Suggestion: Hashtags Included in Search

[markmossberg 1]

Sorry if this is in the wrong place, but I couldn't find a a dedicated board for suggestions.

 

Anyway, one thing that I think would greatly improve Evernote is being able to search words with hashtags. For reasons that aren't worth going into, I like to use hashtags in my notes to tag my notes instead of Evernote's built in tag feature. So I might tag a note about skateboards with "#skateboards" somewhere in the note. It would be awesome if I could then go to the search bar and search for "#skateboards" and find all notes with that string. I'm aware that underscores can currently do this, but I already have implemented this hashtag system with quite a few tags and it would be quite a hassle to go through (and find!) each note with hashtags and then change the hashtag to an underscore.

 

Thanks!

[jefito 5,589]

If you want to search for hashtag '#whatever', then you just need to enclose it in double quotes in the search, e.g. "#hashtag"

 

If Evernote ever closes its doors, then you can bet there will be a cottage industry of developers with tools to convert Evernote notes to whatever the Next Big Thing(s) might be. Someone will figure out how to convert tags to hashtags or whatever the latest analog is, if  that's what's required. Tags are saved in the Evernote format (though notebooks are not).

 

Simply enclosing the search query in quotes doesn't work though, it simply searches for the text after the hashtag (i.e. "#whatever" matches everything with the text "whatever"). While I definitely agree about the tools to convert Evernote notes if something like that happens, I do like not being tied to any particular service and being able to have my notes in a basic, universal file format (with tag functionality via grep). I guess for now I'll just double tag everything, as GrumpyMonkey suggested.

On the Windows client, enclosing '#hashtag' in double quotes *does* find exactly '#hashtag', not just 'hashtag'. If it doesn't on the Mac, that sounds like a bug to me. I'd report it as such, if I were you.

 

I'm not sure that there is any such thing as a basic universal format (or what grep has to do with anything).

[jefito 5,589]

Thanks Jeff, after playing with it for a while I now understand how tagging notes works.

Great to hear it, feel free to ask more questions.

[s_oudemans 1]

Thanks Jeff, after playing with it for a while I now understand how tagging notes works.

[Wordsgood 526]

Hi,

To expand on Jefito's last post, there are several other discussions on the forum boards that talk about different ways of organizing your notes for better retrieval later. I've gathered a few here that you might find hefpful.

The first is a long pinned thread called "The Benefits of Using Tags." It is several pages long, but worth the read I think. Many users posted detailed examples of how and why they use Tags. (Or not, in some cases.)

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/57740-the-benefit-of-using-tags/page-7#entry294097/

Another commonly used method is to include prefixes in the title while keeping a note with a master list of the for reference:

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/50676-feature-suggestion-option-for-nested-tags-to-filter-by-parent-tag/#entry251605/

And now for a couple EN Knowledge Base articles...

How to find notes using Descriptive Search:

https://evernote.com/contact/support/kb/#!/article/38949727/

Using Evernote's advanced search syntax:

https://evernote.com/contact/support/kb/#!/article/23245321/

Cheers!

[jefito 5,589]

As far as the tag goes, do I have to create a tag for every note? I am using evernote as a means to journal my work activities (don't ask). I start a new note for each week and based on the suggestion of an internet Journaler I started tagging subjects within each note with a #KeyWord.  I also created an index listing the keywords and their description. The intent is to be able to search on a #KeyWord to display all the notes that have a reference to this keyword.  According to mentioned journaler this is a very common way to identify subjects for searches within a journal. 

You generally would not create a unique tag per note. Tags are labels that serve to categorize your notes, in a similar way that hashtags do. Not sure what your #Keyword tag does, why not just tag relevant notes with the actual subject name? So if you were journalling outdoor activities, you might have tags like "Hiking", "Camping", "Running", and so on. Tag your notes as needed. You can have more than one tag per note. You can then easily narrow down to your camping-related notes.

[s_oudemans 1]

Jeff, thanks for your reply, so I definitely missing something on the search types which only work in lower case, like [any:] or [tag:]

 

As far as the tag goes, do I have to create a tag for every note? I am using evernote as a means to journal my work activities (don't ask). I start a new note for each week and based on the suggestion of an internet Journaler I started tagging subjects within each note with a #KeyWord.  I also created an index listing the keywords and their description. The intent is to be able to search on a #KeyWord to display all the notes that have a reference to this keyword.  According to mentioned journaler this is a very common way to identify subjects for searches within a journal. 

 

•  

[jefito 5,589]

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, when I was playing around with this and tried a query [Any: Whatever] it returned notes with the word "Any" highlighted.  Houston, I think we have a problem. (Evernotes for Windows)

 

Yes. The problem is that if you want an "Any" search, then you should use uncapitalized "any:" search modifier, rather than "Any:".

 

Beyond that, on the Windows client, I found that when I tagged several notes with "#MyTestTag", tag search found them fine. If you're expecting a tag search to find hashtags inside a note, that won't work: it only searches tags.

