Can you hear me crying? I can't even figure out the simplest thing - search a notebook

[Pinetree410 0]

The bane of my existence is my thinning hair.  I am currently pulling out what hair I have left just to indicate how distraught I am(!)

First, I am absolutely a computer idiot.  I'm reading these threads looking for help and I don't understand practically any of it.  I don't know what a plug-in is, or what the word "syntax" means.  Ok?  Please be patient with me.

I have used the paid version of Evernote for many years.

I have over 40,000 notes.

1.  How do I search a particular notebook for a particular note?

2. How do I search all of my notebooks for a particular note, if I can't remember exactly which notebook my note is in?

3. I used to use quotes to find exact matches to narrow down my results.  For instance, pressed bouquet would give me all of the notes that contained those individual words, but if I did "pressed bouquet" it would narrow down the results of notes that only had those two words in sequence.

Evernote made me upgrade to Windows 10, and this is when all of my problems started. (My son did all of that for me btw).  In doing so, I completely lost 6-8 weeks of work because of some "local" thing, which I do not understand.  

I tried looking at Obsidian but the tag thing is of UTMOST importance to me in order to find things amongst my 40,000+ notes.  I couldn't figure out the tagging system, so I am back to struggling with Evernote.

If anyone can provide assistance I can leave my hair alone, and I would be so, so very grateful.

Thank you, kindly.

 

[gazumped 12,050]

Hi.  First the good news - Evernote doesn't do plug-ins.

Your run-in with 'local' notes may be to do with the fact that the 'old' app allowed users to have notes that were not shared (synced) to the server.  These notes were stored in Local Notebooks and when you updated to v10 - which does NOT allow for unsynced notes - you would have had the option to convert your local notes to synced ones.  If they were not converted,  they are no longer part of your database - but if you still have any files from the old software (which you probably do) then they can ..probably.. be rescued.  We can talk you through some of that if you'd like.

As to the rest - you seem to pretty much have the basics:

Searching within a notebook isn't necessary (it maybe speeds things up,  but is not required) but just choose that notebook from the Notebooks page and search there,  or choose a filter "located in..." and find your notebook.  Type your term(s) into a search box - separate words for an general search,  in quotes for a specific phrase.  If you find your search was too general,  exclude items with a minus sign,  or add tags or terms as necessary.

See https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/360040282613-Search-overview for more on this...

 

[s2sailor 2,423]

On 5/15/2024 at 7:41 AM, Pinetree410 said:

I used to use quotes to find exact matches to narrow down my results.

This should still work for you.  If it doesn’t you may have a corrupted database.  Make sure any recent notes have been synced with the server and then log out.  It will ask if you want to keep your data.  Say no, and then when you log back in a new copy of your database will be downloaded.  With 40K notes the download will take some time to complete and stabilize.  Let us know if you still have problems.  There is a more extreme update that can be done if needed that we can step you through.

[PinkElephant 8,758]

1) You first click on the notebook from the notebooks list in the left panel, this creates a filter for that notebook. Then you type in the search term and hit enter.

You get all matching notes inside of that notebook.

2) You hit the „All Notes“ button in the left side panel. This removes all notebook filters. Then you type in the search term an hit enter.

You get all matching notes from the whole account.

3) You should still be able to use a search term in quotation marks, for exact matches. If there is nothing highlighted, it may be the search term is hidden, for example in an attached pdf.

Hint: There are several ways to filter for criteria. There is a funnel symbol above the notes list. Behind it are options where you can select criteria like notebooks by simply picking them from a dropdown list.

Maybe an easy access for you, try it out.