search results tags

DEVONthink Tips
1

Hello board,

today i tried to find a document, which i knew must be in the database. First i thought i did something wrong while i tagged the document, but i didn’t.
After a long while i found the file and, yes, it is tagged correctly. So i did some further test an came out with a strange behavior within devon think.
I have a lot of documents tagged with “idea”. So first, i tried to find it via the small search field in the top right corner. I found:

  • 5 files
  • and the tag “idea” on top of the list

The file i was looking for, isn’t in the list.

Then, i tried a search via search-window. I found:

  • 3 files
  • and the tag “idea” on top of the list

The 3 files are part of the 5 files from the first search, but with another relevance and in another relevance related to each other. Means, they where in another order.

Still, the file i was looking for … not in the list.

If i now click on the tag “idea”, devon think shows all the files tagged with “idea”.
But, that’s exactly what i would like to see, when i search for that tag to narrow down my search and combine that with other words, strings etc.

But the strangest thing happens if i click on a specific group before my search and narrow the search down to that group via the dropdown-menu. (now) I know the file tagged with “idea” is definitely in that group. Now searching by tag “idea” shows me one other document (NOT tagged with “idea”, but the text inside contains “ideal”, but only once) but my document is still missing.

Is this the normal behavior of devon think? If so, how do you handle this? Are tags such useless?

2

The search fields in the Toolbar Search and also in the Global Search window do not search for tags. You are finding the tag ‘idea’ at the top of the list of results because the tag name equals the search term, not because it is searching for the tag. To search for the tag, you need to use the Advanced… option to add the tag to search on, or use the Tags view in the database. Note that tag data is not included when selecting Metadata as a ‘Search for:’ option.

3

Thanks for your reply. Where do I find the advanced option?

4

Tools > Search…

Bottom of the sidebar:

5

Ok, i found it. Thank you.
Unfortunately this isn’t very comfortable. I give a shot to Ammonite. It looks pretty good. On tag level only, but in most cases i will be able to narrow down my search.

I would like to see an update here from the developer guys, implementing the search for tags in an easier way.

Thanks for your help!

6

I just discovered the Ammonite app for adding tag searching to Devonthink. I think it may be helpful, since I have a lot of tags that can really help me see how my documents interrelate.

blog.devontechnologies.com/2010/ … think-pro/

I wish tag searching were incorporated in the menubar of Devonthink though. Is there any idea if that is an upcoming feature, or if it is too challenging for some reason?

7

It is something we are considering for future releases.

8

Thanks, tag searching would make my life much easier.