copying results of a search to a subcollection

zeynep

I've searched for a topic in all my folders in quotations. Say, "basketweavers united." I now want to copy them all to a subcollection and I cannot. I select them all, and when I try to drag and drop (to any subcollection even a brand new and empty one) I get the universal "no" sign: the cross over circle. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_symbol).

I can't just create a search either because as far as I can tell, there is no menu equivalent of typing a phrase in quotes that searches all your items.

How can I copy a large number of items to a subcollection? They seem to be copyable one by one, for the first dozen I tried. Thanks.

dstillman

You'll want to use "Title, Creator, Year" mode to match only top-level items and then use Ctrl/Cmd-A to select just the search matches before dragging. Alternatively, if you need to search all fields or full text, you can press "-" (the minus key) to collapse all items before selecting. If any child items are selected, the drag won't work (because technically child items can't be added to collections).

In a future version we'll make it so that items can still be dragged to collections if all of their child items are selected.

adamsmith

that should work and does for me, including with hundreds of items at a time. What OS?
And have you played around with where you're putting the mouse cursor? It does go to "No" when you're outside any collection and dragging multiple items is kind of messy in terms of keeping track of where the mouse actually is.

edit: Dan's is likely the right answer, leaving this here on the off-chance it'll help.

zeynep

Ah thanks, I think the child items was the problems so I used "-".

But I needed "search everything". Title creator year hardly ever works well since most of the information is in the abstract or the text.

In fact, it would be super useful to have "search everything" for the advanced search? Because that is quite useful as it allows qualifiers, and/or connections as well as the ability to make the results into a folder.

dstillman

Yeah, an equivalent to the quick search for Advanced Search has been requested before and will happen at some point. In the meantime you might be able to use the "Abstract" or "Attachment Content" search conditions. (The latter gets a little complicated due to the interaction between parent and child items, so if you use that, the mysterious "Include parent and child items of matching items" option may be useful.)

zeynep

thanks! Search really helps make the product powerful. I use quick search everyday.