Search for bolded or highlighted text.

[JeromeB. 3]

Or italic, or striked, or underlined, or specified text colored.

 

Hi everybody,

 

i am looking for those kind of researches inside notes.

 

It looks like the author might be using it in the article

https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2015/12/11/evernote-and-the-brain-designing-creativity-workflows/

 

saying that he reviewed only the bolded notes.

 

Is that kind of filtering possible?
 

[gazumped 12,036]

It's not I'm afraid.  Reading the article - I missed this the first time around - I'm impressed;  this is a very scholarly and compelling analysis of practical note-taking and endorses some of the things I've been saying for a while;  don't think about the system too much,  just get started;  rely on searches more than (or instead of) tags;  etc. 

 

The only thing I don't agree with is being especially selective about notes.  My aim is to lose paper entirely,  so everything that I find interesting or relevant gets photographed,  scanned or clipped - and I do get those serendipitous links between items that I hadn't necessarily linked before...

 

But what Tiago Forte is suggesting,  I think,  is that he reviews notes and bolds the relevant bits,  and even highlights some of the bolded bits,  so that next time he comes back to that page he can just look at the bold sections.  He's not finding the page by the bolded bits - he's looking for notes containing key words;  but when he finds them,  he gives most weight to those with bolded content,  and even more with highlighted bolded bits.  Which might be a little bit of a cop-out;  seems to me a recent article that hasn't be reviewed or bolded yet might contain something extremely relevant,  but on this interpretation he's possibly going to miss or ignore it.  I've Evernoted the post now forinstance,  but having read it I could just go through and bold the conclusions and the references without the two or three paragraphs of explanation that precede them.  I probably won't,  but that doesn't mean I won't remember that this is a significant article and pull out some quotes if and when I need to...

 

Edit:  and I just noticed this came out yesterday,  not last year.  Hence why "I missed it first time round." Doh.

[JeromeB. 3]

Thank you Gazumped.

 

You may be right, he's not finding the page by the bolded bits, but made me ask if it was possible : bolded or other specific formatted text research.

 

Doesn't make it sense to search for only highlighted parts of your notes?

It may be a technical limit, but i would love to be able to do it.

[jbenson2 2,149]

Doesn't make it sense to search for only highlighted parts of your notes?

It may be a technical limit, but i would love to be able to do it.

 

It might make sense in some specific niche examples, but not for the general user. I would be surprised if Evernote creates it.

 

I have learned that Evernote is more powerful if I:

1.) keep my notes short,

2.) use a logical consistent title,

3.) descriptive tags and

4.) occasional keywords. 

 

I use the keywords to identify quotes that I want to refer to later. At the end of the quote, I will add the keyword.

 

I created a few custom keywords that begin with 77 (a totally arbitrary decision). To find all notes that contain quotes, I can search for 77quote (important: there is no space between 77 and the word). 77phone finds all my phone calls. The 77 prefix helps avoid search results that contain just the word itself.  Yes, I could use a tag instead, but I the 77xxxx keyword lets me go directly to the quote inside the note.

 

In some cases, I don't want to see the 77xxx keyword, so I will use the smallest font and change the font color to a nearly invisible faint gray. Similar to this: 77phone  Did you see it? The Evernote search engine will find it.

[jbenson2 2,149]

 

https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2015/12/11/evernote-and-the-brain-designing-creativity-workflows/

 

 

Forte starts off his article with the comment: 

One of the classic debates for Evernote organization essentially is, ‘to tag or not to tag.’

and then proceeds to explain the benefits of his system not using tagging.

 

He also makes some questionable assumptions:

"When you rely heavily on tags, you have to perfectly recall every single tag you’ve ever used, and exactly how it is spelled and punctuated."

That is not correct. The Evernote Windows F3 function or the Ctrl Alt T function help locate the correct tag. If he can't even remember the first letter of his tag, then his problem might be elsewhere.

 

There are many benefits to tagging that he avoids mentioning. Besides the obvious, here are a few reasons I rely on tags.

 

Tags have an important place in Evernote for improving the accuracy of some searches. Consider the different way words are spelled in different countries - color vs colour; center vs centre; aging vs ageing; sizable vs sizeable.  If you use a simple search you could easily miss the alternate spelling. 

 

Or consider names. I have many political entries saved in Evernote. Here is one name that is spelled in several different manners depending on the media and/or location: 

"Moammar Gaddafi"

"Muammar Gaddafi"

"Moammar Gadhafi"

"Muammar el-Qaddafi"

"Muammar al-Gaddafi"

I don't have to worry about all these different spellings, I just search for  tag:"Gaddafi Muammar

 

The same sort of problems arises with honorifics. Consider the different ways the media reports on individuals. Is it the President?, the leader of the free world, the head of state?, the commander-in-chief (with hyphens)?, or the commander in chief (no hyphens)?, or POTUS? All of these possibilities make a search more difficult and less accurate. A single tag nails it.

 

Tags also help if you are looking for a common word that has multiple meanings.

Lead poisoning can lead to health issues.

You may see a rainbow in May.

Scale the fish completely before weighing it on the scale.

The dove dove down to its nest.

 

There are many additional benefits to using tags in Evernote. One can use tags or not use tags. Because I prefer a high level of accuracy, I use tags.