default search just one notebook

[Johne808 0]

In version 4, you could select tags and it would search just in the notebook you were in.

Now in version 5, when I selct a tag, it searches all notebooks, unless I ctrl-click.

How can I change v5 to behave like v4, where the selected notebook is the notebook that is searched?

And I would prefer not to have to ctrl-click everytime I search a different tag (unless I'm searching for multiple tags), or use the dropdown box.

[jefito 5,589]

Click on the magnifying glass in the search control at the upper right-hand side of the toolbar, and select "Search Current Context". Then you can select a stack or a notebook (or All Notes, for that matter), and search will be limited to that context.

 

You can always add tags to a search by typing them into the search control, e.g. "tag:MyTag"

[Johne808 0]

What I'm talking about is when I click on a tag, it used to be in version 4 it would stay in whatever Notebook I was in.

Now in 5, I click a Notebook, it shows me all the notes in that Notebook, so far so good.

 

But then when I click on a tag, to search that Notebook for just that tag, it deselects the Notebook I was in and displays all notes for that tag, from all notebooks.

I have to ctrl-click both the Notebook and tag to limit the display to tags in that Notebook.

That's not the way it worked in 4.

 

Example,

I have an "Action Pending" notebook for things I need to do, and a "Completed" notebook for things I have finished.

I have project tags assigned to the actions for each project I am working on.

I don't want to see the "Completed" notebook notes when I select a project tag, if I am (was) in the Action Pending notebook.

So I have to ctrl-click both the Action Pending notebook and the project tag.

If I want to select a different project tag, I again have to ctrl-click both Action Pending and the project tag.

So now I have extra ctrl-clicks that I did not have before.

 

[chenri 0]

I'm also having the same issue, it's really a hassle and I can't find how to revert it back like Version 4. 

[jefito 5,589]

The tag tree just plain doesn't work that way any more, and it's not clear that changes back to what V4 did are planned.

In V5, to get multi-tagged searches, you should use the tag control over the note list, also accessible by Alt+Shift+T.

[jefito 5,589]

What's better about the Alt+Shift+T method is that, in theory, as you add tags, the tag suggestion list narrows to tags that only exist in the filtered note list, so you are narrowing your search as you go. I say in theory because it doesn't seem to be working exactly perfectly: sometimes you get tags that do not apply, or worse, tags that could apply don't appear, and if you run out of horizontal space for the tags you've selected, you get a popup "Add Tags" dialog that doesn't auto-select as you type, so you lose the benefit of the previously selected tags. So some more work needs to be done to improve that, I think.

That being said, when this works, it's pretty nice, and way better than fumbling through a potentially large, nested set of tags in the left panel tag tree. Not that that tag tree UI doesn't need some work itself; it's just that the Alt+Shift+T method has the potential to be a lot more useful at cutting the tag set down to size.

Also, I find the Alt+Shift+N and Alt_Shift+T shortcusts to be awkward, but if they bug me too much, I'll just sic AutoHotKey onto the case...

[mwmills 0]

This change in behavior is enough to make me stop using Evernote.  I have multiple notebooks, one for each customer I work with, and one Private notebook for my own personal use.  I work with people at my desk frequently, pulling up notes on my laptop.

 

It is unacceptable that notes that I have designated to other customers - or private notes - should show up when I select tags that may be in common for all the notebooks.  The behavior in V4 was precisely what I wanted:  I could choose 'Notes' if I wanted to search everything, or a specific notebook (or stack) if I wanted to narrow the context.

 

Whoever decided to make this change did not carefully consider the privacy implications.  Evernote is a business that depends on trust: Customers give Evernote an incredible amount of personal and business information.  Privacy and security have to be Evernote's #1 concern, or that business will evaporate.  Although this particular issue may seem like a relatively small nit to many people, the fact is that it does have an impact on privacy, and undermines Evernote's commitment to it's customers.

 

A company like Evernote should make a privacy & security assessment for every single change request.  The issue described in this thread implies that is not done, which further implies that Evernote does not take privacy & security as seriously as they should.

