Jump to content

Feedback about searching and tagging


Zaqintosh

Recommended Posts

This is something I've struggled with, I'm curious if others are aligned on this.  I don't tag my notes. I don't think tagging really makes sense for a note-taking platform.

 

When I take notes, asking me to tag assumes I'm going to know what I'll be searching for in the future, which I don't. Usually (months later) I have a vague sense of something I might have in my notes, and I need rock-solid gmail-like search capabilities to find what I might be looking for. Unfortunately I'm finding the search feature pretty limited without tags, I can't use quotes to look for phrases, I don't have the same kind of control in searching my notes as I would in other tools. 

 

Anyone else have thoughts on this ?

Link to comment
  • Level 5*

This is something I've struggled with, I'm curious if others are aligned on this.  I don't tag my notes. I don't think tagging really makes sense for a note-taking platform.

Tags are not just for search, they're for filtering your notes database, particularly in the presence of a weak (by design) folder capability (stacks and notebooks).

Makes perfect sense, even for hand-generated content, for any number of use cases (and I do tag notes that I create by hand, for organization and light to-do list management). Oh, and Evernote is far more than a "note-taking platform". There are bunches of hands-off  ways to get external content into Evernote, and tagging can be a help there, too. I do a lot of web-clipping, for purposes of research & development. Tags help me there.

 

When I take notes, asking me to tag assumes I'm going to know what I'll be searching for in the future, which I don't. Usually (months later) I have a vague sense of something I might have in my notes, and I need rock-solid gmail-like search capabilities to find what I might be looking for. Unfortunately I'm finding the search feature pretty limited without tags, I can't use quotes to look for phrases, I don't have the same kind of control in searching my notes as I would in other tools. 

 

Anyone else have thoughts on this ?

Even with better search, tags would useful, in my case anyways. If gmail search is so great, why do they also offer the analogously exact same organizational tool (GMail calls them "labels") as tags? I think it's because tags, labels, categories, keywords -- call them what you will -- continue to offer organizational capabilities.

Tags are not the be-all and and-all of Evernote search; I use a light hand in my tag usage, but because you can put multiple tags on a note, you can get a combinatorial amount of expressiveness if you choose.

Link to comment
  • Level 5*

Hi.  There has been a lot of discussion about notebooks v tags v titles in the forums.  The general consensus seems to be users should go with whatever suits their own particular needs and wishes - there's no 'right' way to do things.  The search function however isn't as limited as you've found so far.  You can use quotes to search for strings of words forinstance,  and there a bunch of special operators to help you manipulate dates,  sources of information and 'to-do' checkboxes.  Personally I rely on titles rather than tags,  and use the "intitle:<term>" search to look for the hits I need,  rather than trigger on the content of all the OCR'd cuttings and pictures I've accumulated over the years...

 

Using Evernote's advanced search syntax - https://evernote.com/contact/support/kb/#!/article/23245321

However you need to know that there's a LOT of technology behind the scenes.  Have a look at Evernote's search grammar for the full details.

Link to comment

Most of my content is self generated and I have a *really* bad memory, but a combination of tags and keywords works very well for me. Come from a long background of using hierarchal folders and cross-referencing copies of documents to every possible place they might be considered logical to other people, I found Evernote difficult to wrap my head around for some time. Now? I'd never go back!

Link to comment
  • Level 5*

This is something I've struggled with, I'm curious if others are aligned on this.  I don't tag my notes. I don't think tagging really makes sense for a note-taking platform.

 

When I take notes, asking me to tag assumes I'm going to know what I'll be searching for in the future, which I don't. Usually (months later) I have a vague sense of something I might have in my notes, and I need rock-solid gmail-like search capabilities to find what I might be looking for. 

 

Coming up with good Tags is really not that hard.  Just think about the broad categories that your note might fit in.  You could think of Tags like a Card Catalog -- what are the main subjects of your Note?  The more you do this, the easier and more natural it will become.

 

For example, if you clip some new story on a major presidential or congressional decision/debate about the renewed fighting of terrorists in Iraq (or Syria or wherever), you might assign these tags, even if the tag name was not mentioned.  In fact, one of the most powerful use of tags is to assign a keyword or category that is NOT specifically mentioned in the text.

  • President
  • Obama
  • Congress
  • War
  • Terrorism
  • Iraq
  • Syria
  • Politics

I'm not saying that you should assign all of these tags, but just the ones that seem most important to you, the ones that seem to categorize the story the best, and of course the ones that you are most interested in tracking and easily finding in the future.

 

Some may disagree, but I don't think it hurts to "over-tag" to some degree, especially in the beginning.  Later, after you have a nice collection of Notes of, say, 1,000 or more, you can review your Tag list and simplify, consolidate, rename, and put into hierarchies if any of that suits you.

 

For more info see The Benefit of Using Tags  

Link to comment
  • 1 year later...
On 10/02/2015 at 0:16 AM, gazumped said:

Hi.  There has been a lot of discussion about notebooks v tags v titles in the forums.  The general consensus seems to be users should go with whatever suits their own particular needs and wishes - there's no 'right' way to do things.  The search function however isn't as limited as you've found so far.  You can use quotes to search for strings of words forinstance,  and there a bunch of special operators to help you manipulate dates,  sources of information and 'to-do' checkboxes.  Personally I rely on titles rather than tags,  and use the "intitle:<term>" search to look for the hits I need,  rather than trigger on the content of all the OCR'd cuttings and pictures I've accumulated over the years...

 

Using Evernote's advanced search syntax - https://evernote.com/contact/support/kb/#!/article/23245321

However you need to know that there's a LOT of technology behind the scenes.  Have a look at Evernote's search grammar for the full details.

Thanks for this note - I have basically been ignorant till now as to the options available. What took me to this forum was a desire to be able to sort titles and not everything and "intitle:" does just that. If I could make one suggestion it would be that there could be an option in Preferences that allowed the user to select a desired default search criteria e.g. the user has the option to select that a search can be directed by default to only search titles.

Link to comment
  • Level 5*
2 hours ago, JDEvolutionist said:

If I could make one suggestion it would be that there could be an option in Preferences that allowed the user to select the a desired default search criteria e.g. the user has the option to select that a search can be directed by default to only search titles.

It's a good idea.  You could post this in the request forum

Instead of burying it in Preferences, I'd like to see it right up front as a switch in the search box.
Other users have also mentioned the need for additional options; like excluding attachments.

The search grammar is powerful, but there's a learning curve.  
Macs have a search phrase builder that helps a little

 

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...