Search function within notes

Mark_NZ
I notice that in the Notes interface (opened as a sepoarate Web page) the "Find" (CTRL+F) feature of the browser (I use Firefox 3.5.7) cannot be activated. It would be useful to be able to quickly search through Notes, particularly if they are extensive.

Are there plans to do this? BTW - EXCELLENT product. I used to take notes in Word and copy and paste them into a Notes field in Zotero; now I just do it all in Zotero. Well done on establishing a robust and incredibly useful application, and for keeping the price down!

Mark.
  • ajlyon
    I also find myself wishing that I could search the text of the note I currently have open. Perhaps there could be a note editor interface that opened a note in the main viewport of Firefox, like the Report or Timeline views? Such a view could take advantage of the built-in Firefox find function. It might also be nice for those users who have started using Zotero as a tool for composing longer, more complex texts (like me).
  • migugg
    I support this suggestion, but:
    In my experience it makes the workflow smoother to create many small notes, rather than one big one. Create a new note, for each quote, each new theme, each argument in a text. Give each note a meaningful title (=first line of note, starting with page nr)
    Then notes are ordered by page. You immediately see which note contains what. No need to read through long notes.
  • ajlyon
    My thinking is that if a person uses small notes, then they probably don't need to search within notes very often. It they use large notes, then perhaps they would be satisfied with searching within notes being limited to when the note is displayed in the main Firefox viewport.

    I certainly agree that it is usually better to use small notes, but there are cases when notes could be quite lengthy -- I use them to take notes on lectures and conference papers, so they can be extensive.
  • Mark_NZ
    I make use of large notes... making a host of small ones seems a clumsy workaround, but we all have our own workflow! I'm certain that for those of us taking extensive notes (from theses, books) a search feature would be really useful. I am hoping that, given that browsers tend to already have search functions, an additional feature such as this would not be too difficult to accomodate!

    Mark.
  • dstillman
    Search within notes is definitely planned. In the meantime, as an awkward workaround, you can right-click on the note, generate a report, and use Ctrl/Cmd-F, and then try to find the same place in the editable note. (Built-in search also works in HTML mode.)
  • rcrath
    +1 for search within notes capability, but glad to find the generate reports method, which will do for now.
  • Gracile
    @Dan: As TinyMCE has been updated in the master branch, is there any plan to add the search&replace plugin? Unless you don't like this plugin and want another implementation?
    See also: http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/17120/text-search-notes/
    and http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/21400/searching-notes-in-zsa/
  • auster
    +1 for the in-note search
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