 

--Mike

[jefito 5,589]

I'm wondering how this has anything to do with privacy or security. You can (and should be) able to access anything that's been shared to you. You cannot (and should not be) able to access anything that's not been shared to you. That's security in Evernote. Has that changed? No. Your use case is a bit special because you apparently do a lot of interacting with Evernote in front of other people, but nothing in past versions would have stopped you from fat-fingering a search and showing them private stuff either. Security-by-agility is not really security.

Meanwhile, you can still search specific notebooks / tags (you may need to enable the "Search current context" setting: it's available by clicking on the magnifying glass icon to the left of the search edit control). The tools are there, they're just different:

• Yes, you can isolate via a specific notebook or stack. Pick it from the notebook list in the left panel, or from the list above your note list.
• Yes, you can further narrow that context by adding tags or other search terms: either type them in, or choose tags by clicking on the blue tag icon above your note list. Avoid the tag tree, which will wipe out your context. 

Choose your stack or notebook first, and further constraints afterwards, and you should be fine. 

[PatrickM 1]

This is a major problem for me as well.  I use Evernote with The Secret Weapon (http://www.thesecretweapon.org/) configuration and this change makes it useless for GTD.  I need to see only the notes associated with my Action Pending notebook.  Having the notes from my Completed notebook appear clutters the list to the point of unusability.

 

Please either revert this change or provide a way of setting a different default behavior.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

This is a major problem for me as well.  I use Evernote with The Secret Weapon (http://www.thesecretweapon.org/) configuration and this change makes it useless for GTD.  I need to see only the notes associated with my Action Pending notebook.  Having the notes from my Completed notebook appear clutters the list to the point of unusability.

 

Please either revert this change or provide a way of setting a different default behavior.

Click on the magnifying glass in the search control at the upper right-hand side of the toolbar, and select "Search Current Context". Then you can select a stack or a notebook (or All Notes, for that matter), and search will be limited to that context.

 

You can always add tags to a search by typing them into the search control, e.g. "tag:MyTag"

You can also limit a search to a single notebook by prefacing a search terms with the notebook:

Notebook:"my notebook"

[PatrickM 1]

 

This is a major problem for me as well.  I use Evernote with The Secret Weapon (http://www.thesecretweapon.org/) configuration and this change makes it useless for GTD.  I need to see only the notes associated with my Action Pending notebook.  Having the notes from my Completed notebook appear clutters the list to the point of unusability.

 

Please either revert this change or provide a way of setting a different default behavior.

Click on the magnifying glass in the search control at the upper right-hand side of the toolbar, and select "Search Current Context". Then you can select a stack or a notebook (or All Notes, for that matter), and search will be limited to that context.

 

You can always add tags to a search by typing them into the search control, e.g. "tag:MyTag"

You can also limit a search to a single notebook by prefacing a search terms with the notebook:

Notebook:"my notebook"

 

Neither of these change the behavior that clicking on a tag shows all notes with that tag, not just the notes for the active notebook.

 

The old behavior is exactly what I want.  The new behavior makes the product completely unusable for supporting GTD.  Until it is fixed, I'll be going back to OmniFocus.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Neither of these change the behavior that clicking on a tag shows all notes with that tag, not just the notes for the active notebook.

The old behavior is exactly what I want. The new behavior makes the product completely unusable for supporting GTD. Until it is fixed, I'll be going back to OmniFocus.

Wow...the fact that you must do something a little bit differently is a deal breaker, rather than actually being able to get the results you're looking for? Well, good luck.

[PatrickM 1]

 

Neither of these change the behavior that clicking on a tag shows all notes with that tag, not just the notes for the active notebook.

The old behavior is exactly what I want. The new behavior makes the product completely unusable for supporting GTD. Until it is fixed, I'll be going back to OmniFocus.

Wow...the fact that you must do something a little bit differently is a deal breaker, rather than actually being able to get the results you're looking for? Well, good luck.

 

 

It's not "a little bit differently", it's a change that breaks my workflow.  There is no way to view just the notes for one notebook by clicking on a tag.  It used to work, but now it doesn't.  That, plus requiring multiple additional steps, makes for a very poor user experience.

