Multiple-item searches possible?

Can you search for two or three words at the same time?

For example, “surfing” “Hawaii” ?

Steve

Yes. All Words is equivalent to word1 AND word2.

Any Word is equivalent to word1 OR word2.

But it seems not possible to type these operators into the search field? It found documents containing AND
:unamused:
I already read in the forum that there is no NOT operator - will there be one in future releases or in DEVONthink Pro? I really would like to have the possibility to exclude things from my search…

It’s not necessary to type in the search operators. “All Words” implies AND, and “Any Word” implies OR.

Christian has noted in this forum that the Boolean search capabilities of DEVONagent will migrate over to DEVONthink.

In the meantime, here’s a workaround to emulate a NOT search, e.g. X NOT Y:

[1] Create a new group, which is to be a holding container for the next step’s search results.

[2] Select Tools > Search and then enter the search string “X” – you may specify the other search conditions as you wish, e.g. database-wide or a particular group, etc.

[3] Select all the search results and replicate them to the holding group created in step [1]. (With all search results selected by clicking on one and pressing Command-A, Control-click and choose “Replicate To” from the contextual menu options. Select your holding group to receive the replicated items.)

[4] Select Tools > Search. Set the search target to the holding group, using the popup button. Now enter “Y” as the search string – using, e.g. the “All Words” option.

[5] Now select the search results using Command-A and delete the selected items from your holding group. (If an option appears to delete all instances, don’t choose that one – you just want to delete the items in the holding group.)

That’s it! The items remaining in your holding group are the result of a search for X NOT Y. They can be sorted in any permitted order, if that’s useful. I just did such a search, including creation of the holding group, in 17 seconds. If I had to do it frequently, that could be pared down to under 10 seconds.

Replicants are strange and wonderful things. They make it possible to do operations like this without endangering the contents of your database. Once you are finished, just throw away your holding group and its contents. No harm done to the original documents.

Note that similar procedures can be used to emulate quite complex Boolean operators in combination. I’d like to have the Boolean operators directly – but I can still do just about any filter logic I can think of using DEVONthink’s current search options. :slight_smile:

Is there a way in DT to set up a dynamic search/filter that pushes replicants of documents that match the search criteria (a la Sente’s search and filter combos except with replicants) for a particular folder after I drop new references into my database?

This will be a feature of DT Pro. A search query can be assigned to a “Smart Group” and it will contain replicants of all existing and added content that match the query.

Yes, I know. Here I am talking about DT Pro again. :slight_smile:

A public beta is coming.

Promises, promises! :laughing:

Alexandria