Full-text Search
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The full-text search is used to find text across all notes.
The results of the full-text search will be shown in a special mode to visually indicate that you are no longer in 'edit mode' but in 'search mode'. The full-text search in PpcSoft iKnow is very powerful, and we have put in a lot of effort to optimize the usability. |
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If you take a close look at the first screenshot you'll notice a few details:
- Auto-preview
- Auto-focus
- Auto-highlight search word(s)
- Progress report
- Ranking
Auto-preview will automatically show a preview of the first (best) matching note. Moving up and down the list will automatically (and instantly) show a preview of the selected note.
Auto-focus means that the preview willalso automatically scroll the note down to the first matching word (so you'll find what you are looking for much quicker). If you look at the screenshot below you'll notice that the scrollbar is not at the top.
Auto-highlight makes it easier to find what you are looking for. The first search word is the most important and will be highlighted in green. You can add more search words, and they will be highlighted in orange to visually separate them.
Progress report will show you how many notes are searched, and how many matching notes are found. You will probably find that the progress bar is pretty useless for you as the full-text search is very fast, but once you reach more than a thousand notes it may take a few seconds to search. But in most cases, the progress report is most useful when you find too many matches (see screenshot below).
Ranking is important, as the search will try to find the most relevant notes for you automatically. The ranking is relative, so 3 stars means that it is the best match while 1 star is less relevant.
The screenshot above shows a search where the search word is too generic - the search for 'information' is found 50 times in the first 397 notes (of 706 notes total).
You'll also notice that the progress report 'Too many matches (50 first shown)' is shown in red to indicate that the search is not successful. In addition, the 'relevancy' stars are also slightly dimmed to indicate that the ranking is not accurate.
However, the first 50 matching notes will still be shown, as they may contain what you are looking for.
Searching and Auto-copy
The full-text search is activated whenever you press Space in the QuickSearch editor, or when you press Enter using an unknown note title.
The full-text search is a special view that allows you to keep one note active while researching/searching for information in the rest of your notes using full-text search.
If you use Ctrl+Space instead of space you'll return to your last full-text search instantly without restarting the search.
In addition, because the full-text search mode is read-only (you cannot edit the previews), selecting text in the preview window will automatically copy the selected text for you (without pressing Ctrl+C).
Advanced search
Searching with more than one search word will normally return any note that contains any of the search words.
However, the first search word is considered the most important and will give higher results in the ranking.
For even better results, you may use the following:
+word
-word
"combined words"
+word indicates that the search word must exist in a note. If you use 3 search words and the second has a + sign, then only notes containing that word will be shown (even if the first word is 'more important' in the ranking).
-word indicates that the search word must not exist in a note.
"combined words" will be treated as a single word.
The full-text search is very powerful, very fast and very useful - if you write it down using PpcSoft iKnow you will always find it again !
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