Searching by date

[Brixton Banner 7]

I must admit to being a little confused

I have seen some people who put the date created as part of the note name and I have seen people who don't

I do at the moment but it is longer to name stuff so would rather not

 

I am informed by many you tube videos and web sites that I can search for a note by date

Using Created:   

 

Now here's the thing

Most of these videos/website originate from America and they use a different date format to us Brits

 

When I create a note the created date (in green) is in the format of 14/07/2014

however if I search created:14/07/2014 I get a lot of notes many of which were not created on the fourteenth of July this year. See attachment.

 

The question

Is the created:.....search dependent on one's system date settings or is it one style of format only?  Is there a setting that needs to be set to the date format to allow date searches and creating of notes to match.

Where can I find a guide to date searching that covers searching in other than American/Canadian date formats?

 

 

[chronistin 187]

I stumbled across this yesterday - here is a EN blog entry with all the search options.

 

http://blog.evernote.com/blog/2011/06/27/did-you-know-how-to-use-the-evernote-search-box/

 

Here is the part about date search:

 

 

• created:[datetime] – Search for notes by date of creation using the format YYYYMMDD. You can also search by time period (for example, day-30 will pull up all notes created in the last 30 days).

[Brixton Banner 7]

Just doesn't work

 

Thanks,

I have actually seen that guide

it says to search

created:yyyymmdd

 

I've tried

created:yyyymmdd

created:yyyyddmm

created:dd/mm/yyyy

all with and without a space between the colon and the date

I've also tried the date in speech marks

 

No joy. It seems to be searching for the elements of the date as if they were text elements

so If I search for created:07/12/2013 (in any of the above formats) I can get a document that contains any of those elements including 01/10/2013, 07/11/2012 etc.

[jackwilson 0]

Well nice source you shared here thanks for it.

[chronistin 187]

That's strange, the created:yyyymmdd (no spaces) works perfectly for me. 

[Brixton Banner 7]

I run a PC at work and a mac at home (both with desktop clients on)

I also use an IPAD with the app

And an Iphone with the app but I haven't searched on the phone

I seriously doubt that it's an application or platform issue

 

I can only assume it's something to do with the British date format

I do live in Qatar but I doubt that Evernote is looking at my date format and my location and getting upset by that

[Brixton Banner 7]

Oh and I have a premium account but not business

[gazumped 11,652]

In Windows OS and with a UK date format I need to put dates in quotes to get an exact match - created:"20140625" - will get me all notes created today.  Missing the quotes seems to get me everything created on and after that date (there are a few...).  It may help if you have the 'search explanation' bar on in Evernote desktop (Ctrl-F10 in windows) which tells you what Evernote thinks it should be searching for...

[chronistin 187]

Yes gazumped, you are right, the search without quotes shows notes from the specified date onwards. Never bothered me, using "sort by oldest first".

 

But now it gets strange, using quotes for me results in not getting any search results at all. Tried single and double quotes, no notes are found.

 

I am also on windows, build 5.4.1.3962 

 

(I don't think system date format has anything to do with this, as you follow a format specified by the software itself)

[Brixton Banner 7]

I tried Gazumped's idea of switching on the search explanation bar

helpful to know what I'm looking for

If I do a search without the speech marks yes I am searching for and get notes created after the date shown (20140625)

If I include the speech marks I get zero results as it is looking for the text 20140625 in the note

[Brixton Banner 7]

Success!

At least found the solution

sorry I cannot copy a link that will work into this message

it's an article by Brooks Duncan where he says you can only search for notes after a date

if you want on a date you have to

search created:20140712-created:20140714

which give you notes after 12 july but before 14 july

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Created:YYYYMMDD

Gives the notes created on and after that date.

-created:YYYYMMDD

Gives the notes created before that date.

You can combine the two to get a date range.

[Brixton Banner 7]

Thanks seems a shame you cannot just say a date rather than specify a range never mind

[gazumped 11,652]

I add a relevant date to the title - scanned stuff often has two dates:  the date it was scanned (provided by ScanSnap software) and my manual addition for the date of a meeting / when a letter was sent or received etc.  (Actually I have PhraseExpress hotkeys for both long dates and times for use in titles and narratives) Both scanner and my title dates are in the format "20140321" so I can use "intitle:2014xxyy" plus other keywords to extract everything related to a given subject by day / month / year

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I must admit to being a little confused

I have seen some people who put the date created as part of the note name and I have seen people who don't

I do at the moment but it is longer to name stuff so would rather not

IMO, it's very easy to add YYYYMMDD to the title. I'm a decent keyboarder. But if you're not, as Gaz said, you could utilize a hotkey/text expander. IME, the date the note is created often has no significance for the note, with the exception that it's the date the note was created. IE, when scanning invoices, documents, letters & such, it's rarely done on the date of the invoice, document or letter & in most cases impossible.  (B/C I normally receive the invoice/letter at least one day (or longer) after it was created, if it's mailed). Adding YYYYMMDD to the title is easier than going in & changing the date on the note itself. Plus, if I ever need to export the note & import it back to Evernote or want/need to make a copy in Evernote or simply export the info out of Evernote, the pertinent date is still tied to the note b/c it's in the note title.

[chronistin 187]

I am not a fan of having the date in the title. It makes it harder to find a note by title with a quick glance and it's just genreally ugly to look at. What's worse (for me) is that the notes are not in the right order when sorted by date. If something is date-relevant by any means, I'll edit the createdate. 

 

[edit] ...and you can choose to add the dates to exported notes also.

[jbenson2 2,147]

I use the date in the title for all of my personal notes. There are many benefits to adding it to the title. 

• Easier date searching
• Search results are shown in chronological order (if sorted by Title)
• Consistency - wrong entries are immediately noticeable
• Safeguard

The last bullet point is something that I find especially helpful. The date in the title "locks down" the date. I often fiddle with the Created Date field (appointments, trips, meetings, birthdays.) and end up losing the accurate Created Date. But since it is in the title, I don't lose that important bit of information.

[Brixton Banner 7]

I'm now back to adding the date on the note name

The bonus is I can name it how I think of dates - being a brit 

which is (for example) 21/07/2014

Plus 

I can use that text to search for a note by  date now by typing it in as I think of it (as long as it's in speech marks)

I can also do the created last month, last year, last week thing too

Bonus

Every cloud has a silver lining