any: search with notebook and todo:

[renfrjh 0]

I have been saving todo items as either individual notes in a "todo list" notebook or with the checkbox in numerous other notebooks. I would like to be able to search and list all the notes in notebook:"todo list" as well as any of the todo:* items scattered about in other notebooks.  I've tried all sorts of variations like:

 

notebook:"todo list" todo:*   but this is an AND search, not what I want.

notebook:"todo list" any: todo:*    only returns the notes in "todo list" that have checkboxes, not what I want.

 

It appears that what I need is:

any: notebook:"todo list" todo:*     but this is not allowed.

 

Is there anyway to do this other than two independent searches, or do I just need to change my methodology for marking todo items?

 

Thanks,

Jay

[jefito 5,589]

Basically, you can't do what you want to do. Once you put notebook:<blah> in there, you will not find any notes outside that notebook. The "any:" applies to terms *after* any notebook: scope specifier.

 

Search grammar docs are here: http://dev.evernote.com/doc/articles/search_grammar.php. Relevant section:

 

Scope modifiers

notebook:[nb name] - will match notes in a notebook with the provided name. This must be the first term in the search. Name matching is case-insensitive. Since notebooks have exclusive relationships with notes, at most one notebook can be provided for the search. If no notebook is given, the search will go over all of the user's active notes. The notebook is not included in the "union" created by the "any:" operator. E.g.:

• notebook:"Bob's first notebook"
  • Matches all notes in this notebook
• notebook:"Hot Stuff" any: mexican italian
  • Matches all notes in the "Hot Stuff" notebook that have the word "mexican" or the word "italian" in them.

any: - If this expression is found at the beginning of the search (after the "notebook", if present), then the search will return a note that matches any of the other search terms. If this is not found, then the default behavior will be used: a note must match all of the search terms. This expression cannot be negated.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

I have been saving todo items as either individual notes in a "todo list" notebook or with the checkbox in numerous other notebooks. I would like to be able to search and list all the notes in notebook:"todo list" as well as any of the todo:* items scattered about in other notebooks.  I've tried all sorts of variations like:

 

notebook:"todo list" todo:*   but this is an AND search, not what I want.

notebook:"todo list" any: todo:*    only returns the notes in "todo list" that have checkboxes, not what I want.

 

It appears that what I need is:

any: notebook:"todo list" todo:*     but this is not allowed.

 

Is there anyway to do this other than two independent searches, or do I just need to change my methodology for marking todo items?

 

Thanks,

Jay

 

Jay, since an "any:" Search (meaning logical OR) is NOT possible when you specify a Notebook, you will need to change your methodology to achieve your objective.

 

Here are some alternatives:

1. Use a Tag instead of (or in addition to) Notebook for your main "todo" Notes
   • This is the easiest if you already have a lot of Notes in your "todo list" NB
   • Simply select all Notes in your "todo list" NB, and apply a tag, like "ToDo"
   • Then your Search would be:  "any: tag:ToDo todo:*"
   • One problem I see with this is there is no way to find only the outstanding ToDo's
   • So you could use two tags:  "ToDo.Open" and "ToDo.Closed"
   • Then your Searches would be:
     • ALL ToDo's:        "any: tag:ToDo* todo:*"
     • Open ToDo's:     "any: tag:ToDo.Open todo:false"
     • Closed ToDo's:  "any: tag:ToDo.Closed" todo:true"
2. Add a Checkbox to all Notes in your "todo list" NB
   • You could just add one Checkbox line, "☐ Done" at the top of all your Notes.
   • Then your EN Search would be:  "todo:*"
   • IMO, this would be the best solution, because it would be easy to find all todo's, open todo's, and closed todo's, regardless of NB