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[MikeWills 0]

I am trying to find all uncompleted to do items that are NOT in two notebooks.

 

I have tried the following:

• todo:false -notebook:Work -notebook:Clients - Shows only notes IN Work
• todo:false not in notebook Work and not in notebook:Clients - same as above.

Any other ideas? I obviously have a saved search for the other two already, but I need to find all of my personal todos. 

[jefito 5,589]

I am trying to find all uncompleted to do items that are NOT in two notebooks.

 

I have tried the following:

• todo:false -notebook:Work -notebook:Clients - Shows only notes IN Work
• todo:false not in notebook Work and not in notebook:Clients - same as above.

Any other ideas? I obviously have a saved search for the other two already, but I need to find all of my personal todos. 

Those searches cannot be done via ordinary Evernote search: according to the search grammar reference (http://dev.evernote.com/doc/articles/search_grammar.php)  if you use a notebook term (notebook:<notebook name>), then there can be at most one, and it must appear at the beginning of the search query.  So even if you correct your search, you can't use two notebook terms. And moreover, you can't use '-' with the notebook term. And 'not in' is not a part of the Evernote search grammar (though maybe it's a natural language search thingy -- Mac only at this time, I think)

 

In a situation like that, if it was a critical piece of my workflow, I'd probably resort to tags. Tag all of the notes in Work with a 'Work' tag, and all of the notes in Clients with a 'Clients' tag, and you should be able to search using something like: todo:false -tag:Work -tag:Clients

[Kirby Krieger 72]

I have and use a special tag for setting up searches like this.  I use √ (⌥v on the Mac) as a tag for making ad-hoc groups.  Apply it too all the notes you want to exclude (Work and Clients), run your search ("todo:false -tag:√"), then search on √ and clear it from all Notes.

 

In essence, my √ tag is used the same way flags are used in other databases.  I keep a Shortcut for Notes with the tag √.  For ad-hoc grouping, I tag with √ and then go to the √ group by clicking the Shortcut.

 

This, of course, is applicable when your work _is_ ad-hoc.  If this search is part of a regular workflow, you will want to set up an easier implementation.

 

Imho, Evernote should add a flag and a "Flagged" container.

(Added:) And the ability to search for "not in <notebookname>".

[jefito 5,589]

Yep, several ways to skin this, er, apple (PC-version )