Possible to search notes but exclude the contents of attached pdfs?

[The big Discovery 10]

I am trying to setup a system for storing my pdfs in EN on my Windows 7 machine.

 

Currently, I have all a "PDF" notebook where I attach a pdf to a note and then do any highlighting to it by opening it in Adobe Reader (since the EN annotations still don't do this well). However, any comments I put in via Adobe Reader are not searchable by EN. So I want to do instead is put any of my comments as writing that precedes the pdf attachment (which I view "inline").

 

The only problem I foresee is that I may want to search only my notes about my pdfs without searching the contents of the pdfs. Is there a way to do this using special search terms?

[gazumped 11,652]

You could add keywords to the title and search "intitle:<keyword>",  or make some keywords 'unique' by adding x  to the word - xkeyword for example.  Then a search for "xkey*" will turn up only those words and a search for "x*" will turn up all keywords.  You can password-encrypt a PDF but that stops it being searched at all,  or you could keep your notes and PDFs in separate notes,  linked by a note link or a random keyword.  Keep them in seperate notebooks too,  and you can limit your search to the notes notebook if you wish.  Note links can be broken however,  hence the possibility of a unique reference for the PDF in both notes.  Hope that makes sense..

[The big Discovery 10]

You could add keywords to the title and search "intitle:<keyword>",  or make some keywords 'unique' by adding x  to the word - xkeyword for example.  Then a search for "xkey*" will turn up only those words and a search for "x*" will turn up all keywords.  You can password-encrypt a PDF but that stops it being searched at all,  or you could keep your notes and PDFs in separate notes,  linked by a note link or a random keyword.  Keep them in seperate notebooks too,  and you can limit your search to the notes notebook if you wish.  Note links can be broken however,  hence the possibility of a unique reference for the PDF in both notes.  Hope that makes sense..

Thanks for these options gazumped.

 

I think what seems most appealing is to keep comments about the pdf as a separate notes in a separate notebook. By note links "breaking" being a possibility, I assume you mean that this only happens if I change the location of the orginial pdf note, or the name of the notebook where the pdf resides? 

[gazumped 11,652]

Hi again - the 'breaking' thing is a bit of an unknown quantity.  If you change the setup of your notes in future - by way of housekeeping,  importing,  moving notebooks,  maybe stacking or unstacking notebooks - its possible that the links will self-destruct.  Some of the more savvy (or paranoid) forum members tend to connect linked notes with a unique code too,  so if the link gets broken there's still a way to find the connected file.  If you're using a link which shows the note name however (which is the default) you should be able to reconnect without much problem.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

I am trying to setup a system for storing my pdfs in EN on my Windows 7 machine.

 

Currently, I have all a "PDF" notebook where I attach a pdf to a note and then do any highlighting to it by opening it in Adobe Reader (since the EN annotations still don't do this well). However, any comments I put in via Adobe Reader are not searchable by EN. So I want to do instead is put any of my comments as writing that precedes the pdf attachment (which I view "inline").

 

The only problem I foresee is that I may want to search only my notes about my pdfs without searching the contents of the pdfs. Is there a way to do this using special search terms?

 

AFAIK, there is no way to EXCLUDE PDFs (or any other attachment) from a general Evernote Search (by just typing text in the Search box).  However, this would be a GREAT feature.  Let's suggest it here!!!

 

As far as work-arounds, here's what I can think of:

1. Enter your keywords as Tags and/or words in the Title, so you can limit the Search to Tags and/or Title.
2. In the Note body, enter your keywords and your comments/notes as you do now, but also encrypt the PDF, which will prevent Evernote from searching within it.
   1. If you encrypt with a 128-bit key, you can view the Note, and then enter the PDF password so that the PDF will view inline
   2. You can then use the Evernote FIND function to search within both the Note and the PDF
   3. Note:  I tested this on EN Mac 5.5.2.  Not sure if it will work on other versions or platforms.  You should test.

I actually like, and use, a combination of #1 and #2.  I find this gives me the greatest flexibility, and reduces the number of false positives.