(Archived) Advanced Search That Excludes Notes in a Saved Search

[Amie Harpe Longstreet 12]

Dear Evernote Experts,

Does anyone know of a way to create and advanced search that specifically excludes notes that might have matching criteria but are already found in another saved search? Thank you in advance for your help.

Amie

[jbenson2 2,147]

The negative feature is helpful

If Search for automobile produces too many results, you can narrow the results by searching for

automobile -hybrid

[gazumped 11,652]

Slight variation: if the saved search is a complex one and you want to exclude anything you already found in that search, just do the following

Carry out search 1

temporarily tag all the results with 'search1' tag

Carry out search 2 as JB's suggests with '-search1'

-If you don't want to waste tags, just delete the temp tag afterward.

[jbenson2 2,147]

Slight variation: if the saved search is a complex one and you want to exclude anything you already found in that search, just do the following

Carry out search 1

temporarily tag all the results with 'search1' tag

Carry out search 2 as JB's suggests with '-search1'

That is a clever idea.

And you could copy the actual search terms (along with an explanation and the tag name) into an Evernote note for future use. Especially if you expect to further refine the search in the future.

If you have the most recent version of Evernote, BitQwik offers some powerful search capabilities in word form which can be edited.

http://bitqwik.com/

Example:

“Find my encrypted notes that have the words financial data or private in the title but leave out notes I created yesterday”

Advanced search (this one blows me away):

"Created last month and updated between November 1 and November 15 but are not tagged with bacon bits or bean bags and have the word robot and garage band but not dogs in the title that were made using Microsoft Word"

[Amie Harpe Longstreet 12]

Thank you both for the quick reply and helpful ideas. I have been using Bitqwick the last couple of week which is what has prompted to to have a renewed interest in creating saved searches. I like gazumped's idea for my immediate application. I have gotten behind in processing my inbox and have almost 800 notes. I am creating a series of saved searches to help me prioritize and process the inbox; I like to keep zero notes in my inbox:) I was looking for an easy way to check if I have missed capturing anyting in a saved search and I think the idea of running the searches, applying a temporary tag, and then looking for everything without the tag will accomplish exactly what I need right now. Thank you both again.

Amie

[gazumped 11,652]

[roschler 158]

Thank you both for the quick reply and helpful ideas. I have been using Bitqwick the last couple of week which is what has prompted to to have a renewed interest in creating saved searches. I like gazumped's idea for my immediate application. I have gotten behind in processing my inbox and have almost 800 notes. I am creating a series of saved searches to help me prioritize and process the inbox; I like to keep zero notes in my inbox:) I was looking for an easy way to check if I have missed capturing anyting in a saved search and I think the idea of running the searches, applying a temporary tag, and then looking for everything without the tag will accomplish exactly what I need right now. Thank you both again.

Amie

Hello Amie,

Have you tried using a filter in BitQwik yet? It is applied at the end of the search after the other search conditions have been processed. For example, suppose you have a search in BitQwik such as:

Show me notes with PDF files that are tagged with marketing but not Skype.

But you discover that you have too many notes that are from the nytimes.com web site and you also don't want notes that came from a Moleskine notebook. You could add to your BitQwik query:

Leave out notes that are from nytimes.com or came from a Moleskine notebook

You will find that between the "search for" part of your query and the "filter" part of your query you can achieve a nice combination of logic that should satisfy the majority of your needs. With judicious use of the tips mentioned below, BitQwik should became an easy sandbox for experimenting with different search conditions to craft a complex search that does what you need. If it does not, tell me and I will find a way to do so.

In other words, although entered separately, if you don't clear the query between the two sentences entered above end you should up with this combined query:

Show me notes with PDF files that are tagged with marketing but not Skype. Leave out notes that are from nytimes.com or came from a Moleskine notebook

You could of course enter the whole two-sentence query in one pass if you wanted. Remember, the phrasing of a filter is as flexible as anything else in BitQwik. You don't have to say "leave out". You could say "Eliminate/Discard/Don't show me/etc." and it would mean the same thing. Everything in a query that comes after a filter phrase acts as filter and excludes any notes that match the conditions specified in the phrase.

Said simply: Say what you want first and then say what you don't want next.

Here's a few workflow tips:

• If you are trying to incrementally craft a search, learn to use the Enter key from the "Enter A Search Filter" entry box instead of going straight to the Search button.
  
• Use the Delete Checked Condition button to remove parts of a search you are experimenting with instead of having to redo the entire search.
  
• To retry a search you just entered use the Up Arrow when inside the "Enter A Search Filter" entry box to scroll through the previous queries you just entered (query history). Modify as desired, and then press Enter or the Search button to try your modification.
  
• Hitting the ESC key twice clears the entire query just like hitting the Clear button does (for keyboard junkies like myself).
  

There are versions of BitQwik coming in the future that will have an interview module to help you through the process of crafting a complex search but that's a while off. If you have any questions just ask. However, well before that version there will be a "search within previous search results" feature since that's a far easier task.

Thank you gazumped and jbenson2 for pitching in here and helping Amie, grateful as always!

-- roschler