If I search for the word “next” using FIND - DT finds many files
If I use the SEARCH dialog, DT finds nothing
Other words get a result but the word “next” finds nothing
This applies if I restrict the search to Name or open it up to ALL
I have rebuild database & have same result
Furthermore, if I change the Flag setting from ANY to ON, then the result seems to find lots of files which do not contain the SEARCH term - is my indexing screwed up? If yes, how do I re-index (I assumed that a rebuild would do this…)
tells DEVONthink to find instances where term1 is next to term2. (An alternate is NEXT/2 which means find instances where term1 is within two words of term2).
If you want to literally find next then put it in quotations (“next”)
See the Search Operators topic in Help for more information about these search aids.
I would therefore deem this to be a bug. In the UK there is a business called NEXT - I was searching for transactions with this company!
DT need to make it intuitively clear that NEXT is a command & cannot be searched for as a search term in itself. Not sure how this can be achieved, perhaps highlight search terms in RED to make the user aware that these are deemed to be command words…
… with respect, the manual, Help, the forum, the blog, and provided tutorials (e.g., “Search Operators”) explain the program well. In my experience, proximity operators such as NEXT, NEAR, etc., are quite common and standard in database and data management solutions. Perhaps, DEVONthink appears to be following standard practice? Not sure that’s being buggy, though.
I did read the DTPro manual when I got the software 18 months ago, but as I never used the NEXT command I forgot about this function.
It would be great if DT made this aspect more intuitive - ie to find a way to remind us which words are being interpreted as COMMAND words (highlight: underline or bold italics or red etc…).
I also like the suggestion to make Boolean and proximity operators stand out, but I’m not in favor of using red text to do this. The most common usage to make Boolean operators stand out is to use bold (AND OR NOT), or blue text ([color=blue]AND OR NOT), or finally blue and bold ([color=blue]AND OR NOT) text. The usage of red is typically to indicate a danger/warning situation, e.g. improper syntax/operator.
Good point, Greg. Another visual clue possibility would be to use auto-capitalizing text completion for booleans and proximity operators. So, if I type near, next, and, or or the text box shows NEAR, NEXT, AND, or OR – unless I’ve placed one of those terms in quotation marks.
There could also be an “Ignore Operators” checkbox switch in the Search panel.