 

If you're genuinely interested in understanding the problem, I suggest you read the website for The Secret Weapon and you'll understand why this is a deal breaker.

[jefito 5,589]

Neither of these change the behavior that clicking on a tag shows all notes with that tag, not just the notes for the active notebook.

 

The old behavior is exactly what I want.  The new behavior makes the product completely unusable for supporting GTD.  Until it is fixed, I'll be going back to OmniFocus.

Actually, I just realized (ok, discovered? lucky-guessed?) that if you Ctrl+Click on a tag in the left panel's tag tree, the current notebook/stack context will be retained. This now makes things very close to the original workflow.

Sounds like you also might have a use case for pre-rigged saved search shortcuts, but I am not packing "The Secret Weapon", so I don't know what the common use patterns are.

[PatrickM 1]

 

Neither of these change the behavior that clicking on a tag shows all notes with that tag, not just the notes for the active notebook.

 

The old behavior is exactly what I want.  The new behavior makes the product completely unusable for supporting GTD.  Until it is fixed, I'll be going back to OmniFocus.

Actually, I just realized (ok, discovered? lucky-guessed?) that if you Ctrl+Click on a tag in the left panel's tag tree, the current notebook/stack context will be retained. This now makes things very close to the original workflow.

Sounds like you also might have a use case for pre-rigged saved search shortcuts, but I am not packing "The Secret Weapon", so I don't know what the common use patterns are.

 

 

Thanks for the suggestion.  I'm on a Mac, so I used cmd-click instead and found this:

• Click on Action Pending notebook followed by click on 1-Now tag shows all notes for tag (not just Action Pending)
• Click on Action Pending notebook followed by cmd-click on 1-Now tag shows all Action Pending notes for the tag
• Click on Action Pending notebook followed by cmd-click on 1-Now tag followed by click on 2-Next tag shows all notes for tag (not just Action Pending)
• Click on Action Pending notebook followed by cmd-click on 1-Now tag followed by cmd-click on 2-Next tag shows no notes at all

It appears that the only way to get anything like the old behavior is to always click on the notebook before cmd-clicking on the tag.  This is error prone and inconvenient.

[jefito 5,589]

As far as I can recall, the Windows V4 clients required you to choose the notebook first; choosing the notebook would always wipe out the tag selection. The only difference between V5 and V4 Windows clients is that you need to use Ctrl+click on tags to retain stack/notebook context. I can't speak to the Mac, but this was created as a Windows topic originally, so I've been assuming Windows all along.

 

In my opinion (and this is based on reading and responding to user posts on the forum), the V4 versions were confusing in terms of clicking in the tag and notebook trees, and even more so because of the filtering behavior of the tag tree. Frankly, it seems more consistent and easier to explain now: normal clicking in either the notebook or tag tree sets whatever you clicked on as the primary filter (or any clicking whatsoever in the notebook list, for that matter). To add tags thereafter, use Ctrl+Click in the tag tree. This is not unlike adding new items when picking in Windows Explorer, or other UI contexts, like a multi-select listbox. Again, this is how it works in Windows V5 currently.

 

All that being said, if you have a small number of cases, saved search shortcuts are going to be even easier to use. e.g. notebook=Action-Pending and tag = 1-Now, or notebook=Action-Pending and tag = 2-Next seem so be pretty important. For me, that would be a saved search shortcut; easily accessible, and difficult to get wrong. I do use this method myself, though not in the GTD way.

[jefito 5,589]

By the way, all of this is not that I'm against what you've requested (though I prefer the simplified system that we have now), I'm really trying to guide you in the direction of things that work in Evernote today, since there's no guarantee if or when your feature request would be implemented. Good luck.

[chanzie 5]

I also would like to request that we are given an option (maybe in preferences) where we can choose: Stay in the selected notebook when clicking from tag to tag.

Instead of every time you click on another tag it jumps back into all notes.

 

I also use EN for GTD. It's fantastic, but I want/need to stay in my Action Pending notebook.