[s_oudemans 1]

 

Hi. I sympathize, and I use a similar system, though with reference codes instead. One benefit of using random codes is that you are not dependent on support for special characters. 

http://www.princeton.edu/~cmayo/evernote-organization.html

 

What I would do, though, is follow BNF's suggestion. Keep putting your hashtags in the notes if you like, but tag them as well. It is redundant, but it ought to ensure that you can easily transition in and out of Evernote if necessary. 

 

 

Yes I thought that this was a great idea as well, except that it doesn't work!  I created Tags of my hashtag keywords (#WhatEver) and tried doing a tag search [Click to Filter by Tag...] as well as a tag search [Tag: #WhatEver] or [Tag: "#WhatEver"].  The Click to Filter by tag would only find the first occurance (which is my index note) of the keyword, and the second method behaved exactly like the query, finding occurances of WhatEver which may be used throughout the notes.  What am I missing???

 

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, when I was playing around with this and tried a query [Any: Whatever] it returned notes with the word "Any" highlighted.  Houston, I think we have a problem. (Evernotes for Windows)

[jefito 5,589]

Yes, "_" is explicitly allowed as text, rather than punctuation (a 'wordchar' in the grammar): http://dev.evernote.com/documentation/cloud/chapters/search_grammar.php#Formal_Search_Grammar

[cyrus 0]

I don't like using tags function either..  and was hoping #hashtags would work instead. However _ does get searched on.. less than ideal but you could make keywords like _testkeyword

[markmossberg 1]

 

If you want to search for hashtag '#whatever', then you just need to enclose it in double quotes in the search, e.g. "#hashtag"

 

If Evernote ever closes its doors, then you can bet there will be a cottage industry of developers with tools to convert Evernote notes to whatever the Next Big Thing(s) might be. Someone will figure out how to convert tags to hashtags or whatever the latest analog is, if  that's what's required. Tags are saved in the Evernote format (though notebooks are not).

 

Simply enclosing the search query in quotes doesn't work though, it simply searches for the text after the hashtag (i.e. "#whatever" matches everything with the text "whatever"). While I definitely agree about the tools to convert Evernote notes if something like that happens, I do like not being tied to any particular service and being able to have my notes in a basic, universal file format (with tag functionality via grep). I guess for now I'll just double tag everything, as GrumpyMonkey suggested.

 

On the Mac, Evernote stores your stuff in XHTML (a fork called .enml), which is about as universal as you can get (basically, plain text with markup). You can also export your notes as anytime into HTML. As for searching, Spotlight will search for hashtagged stuff, and when you open the note, it opens in Evernote. I have more about Spotlight here:

http://www.princeton.edu/~cmayo/evernote-spotlight-search.html

 

That's exactly my point, I like being able to have tagged and searchable HTML note files outside of the Evernote/"Next Big thing" environment . . . bringing us back to my request for hashtags to be included in Evernote search so I can consolidate my tagging system.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

If you want to search for hashtag '#whatever', then you just need to enclose it in double quotes in the search, e.g. "#hashtag"

 

If Evernote ever closes its doors, then you can bet there will be a cottage industry of developers with tools to convert Evernote notes to whatever the Next Big Thing(s) might be. Someone will figure out how to convert tags to hashtags or whatever the latest analog is, if  that's what's required. Tags are saved in the Evernote format (though notebooks are not).

 

Simply enclosing the search query in quotes doesn't work though, it simply searches for the text after the hashtag (i.e. "#whatever" matches everything with the text "whatever"). While I definitely agree about the tools to convert Evernote notes if something like that happens, I do like not being tied to any particular service and being able to have my notes in a basic, universal file format (with tag functionality via grep). I guess for now I'll just double tag everything, as GrumpyMonkey suggested.

 

On the Mac, Evernote stores your stuff in XHTML (a fork called .enml), which is about as universal as you can get (basically, plain text with markup). You can also export your notes as anytime into HTML. You can easily go from here into other apps like Notational Velocity or VoodooPad. In fact, I recently exported my database of about 7,300 notes and it probably only took about 15 or 20 minutes to be up and running with nvALT (a fork of Notational Velocity) after the conversion to .txt. Evernote is completely portable, and I don't think you have anything to worry about in terms of losing access to your stuff if Evernote closes its doors.

 

As for searching, Spotlight will search for hashtagged stuff, and when you open the note, it opens in Evernote. I have more about Spotlight here:

http://www.princeton.edu/~cmayo/evernote-spotlight-search.html

[markmossberg 1]

If you want to search for hashtag '#whatever', then you just need to enclose it in double quotes in the search, e.g. "#hashtag"

 

If Evernote ever closes its doors, then you can bet there will be a cottage industry of developers with tools to convert Evernote notes to whatever the Next Big Thing(s) might be. Someone will figure out how to convert tags to hashtags or whatever the latest analog is, if  that's what's required. Tags are saved in the Evernote format (though notebooks are not).

 

Simply enclosing the search query in quotes doesn't work though, it simply searches for the text after the hashtag (i.e. "#whatever" matches everything with the text "whatever"). While I definitely agree about the tools to convert Evernote notes if something like that happens, I do like not being tied to any particular service and being able to have my notes in a basic, universal file format (with tag functionality via grep). I guess for now I'll just double tag everything, as GrumpyMonkey suggested.

