No search on the author field?

[Richard Feynman 7]

I use the author field to enter the author of a lot of clipped content. But it does not appear this field is included in searches?? If so, I'd like to suggest it be added (yes, I know I could put the author in the content and it would be searchable from there).

[jefito 5,598]

I checked the API (https://www.evernote.com/about/developer/api/evernote-api.htm) and came up with this section on the 'author' search term:

author:[string] - will match notes that have an "author" attribute set with a name that matches the argument string. E.g.:

· author:"robert parker"

· author:robert*

· -author:*

o Matches notes that have no "author" attribute set

· author:"Phil \"Chef\" Libin"

o Matches notes containing: Evernote's CEO is Phil "Chef" Libin, formerly of Cambridge.

I tried it in the Windows client, and it seemed to work. I seems to be case sensitive, however, so not as helpful as it might be.

[Richard Feynman 7]

Thanks. For some reason it won't work for me even if I use the proper case.

[jefito 5,598]

Weird. That sounds like a bug report to me then (I'd add in a whine about the case sensitivity too )

[Mike Crowl 0]

I see this inquiry goes back to 2011, but even with the newer upgrades of Evernote I haven't been able to search for authors who are in the 'info' section but not listed in the note itself. I tried the solution suggested below too, but it doesn't work for me either.

[jefito 5,598]

I see this inquiry goes back to 2011, but even with the newer upgrades of Evernote I haven't been able to search for authors who are in the 'info' section but not listed in the note itself. I tried the solution suggested below too, but it doesn't work for me either.

I still see this working, as described, in the latest version of Evernote for Windows (5.1.1.2304). In me tests, it does indeed match against the Author field in Info. Again, the search still case-sensitive, and like standard text, tag and title searches, you can add a '*' wildcard at the end of your search string for partial matches.

[Thomas Wicklund 0]

I'll bring this up again, having just tried to search on an author. The author search works, but it's very finicky. Author search is case sensitive (normal search is insensitive), so a search of 'author:clinton*' will not find an author field of "Clinton, Bill". It will also not find both notes if I entered "Bill Clinton" in one note and "Clinton, Bill" in another. The wildcard also only works at the end of the search, searching for 'author:*Clinton' will not find "Bill Clinton", "Hillary Clinton", or "Clinton, Chelsea".

 

In essence, author search appears to be an exact, full string, case sensitive search, while the usual note search is case insensitive and word based.

 

Personally, I don't consider this a viable search feature. The author field should either be included in the note search in the same manner as other text or should be removed. It's bad enough that an update to the Windows version removed the author from the normal note display a while back.