|
![]() | Search Window | ||
Search windows allow you to search your database in almost every way possible and assist you with intelligent functions for broadening and adjusting your search terms.
In the top part of the search window you find the search term field as well as the Spelling and Context buttons. To enter a search term and run the query with the default options, simply type your search words into the search term field and click the magnifier button (right of search field). Like in many other Mac applications, the pop-up menu (behind the magnifier icon at the left side of the search term field) gives you access to the last 25 search terms. DEVONthink Personal uses Boolean operators, parenthesis, and quotes to allow complex structured search terms. Read more about operators and how to use them to write a search term in the appendix. To broaden or adjust your search words, enter a word and click either Spelling or Context to show a list of all words in the database that are similar to the entered word either by spelling or by context. Choose one or more words (use Shift and/or Command to select multiple words from the list) to use them as search words. Mutiple selected words are combined using the OR operator (spelling) or AND (context). The word you've entered will be shown on the top of the list, so you won't lose it for your search run. This functions use all open databases for retrieving similar words.
The left side of the search window gives you even more control over the way DEVONthink Personal searches the database. Adjust these options to best fit your needs. Search for: Choose what exactly you're looking for or select All to search all parts of a document:
Comparison: Make DEVONthink Personal treat regular letters and their counterparts with umlauts or diacritics equally. Check Fuzzy to make searches fuzzy (e.g. 'Hello' and 'Hullo' would both be found). Note: This option is only applied to words but not to wildcards. State: Limits the results based on their status (flagged/unflagged). Choose Any to find results regardless of their state. Unread: Limits the results based on whether they have been marked as read or unread. Choose Any to find results regardless of their read status. Locking: Limits the results based on whether they are locked or not (on/off). Choose Any to find results regardless of their locking flag. Label: Limits the results based on their label. Choose Any to find results regardless of their label. Search in: Limits the scope of the search run to all open databases, a selected database, or a selected group.
After a successful search run, DEVONthink Personal lists all found documents below the search term field, and displays them in a list together with their score (relevance compared to the query), their icon, location in the database, modification date, document kind, and size. Sort the list in any way you want by clicking the column titles, click them again to reverse the sorting order. Modify the shown columns using the contextual menu or View > Columns. Point the cursor to a result and the appearing tooltip will show you the full title, location, and other meta data; click a document title once to rename the document. Below the list of found documents, DEVONthink Personal gives you a preview of the documents you select in the list. If you cannot see the preview area, drag its handle up from the bottom of the window. Also, you can do almost everything you could do in any other DEVONthink Personal window, such as drag a document to another window (or Finder), or export them using File > Export. See also/Classify drawers are supported, too. Due to limitations in Mac OS X's PDFKit, highlighting of occurences of the search term in the document is not tied to words and so also sub-strings are highlighted.
When you are satisfied with the search results you can save the query including all settings as a smart group. Click the + button next to the search term field and enter a name for your new smart group. The new smart group that searches this database is created in the top level of the database.
The toolbar of the search window offers many tools that are also present in DEVONthink Personal main or document windows. Here's a short list:
You can manipulate the search results by clicking them with Command pressed to open the contextual menu, which offers various additional commands.
|