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Cheat Sheet for Evernote Search Terms?


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Is there a short summary of searching syntax for Evernote?  I'm interested in being able to search by date, date range, notebook, content within note, and with and without tags.  I was sure there would be an entry in this forum, but have been unable to find it.

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  • Level 5

I use a Saved Search to find 5 of cheatsheets (5 notes)

  • General Search Grammar Tips
  • Date/Time Search examples
  • Things Search examples
  • Places Search examples
  • People Search examples

One click and I have all my search tips designed specifically from my needs.

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I use a Saved Search to find 5 of cheatsheets (5 notes)

  • General Search Grammar Tips
  • Date/Time Search examples
  • Things Search examples
  • Places Search examples
  • People Search examples

One click and I have all my search tips designed specifically from my needs.

 

Would you consider making them public?   :)

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  • Level 5

 

I use a Saved Search to find 5 of cheatsheets (5 notes)

  • General Search Grammar Tips
  • Date/Time Search examples
  • Things Search examples
  • Places Search examples
  • People Search examples

One click and I have all my search tips designed specifically from my needs.

 

Would you consider making them public?   :)

 

 

The general search grammar terms might be useful, but they also contain comments from Evernote Support which I would prefer not to share. They contain personalized email from Evernote. The majority of the tips were either pulled from the Knowledgebase, from this forum, or from my day-to-day use of Evernote

 

The date / time examples are rather boring, but they help remind me how to get around the cryptic date structure used by Evernote. Examples:

 

Created between Jan 1, 2013 and Dec 31, 2013

created:20130101 -created:20140101

Created on or before July 4, 2013 and the beginning of time

created:19000101 -created:20130704

Created between May 1, 2013 and May 7, 2013

created:20130501 -created:20130508

 

The places and people involve my family members - so I won't share that info. I also save search tips for political events involving people. They are helpful to me, but probably no one else. For instance:

 

notebook:Politics "Nidal Hasan" -tag:"Fort Hood murderer" -tag:x

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I use a Saved Search to find 5 of cheatsheets (5 notes)

  • General Search Grammar Tips
  • Date/Time Search examples
  • Things Search examples
  • Places Search examples
  • People Search examples

One click and I have all my search tips designed specifically from my needs.

 

Would you consider making them public?   :)

 

 

The general search grammar terms might be useful, but they also contain comments from Evernote Support which I would prefer not to share. They contain personalized email from Evernote. The majority of the tips were either pulled from the Knowledgebase, from this forum, or from my day-to-day use of Evernote

 

The date / time examples are rather boring, but they help remind me how to get around the cryptic date structure used by Evernote. Examples:

 

Created between Jan 1, 2013 and Dec 31, 2013

created:20130101 -created:20140101

Created on or before July 4, 2013 and the beginning of time

created:19000101 -created:20130704

Created between May 1, 2013 and May 7, 2013

created:20130501 -created:20130508

 

The places and people involve my family members - so I won't share that info. I also save search tips for political events involving people. They are helpful to me, but probably no one else. For instance:

 

notebook:Politics "Nidal Hasan" -tag:"Fort Hood murderer" -tag:x

 

 

I'm glad we agree that the search syntax in Evernote is not straightforward.

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I'm glad we agree that the search syntax in Evernote is not straightforward.

 

 

LOL... Have you realized that you can NEVER ever find a hyphenated word in the Windows client but can in the web interface? I always forget this rule, but even in a simple string search you have to remove the hyphen.

 

Dumb Example.

 

Push-up

 

means:

find every document that has a word that begins with "PUSH"

find every document that DOES NOT HAVE a word that begins with "Up"

 

(you remove the hyphen from the search term and you are fine, but most search features, including EN Web handle it as a string search)

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Interesting site. Are all the cheat sheets posted there for various kinds of software?

 

I use a number of cheat sheets from cheatography.com they have a nice one for Evernote here:

http://goo.gl/Ib72Dv

[html version didn't post well at all]

 

 

I use a number of cheat sheets from cheatography.com they have a nice one for Evernote here:

http://goo.gl/Ib72Dv

 

[html version didn't post well at all]

 

Thank you.  This looks good.

