Part 6: Search & Filters

Learn more about:

Besides the Command Bar ( CMD+J) which you can use to switch quickly between notes, you will find the need for a more fine-grained search. 

To find overdue tasks and more, click on "Filter" in the left sidebar.

Filters

You will find a few predefined and editable "Filters" in this view: 

All Tasks:
Shows all open tasks in your Project Notes and Daily Notes. This means "closed" tasks (canceled or completed) are not shown. 

Note Tasks:
Shows open (and scheduled) tasks that exist only in your Project Notes. The tasks from your Daily Notes are ignored. 

Overdue:
Shows all open or scheduled tasks which are in the past. Tasks, which you have scheduled from a Project Note are also included here. 

Upcoming:
Shows all open or scheduled tasks which are due today or in the future. As above, scheduled project tasks are included.

Create a New Filter

If you need a very specific search not covered above, you can add or modify your own filters. Click on "New Filter", choose a name, and select what you are looking for: 

In  "Search In" you can define where NotePlan should search. You can select "Regular Notes" = Project Notes, "Calendar Notes" = Daily Notes, Events, or Reminders.

Under  "Status" you can define in which state the tasks should be ("Open", "Done", "Scheduled" or "Canceled"). "No Status" means it doesn't have to be a task, it could be just a bullet point or paragraph of text. 

Note: If you scheduled tasks from your regular notes into a day (using >YYYY-MM-DD) you will see them also in "Calendar Notes".

In the last row, you can change the  "Timeframe" if you are looking for tasks that are only in the past, future or in another predefined timeframe like "This Month". With "Sort" you can define how the results should be sorted by date.

Finally, you can add a  "Keyword" if you want to filter by a specific tag for example. It will only return tasks where the keyword is found. And you can limit your results to specific folders using "Path contains". Start typing the path and it will show auto-complete suggestions (this only works with regular notes, not with calendar notes) 

Search for anything  inside your notes. This will search in your Project and Daily Notes and return any paragraphs where the keyword could be found. Click on the search result and it will open the note and scroll to the paragraph with the keyword.

It's your turn

Click on "Filters" in the sidebar and check all your overdue tasks. If needed, close them right here. 

Then create your own filter by clicking on "New Filter", name it "Completed". Set it up so you can see all the completed tasks in the past. 

Pro Tips

  • Use #tags or @mentions with the "Keyword" field of a filter. This way you can search for overdue or upcoming tasks which are flagged as #waiting for example or are assigned to @someone.
  • Search for #tags or @mentions directly by clicking on them in the sidebar. They are indexed and will return immediately.
  • You can also start a search from the Command Bar by selecting "Search '...' in tasks and paragraphs" from the results.
  • Complete tasks directly from the search and review results by clicking on the task circle.

Next up: → Part 7: Important Places

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