 

Yes, I understand that I can select the notebook and then Ctrl click on a tag to stay there. But, when I'm ready to go to the next tag, I have to Ctrl click to "release" that tag, then Ctrl click to select the next tag. Repeat this process over and over every time I want to switch tags.

[chenri 0]

For those who use GTD with Notebook: Action Pending and Completed, I've finally resorted to delete the Completed notebook and instead just delete the completed tasks, so it won't show up in search. If you need the notes later, you can still look it up in the trash. Although searching in trash doesn't work. But i find myself haven't needed to search tasks in the trash yet. 

 

+1 for the suggestion to add an option in preferences so that we can stay in notebook 

[rockmassif 1]

+1 also from me

 

it's really annoying if you use Evernote for GTD. Such a waste of time. Please fix it.

[jefito 5,589]

I'm going to say it again. It sounds like the GTD folks should be looking into using Saved Search shortcuts. Ever so much eaeasier than clicking around in the ntoebook and tag lists, if you have a small number of important use cases (which is what it sounds like)..

[PatrickM 1]

By the way, all of this is not that I'm against what you've requested (though I prefer the simplified system that we have now), I'm really trying to guide you in the direction of things that work in Evernote today, since there's no guarantee if or when your feature request would be implemented. Good luck.

 

I appreciate the suggestions.  I don't think that providing a preference or some other mechanism for locking the context to a single notebook would be less simple, though, and it would preserve the user experience for those of us who built our GTD system around the original behavior.  I hope the EN developers will seriously consider this feature request.

[jefito 5,589]

I appreciate the suggestions.  I don't think that providing a preference or some other mechanism for locking the context to a single notebook would be less simple, though, and it would preserve the user experience for those of us who built our GTD system around the original behavior.  I hope the EN developers will seriously consider this feature request.

I can tell you that they do appreciate -- and consider -- feature requests. Doesn't always translate into fulfillment of every request, but UI is finicky work (in my experience, though I wouldn't consider myself to be an expert), sometimes there's no absolute best way to accomplish something, just better for one set of users and less good for others.

[antonfairfax 0]

Yeah I think the people providing alternative suggestions aren't grasping how GTD users use EN, though I appreciate they are a small subset of the EN population...

It seems intuitive to work from one notebook at a time and to presumably not need to be operating from "all notebooks" most of the time ( and use the search bar if you do).

The tag system with GTD / secret weapon etc is such that you're bouncing around between tags a lot in individual notebooks, so the whole ctrl click to turn tags on and off gets annoying fast, and saved searches will be too numerous to be helpful, and seems to defeat the purpose of having a tree of tags right there.

Hopefully this will become a feature that you can switch on and off, otherwise I'll have to restructure my system, as I don't think this will work efficiently enough

[bpcookson 2]

I would just like to add my voice in support of those using The Secret Weapon to Get Things Done with Evernote (EN). I am implementing this system right now and find the tag selection UI to be non-intuitive and cumbersome. Putting GTD and TSW, it just doesn't make sense to lose notebook selection when selecting tags. Does EN feel that Notebooks and Tags are both containers? I should think Notebooks are containers and Tags are identifiers.

 

Critically:

1. Selecting "Search Current Context" in the search bar does not fulfill this need. In fact it seems broken; changing the search setting either way does not seem to alter my search results.

2. I am constantly flipping between tags to review different items. Having to Ctrl+Click the desired notebook in addition to the desired tag is a HUGE efficiency loss.

 

I can't see how these problems aren't applicable to people who aren't using GTD or TSW.

 

Feature Request:

Please provide a preference option for "sticky" notebooks.

[johnyboi 9]

Same here, I think it's a bug: I choose "search current context" from drop down magnifying glass. Then, when I hit F6, the hint in search box stays the same ("search current context") but the notebook name disappears, so it goes back to all notes.

It'd be perfect to have one shortcut (F6) to search all, an the other (say, F7) to search within notebook. It's a must for effective use of Evernote, and I dont think it's a big problem to implement: https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/38151-archived-kb-shortcut-to-focus-search-box-without-switching-to-all-notes/

Just not everybody has time and knowledge to use third party software in order to make Evernote work as it should