Advanced Search

NotePlan allows you to search for notes or for a specific line (like a task, a bullet, etc.) inside a note:

  1. Search for for a note by title: Command Bar (CMD+J) or tap on the magnifier glass icon on iOS
  2. Search and filter notes: Folder Views. Click on any folder or on "Notes" in the sidebar, then configure a filter to find specific notes.
  3. Search for note content: Open "Search" in the left sidebar or CMD+Shift+F to find tasks, bullets, or any lines inside your notes.

➡️ View the full video here.

Advanced Search Syntax

The content search (open "Search" or "Filters" in the sidebar), and the Folder View search supports the following syntax. 

Note: Boolean OR and grouping is supported from v3.18.1

  • Exact matches (whole words): surround a word with quotes. Example: "sun" returns lines where sun appears as a word, not as part of sunlight.
  • Exclusions: prepend a hyphen to exclude. Example: #pending -#waiting returns results with #pending that do not also contain #waiting.
  • Implicit AND: a space means AND. Example: project report returns lines that contain both project and report.
  • Boolean OR: use OR (uppercase) to match either side. Examples:
    • meeting OR meetup — matches if either word is present.
    • #work OR #personal — matches notes/lines containing either tag.
  • Grouping with parentheses: use parentheses to control precedence and combine expressions.
    • meeting (work OR meetup) — must include "meeting" and either "work" or "meetup".
    • (urgent OR high) #todo — includes either "urgent" or "high" and the #todo tag.
    • (#work OR #personal) (review OR recap) — at least one tag group and one keyword group must match.
  • Grouped negation:
    • meeting -(work meetup) — includes "meeting" but excludes lines that contain both "work" and "meetup" together.
    • (draft OR proposal) -#archived — includes either "draft" or "proposal" but excludes the #archived tag.
  • Quoted phrases inside groups:
    • ("design review" OR "code review") #todo — matches either phrase plus #todo.
  • Nesting: you can nest groups for complex logic.
    • (projectA (design OR testing)) OR (projectB (spec OR "kick off"))

Tips:

  • Combine spaces (AND), OR, - (NOT), and parentheses to craft precise queries.
  • Use uppercase OR for clarity when combining alternatives (as shown in examples).

On Mac you can additionally decide what sources NotePlan should search: Calendar Notes, Events, Reminders or only Regular Notes (disable everything). You can find a settings drop down right of the search field on Mac to configure this.

Search Operators

Use search operators at the beginning of your search to quickly filter results. Format: operator:value ... search text 

Note: Supported from v3.18.1

  • Source operators:
    • source:calendar - Calendar notes only
    • source:notes - Regular notes only
    • source:events - Events only
    • source:reminders - Dated reminders grouped by date
    • source:list-reminders - All reminders grouped by list (dated and undated)
    • source:dated-notes - Dated notes only
    • source:notes,events - Multiple sources (comma-separated)
  • Task status operators:
    • is:open - Open tasks
    • is:done - Completed tasks
    • is:scheduled - Scheduled tasks
    • is:canceled or is:cancelled - Canceled tasks
    • is:not-task - Lines that are not tasks (this returns only results if you also supply a search query)
  • Checklist status operators:
    • is:checklist - Open checklist items
    • is:checklist-done - Completed checklist items
    • is:checklist-scheduled - Scheduled checklist items
    • is:checklist-cancelled - Cancelled checklist items
  • Date operators:
    • date:today - Today's items
    • date:yesterday - Yesterday's items
    • date:tomorrow - Tomorrow's items
    • date:past - Past items
    • date:future - Future items
    • date:past-and-today - Past items including today
    • date:this-week - This week
    • date:last-week - Last week
    • date:next-week - Next week
    • date:this-month - This month
    • date:last-month - Last month
    • date:next-month - Next month
    • date:this-year - This year
    • date:last-year - Last year
    • date:next-year - Next year
    • date:30days - Rolling 30 days
    • date:all - All time (default if nothing is defined)
    • Custom ISO dates:
      • date:2025-08-25 - Specific day (YYYY-MM-DD)
      • date:2025-W35 - Specific week (YYYY-WNN)
      • date:2025-08 - Specific month (YYYY-MM)
      • date:2025-Q3 - Specific quarter (YYYY-QN)
      • date:2025 - Specific year (YYYY)
    • Date ranges (i):
      • date:2025-08-01-2025-08-30 - Day range (YYYY-MM-DD-YYYY-MM-DD)
      • date:2025-W01-2025-W52 - Week range (YYYY-WNN-YYYY-WNN)
      • date:2025-06-2025-07 - Month range (YYYY-MM-YYYY-MM)
      • date:2025-Q1-2025-Q4 - Quarter range (YYYY-QN-YYYY-QN)
      • date:2024-2025 - Year range (YYYY-YYYY)
    • Examples:
      • date:2025-08-25 meeting - Meetings on August 25, 2025
      • date:2025-W35 review - Reviews in week 35 of 2025
      • date:2025-08-01-2025-08-30 vacation - Vacation items for August 2025
      • date:2025-Q1-2025-Q4 project - Project items for all of 2025
      • source:calendar date:2025-08-01-2025-08-30 is:open meeting - Open calendar meetings in August 2025
  • Location operators:
    • path:Projects/Work - Search in specific folder path
      • path:"10 - Projects/Marketing" - Use quotes for folders with spaces
      • You don't need to include "Notes" into the path.
      • Paths are case-sensitive
    • heading:TODO - Search under specific heading
      • heading:"Project Goals" - Use quotes for headings with spaces
  • Sort operators:
    • sort:asc - Sort results by date from oldest to newest (past → future)
    • sort:desc - Sort results by date from newest to oldest (future → past)
  • View options:
    • show:timeblocked - Show timeblocked events
    • hide:past-events - Hide past events
    • hide:archive - Hide results from archived notes (available from v3.18.2)
    • hide:teamspaces - Hide results from teamspace (calendar) notes (available from v3.18.2)
  • Combined operators:
    • source:calendar is:open date:this-week meeting - Combine multiple filters
    • heading:"Weekly Review" is:open tasks - Find open tasks under a specific heading with spaces
    • Search operators can be combined with advanced syntax: source:notes is:open (urgent OR high) -#archived

Notes:

  • Search operators require spaces to separate multiple operators
  • Do not use spaces after colons (e.g., use source:calendar not source: calendar)
  • For values with spaces (like heading names), wrap them in quotes: heading:"My Project Name"
  • You can escape operators with a backslash if you want to search for them literally, e.g. \date:this-month