Question (or feature request): how to filter for custom metadata / attributes

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1

I have defined a custom metadata / attribute field with a number of values to choose from (i.e. a drop-down field for this attribute) and I would like to filter the view based on that. I can filter for specific tags (as described in this blog post and would like to do a similar filter to view only items in the DB with that custom attribute set to a specific value.

Is that already possible? If yes, how? If not, please take it into consideration for a future release.

2

Sorry but the filter panes don’t support custom metadata. You could set up a smart group but it’s would not update results live.

You could also do a toolbar search as it is live, so changing selections in the Navigate sidebar would show different results.

The request is noted however.

3

Hello Bluefrog,

a follow up question concerning this matter—I, too, would very much appreciate a way to filter by metadata, so as to display all files that are assigned categoryA-Value1 and categoryB-Value4, e.g. The toolbar search doesn’t seem to allow for this: it takes the value names for full text and yields results accordingly or, if I type: Category:To Do (which is present as metadata in the database I try it on), it renders a very long code document but no search result. Is there any way to get a this (maybe in an updated version? Mine is 3.8.3)?

Thanks!

4

A screenshot of your search and of Preferences > Data would be useful.

5

Hello cgrunenberg, thanks for your reply. Here it is:

Screen Shot 2024-01-27 at 13.52.03
Screen Shot 2024-01-27 at 13.52.03832Ă—665 66.9 KB

6

… I did however just now find out that smart folders do approximately what I was looking for (filter by sets of custom metadata). It would still be interesting to know why search won’t find them, but the main cause seems settled.

8

Hard to tell without knowing the exact used search term. However, it’s easy to construct search terms using the advanced search and to learn the syntax that way.

9

A bit tricky to find (one has to do a regular search first and then activate the advanced search by clicking first advances, then the + button) but yes, that works. Sorry I didn’t see that at first. Thanks!

10

Covered in Windows > Main Window > Search Pane in the built-in Help and manual.

11

Hello Bluefrog,

yes. I meant to beg grunenberg’s pardon by explaining why it took me a moment to get it. Of course it is well documented.

Thanks again, both of you,

Nikolai

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