Search Request

[tschirber 0]

For you power searchers out there, how would I search for notes created on the same day in multiple years?  For example, when I create a journal entry for today, I often like to go back to the same date last year, year before that, etc. to see what I had written.  What's the best way to search in that manner?

[DTLow 5,749]

>>For example, when I create a journal entry for today, I often like to go back to the same date last year, year before that, etc. to see what I had written.

Shouldn't be so hard
I'm assuming indvidual notes, with some sort of title pattern.
Do you include the date in your titles - I use Journal-yyyy/mm/dd dddddddd
There's also an automatic create/modified dates, but that would be less precise.

This allows a search using the search box; intitle:Journal-yyyy/mm/dd or created:yyyymmdd
or applescript (Mac) for an automated solution

You might want to look at this
Evernote Search Grammar
 

[CalS 5,311]

EN doesn't support Boolean search so two workaround options from me:

1. Do your review a year at a time.  The search created:20160101 -created:20160102 will return all notes created on January 1 of this year for example.  Not exactly what you want.
2. To see all years at the same time, repeat the above search for each year of the day you want.  For each result set tag the notes with a temporary tag, say Review.  Once you have searched for all years and tagged all the notes, do a tag search on Review and you will have your list.  What you want but requires a bit of work.

FWIW.

[JMichaelTX 4,119]

7 hours ago, csihilling said:

To see all years at the same time, repeat the above search for each year of the day you want.  For each result set tag the notes with a temporary tag, say Review

I agree with @csihilling's basic approach.  One thought I had is to use a tag name based on the date, rather than just "Review".  So, after a search for a specific date, tag those notes with Day.MMM_dd, like "Day.Feb_12"

Use of the "Day." prefix allows you to easily select the Day tags when assigning and filtering tags, as well as Search for all notes with a Day tag:   tag:day.*

If you want to go one step further, use a prefix of "!Day.".  This will allow you to sort on tags and have the notes in Day order.  In this case, you might want to use the month number rather than name:  "!Day.02_12" so the months would sort in proper order.

[tschirber 0]

Thanks, guys, appreciate the help.  

@DTLow: Unfortunately my journal note titles have not been consistent through the years so I'm going to have to use the automatic create/modified dates which, as you said, is less precise.  I do plan on fixing this problem going forward and ultimately repairing those titles going back.

@csihilling and @JMichaelTX:  Agree with the methodology.  I had not used the tag approach on the notes for future reviews.  I will incorporate it  so that I can use it in future searches.  I do actually like to see all notes, not just a journal note, for a given day over the years so there is a lot tagging ahead.  I do like the tagging specificity that you have laid out especially, JMichaelTX.  

Any other suggestions are certainly welcome.  I'm all ears. 

[DTLow 5,749]

11 minutes ago, tschirber said:

my journal note titles have not been consistent through the years

I also use the tag !Journal as additional identification
My titles are consistent because they are generated by a script - if done manually, I'd probably have a mixture too

[CalS 5,311]

You are welcome.  Let us know how the process works in action.  Good luck.

[JMichaelTX 4,119]

10 hours ago, DTLow said:

My titles are consistent because they are generated by a script

Care to share your script?

[DTLow 5,749]

On February 13, 2016 at 7:09 PM, JMichaelTX said:

Care to share your script?

Sure - it's not too sophisticated
Two options
1. Applescript to start journal note from a template
2. IFTTT recipe to start journal note with a weather report

Applescript to start journal note from a template

tell application "Evernote"

    

    --some date manipulation to create the new title

    set {year:yyyy, month:mmm, day:d, weekday:dddd} to (current date)

    set dd to (text -2 thru -1 of ("0" & d as text))

    set m to mmm as integer

    set mm to (text -2 thru -1 of ("0" & m as text))

    set thetitle to "Journal-" & yyyy & "/" & mm & "/" & dd & " " & dddd as string

   

    -- Retrieve the template, export and import as a new note

    

    set thetemplate to find notes ("intitle:Template-Journal")

    set tempfile to "/Users/David/Desktop/Temp-Template.enex"

    export thetemplate to tempfile format ENEX

    set theJournals to import tempfile to "File Cabinet"

    set theJournal to item 1 of theJournals

    

    --Update the new journal note
 

    set title of theJournal to thetitle

    set creation date of theJournal to current date

    set modification date of theJournal to current date

    assign tag "!Hot Notes" to theJournal

    assign tag "!Journal" to theJournal

    open note window with theJournal

    

end tell

 

tell application "Finder" to delete file tempfile as POSIX file

IFTTT recipe to start journal note with a weather report