that are unchecked are being found by my search for contains:enTodoFalse

As noted in this thread and elsewhere, this had worked, quit working and now seems to work. 

I hope things stabilize with this result.  The documentation at https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/208313828-Use-advanced-search-syntax has not been updated.

 

10.77.3-mac-ddl-public (20240221121132)
Editor: v177.3.2
Service: v1.93.3

This continues to work for me, although I had a few false positives where items without checkboxes or checklists were found.  I think all of these files had checkboxes or checklists in the past.

I figured out that I could clean files (remove the false positives) by 

1. Changing all bullet lists to non-bullet lists with ⌘+⇧+U in the whole file
2. Exporting the note to an ENEX file
3. Changing all former bullet lists back to bullet lists using ⌘+⇧+U in the whole file again
4. Exporting the note to an ENEX file

In my case, I had 8 false positives in 125 hits to fix. Somehow writing to an ENEX file causes things to resolve immediately rather than when RTE and Evernote decide to.