[jefito 5,589]

If you want to search for hashtag '#whatever', then you just need to enclose it in double quotes in the search, e.g. "#hashtag"

 

If Evernote ever closes its doors, then you can bet there will be a cottage industry of developers with tools to convert Evernote notes to whatever the Next Big Thing(s) might be. Someone will figure out how to convert tags to hashtags or whatever the latest analog is, if  that's what's required. Tags are saved in the Evernote format (though notebooks are not).

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

 

The primary reason I do this is because I use Evernote for journaling, and I endeavor to make my journal entries as platform independent as possible. If Evernote one day decides to close its doors, I'll easily be able to export my journal entries into HTML files. But what if I want to keep the tag functionality? The way I do this is I include my tags in a header line at the top with hashtags, then when I export I can easily grep the files for the hashtag and find my tagged entries. If I only relied on Evernote tags, I would be screwed without Evernote search.

 

Hi. I sympathize, and I use a similar system, though with reference codes instead. One benefit of using random codes is that you are not dependent on support for special characters. 

http://www.princeton.edu/~cmayo/evernote-organization.html

 

What I would do, though, is follow BNF's suggestion. Keep putting your hashtags in the notes if you like, but tag them as well. It is redundant, but it ought to ensure that you can easily transition in and out of Evernote if necessary. 

 

I don't really understand how random codes are practical. If you wanted to locate a note with a random code at the bottom, wouldn't memorizing the random code be necessary?

 

Nope. 

 

(1) I've got a list of the random codes I use. I only have a few dozen, and of these, maybe ten or so get used regularly. Today, for example, I just did a search for my blog posts by going to the list, copying the code, and pasting it into the search field. It only takes a few seconds.

 

(2) Some people prefer not to bother with keeping track of them. If you find any note with the code in it, you can copy/paste from there. For example, maybe you made a code for a business trip. The next time you run across a note in that cluster (maybe the itinerary), you copy/paste the code into the search field to pull up the rest of them. 

[markmossberg 1]

The primary reason I do this is because I use Evernote for journaling, and I endeavor to make my journal entries as platform independent as possible. If Evernote one day decides to close its doors, I'll easily be able to export my journal entries into HTML files. But what if I want to keep the tag functionality? The way I do this is I include my tags in a header line at the top with hashtags, then when I export I can easily grep the files for the hashtag and find my tagged entries. If I only relied on Evernote tags, I would be screwed without Evernote search.

 

Hi. I sympathize, and I use a similar system, though with reference codes instead. One benefit of using random codes is that you are not dependent on support for special characters. 

http://www.princeton.edu/~cmayo/evernote-organization.html

 

What I would do, though, is follow BNF's suggestion. Keep putting your hashtags in the notes if you like, but tag them as well. It is redundant, but it ought to ensure that you can easily transition in and out of Evernote if necessary. 

 

I don't really understand how random codes are practical. If you wanted to locate a note with a random code at the bottom, wouldn't memorizing the random code be necessary?

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

The primary reason I do this is because I use Evernote for journaling, and I endeavor to make my journal entries as platform independent as possible. If Evernote one day decides to close its doors, I'll easily be able to export my journal entries into HTML files. But what if I want to keep the tag functionality? The way I do this is I include my tags in a header line at the top with hashtags, then when I export I can easily grep the files for the hashtag and find my tagged entries. If I only relied on Evernote tags, I would be screwed without Evernote search.

 

Hi. I sympathize, and I use a similar system, though with reference codes instead. One benefit of using random codes is that you are not dependent on support for special characters. 

http://www.princeton.edu/~cmayo/evernote-organization.html

 

What I would do, though, is follow BNF's suggestion. Keep putting your hashtags in the notes if you like, but tag them as well. It is redundant, but it ought to ensure that you can easily transition in and out of Evernote if necessary. 

[markmossberg 1]

The primary reason I do this is because I use Evernote for journaling, and I endeavor to make my journal entries as platform independent as possible. If Evernote one day decides to close its doors, I'll easily be able to export my journal entries into HTML files. But what if I want to keep the tag functionality? The way I do this is I include my tags in a header line at the top with hashtags, then when I export I can easily grep the files for the hashtag and find my tagged entries. If I only relied on Evernote tags, I would be screwed without Evernote search.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Sorry if this is in the wrong place, but I couldn't find a a dedicated board for suggestions.

 

Anyway, one thing that I think would greatly improve Evernote is being able to search words with hashtags. For reasons that aren't worth going into, I like to use hashtags in my notes to tag my notes instead of Evernote's built in tag feature. So I might tag a note about skateboards with "#skateboards" somewhere in the note. It would be awesome if I could then go to the search bar and search for "#skateboards" and find all notes with that string. I'm aware that underscores can currently do this, but I already have implemented this hashtag system with quite a few tags and it would be quite a hassle to go through (and find!) each note with hashtags and then change the hashtag to an underscore.

 

Thanks!

 

 

Or....you could just use a tag called "skateboards".