I imported a lot of markdown files which include a huge number of tasks, specified following Github markdown checkbox definition, i.e.
- Do this #atHome
I thought those boxes are “supported” by DEVONthink, but I cannot construct a search which would find me the respective files with those tasks.
I read the documentation, and I tried
- "- "
/- [ ]/
and some other constructions.
What is the correct way to define a search/smart search to find all the files with tasks?
Thanks!
AFAIK, DT does not find _any _ markup. There might be a hidden preference to change that, for which you should check the relevant section of the manual.
Only alphanumeric characters are indexed & searchable, therefore that’s not possible. The only workaround would be to use a script:
tell application id "DNtp"
set search results of viewer window 1 to (contents of current database whose type is markdown and plain text contains "-[]")
end tell
However, depending on the size & number of Markdown documents in the database this might be slow.
Thanks Christian, works like a charm. Just as a hint for others coming to this thread later, the correct syntax ist
contains “- ”
with spaces between the brackets and before the first bracket.
Here’s an extended version adding a dialog to enter the desired search string:
tell application id "DNtp"
try
repeat
set search_string to display name editor "Markdown Search" info "Enter text to find:"
if search_string is not "" then exit repeat
end repeat
set search results of viewer window 1 to (contents of current database whose type is markdown and plain text contains search_string)
on error error_message number error_number
if the error_number is not -128 then display alert "DEVONthink" message error_message as warning
end try
end tell
This is extremely useful for me: many thanks!
Stephen
Where do you put this script in DT please?
To be honest I can’t now recall why I found this script useful at the time. 
I suspect I used part of it in another script I wrote.
However, in answer to your question, in the DEVONthink menu bar click on the script symbol before Help:
then choose Open Scripts Folder and select the appropriate folder (or create a new one) for the script.
Stephen
