I know I’ve received a couple of requests like this one:
Now that I’ve got somewhat similar filtering working with the relatively new Mark field, I’m thinking about how such a request might be implemented.
I’m strongly inclined to keep the default search the way it is, primarily because it will tend to be the fastest and most efficient: Notenik only has to find the first matching Note before stopping and returning control to the user.
But I’m somewhat open to the idea of providing an option to then show a filtered list of the matching items.
But I’d be interested in some thoughts on how the UI for this should work. Some options I can think of are:
Some special command to perform the search and immediately filter the results;
Some special command to filter the results after the initial search command has positioned you on the first match;
A new option on the Advanced Search screen to request a filtered list.
If you’ve got any preferences, or any ideas about this, or any examples of the ways in which other apps perform a similar function, I’d be interested in hearing about them.
I think a combination of the first and third option would be useful. Having this available in the Advanced Search screen in particular can save users an extra step if they intend to filter results after performing the search.
Prioritizing filtered searches as an Advanced Search feature from (at least nominally) may enhance Advanced Searches from a UX perspective. Usually when I want to “filter” out certain notes matching certain queries and fields I have to generate a report. This is fine when the results consist of things I want to retain and return to over a period of time or if I want to keep the query logic saved as a script for later reports. Running a filtered search from the Advanced Search window can expedite this process for ad hoc queries.
I think the CMD-Shift-F shortcut is available if I’m not mistaken. This could be used as the special command to filter normal searches. It could also be useful if the filtered search command works so long as the search bar is populated, like how the search forward and search backward commands work. Additionally, perhaps we could be able to cycle through filtered notes using the same search forward/backward commands.