Highlight the results of a search?

DEVONthink Tips
1

I have been using DEVONthink for years; it is indispensable in my everyday work.

Not to say it can’t be better. A problem I have been plagued with since day one: when you search a database for a word, say the name of a software company, there is no way to find the results of that search. Yes, the program shows a list of documents (files) that contain the search word, but when I click on one in that list, it is brought up and there is no way to see the search word in that document.

What should happen, when you click on a document containing one of the results of a search:

  1. the document should appear, at the line that contains the search word
  2. the search word should be highlighted
  3. the highlighting format for these searches should be user customizable

Seems pretty straightforward to me…

2

You should not have waited years to mention this! You do not mention how you are searching, but the Global search (command-shift-f) does highlight every occurrence of the search term (item #2 in your list), and will scroll to the first occurrence of the term when you select a document in the list (item #1 in your list). Command-G and command -shift-g will advance to the next/previous occurrence in the document.

With the local search, available from the toolbar, the search term is not automatically highlighted. However, once you select a document and type command-g or command-shift-g, the behavior is the same as described above.

3

Wow! Who knew! you have made my day. Guess I should have read that ebook on Devonthink after all… :blush:

Thank you!

4

Greg_Jones, are you sure that’s right? I get exactly the opposite behavior from what you describe, if I understand you correctly. This is ironic because I’ve always had precisely the opposite frustration from the OP. Here’s what happens to me, but which i would like to avoid:

  1. I use the search box in the toolbar-- say I enter “Einstein.”
  2. The top pane (in 3 pane view) lists several results.
  3. I select a result from the list, then start scrolling through the thumbnails to the right of the middle pane
  4. My scrolling is suddenly interrupted when the search term is located in the document, as DT jumps to the page w the first (highlighted) instance.

For me this is annoying because I searched for Einstein in order to locate a document, but I don’t want to look precisely at any particular occurrence of “Einstein” within that document. I’m usually in the mood to look at the table of contents or the abstract. But as soon as I get scroll to the page I’m interested in, I’m suddenly whisked away to the first occurrence of “Einstein,” which is usually at some random place in the middle of the document.

Sorry if I’ve misunderstood your explanation, but this very issue has long vexed me.

5

That could be the case, depending on the options and search operators set in the toolbar search. I rarely use the toolbar search as I prefer the global search window. When I do use the toolbar search, I typically search on name, which does not highlight the terms in the document. I can then command-g and command-shift-g to move forward and back to find the search term within the document. So technically what I said is accurate for the way I typically use the toolbar search, however I expect that your usage is far more common. Sorry for the confusion!