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Interesting site. Are all the cheat sheets posted there for various kinds of software?

Actually I think the site goes way beyond just software. Hit the explore tab to see others.
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Oh, I plan to! :) I just wondered if you had any other personal insight about the site? :)

Interesting site. Are all the cheat sheets posted there for various kinds of software?

Actually I think the site goes way beyond just software. Hit the explore tab to see others.
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  • Level 5*

LOL... Have you realized that you can NEVER ever find a hyphenated word in the Windows client but can in the web interface? I always forget this rule, but even in a simple string search you have to remove the hyphen.

 

Dumb Example.

 

Push-up

 

means:

find every document that has a word that begins with "PUSH"

find every document that DOES NOT HAVE a word that begins with "Up"

 

(you remove the hyphen from the search term and you are fine, but most search features, including EN Web handle it as a string search)

If you quote the string, i.e., "push-up", it works fine in the WIndows client.
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Thanks @jefito that's true, but it does point to the original concept of inconsistency and what habits you develop based on what interface you use all for a single product!! ;) A simple string search ought to be the lowest common denominator in the search syntax and it differs and would normally not be part of the cheat sheet but in this case ought to be. 

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Thanks @jefito that's true, but it does point to the original concept of inconsistency and what habits you develop based on what interface you use all for a single product!! ;) A simple string search ought to be the lowest common denominator in the search syntax and it differs and would normally not be part of the cheat sheet but in this case ought to be. 

 

Exactly.  I'd like to add that I've searched complex databases using Boolean operators for years.  But when the syntax is so complicated and differs from platform to platform it's hard to keep it straight unless you use it every day.

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Thanks @jefito that's true, but it does point to the original concept of inconsistency and what habits you develop based on what interface you use all for a single product!! ;) A simple string search ought to be the lowest common denominator in the search syntax and it differs and would normally not be part of the cheat sheet but in this case ought to be.

I'm all for consistency, sure; just don't tell me that you can "NEVER ever find a hyphenated word in the Windows client" when you plainly can. I do think that it's unfortunate that the '-' is interpreted by the Windows client as the special "match-if-this-test-is-not-found" flag when it's preceded by non-space characters, but that's a different matter entirely (though it's something that's ought to be fixed, no question)

 

 

Thanks @jefito that's true, but it does point to the original concept of inconsistency and what habits you develop based on what interface you use all for a single product!! ;) A simple string search ought to be the lowest common denominator in the search syntax and it differs and would normally not be part of the cheat sheet but in this case ought to be.

 

Exactly.  I'd like to add that I've searched complex databases using Boolean operators for years.  But when the syntax is so complicated and differs from platform to platform it's hard to keep it straight unless you use it every day.

 

I don't find the search language all that complicated, as opposed to something like SQL, which I am by no means an expert in (and yes, the lack of a general boolean expression language is bothersome, but I don't need to holler about that any more). For most of my searches, little inconsistencies don't matter a heck of a lot. By now, I'm pretty much mentally trained in many contexts (not just Evernote) for cases where a simple string is a little weird (e.g. contains embedded spaces, punctuation, quotes, etc) to try wrapping it in quotes (single or double) if the results aren't what I expect. Again, the inconsistencies should be ironed out. This is particularly important for those folks who use saved searches, which do sync across different platforms.

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lol... I do know and am rather adept at SQL. There is a time and place for complexity and sophistication, but consistency is just a well developed product. The fact that the platforms search differently points to some weird implementation choices among the development groups (and/or lack of internal coordination among same).

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lol... I do know and am rather adept at SQL. There is a time and place for complexity and sophistication, but consistency is just a well developed product. The fact that the platforms search differently points to some weird implementation choices among the development groups (and/or lack of internal coordination among same).

 

I really like Evernote and have used it for years, but lately its problems have been very frustrating.  They don't jibe with the outsized promotional claims that are made on the Evernote blog.

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