find tool only searches open folders/sections?

[foodog]

Is there a way for the find/search tool to search through all of the .one
files in the My Notebook folder?
Or does the find/search tool only work with folders and sections that are
already open?

 

[Andrew Watt [MVP - InfoPath]]

Is there a way for the find/search tool to search through all of the .one
files in the My Notebook folder?
Or does the find/search tool only work with folders and sections that are
already open?

Hi,

You can customise the scope of what the search tool will search.

Use Ctrl+F1 to open the task pane.

Open the Page List task pane from the navigation at the top of the
task pane.

At the bottom of the Page List task pane there is a drop down from
which you can select the scope of future searches.

I hope that helps.

Andrew Watt
MVP - InfoPath

 

[Chris_Pratley \(MS\)]

if you have "Closed" any sections, then a search of "my notebook" will not
include them (in fact, closing is *how* you exclude sections for searches).
We generally recommend never closing anything unless you plan to not use it
or do not want to search it.

Chris Pratley
OneNote team

 

[Ben M. Schorr, MVP-OneNote]

Is there a way for the find/search tool to search through all of the
.one files in the My Notebook folder?
Or does the find/search tool only work with folders and sections that
are already open?

Actually, for performance reasons, it only searchs folders and sections
that are open.

 

[Andrew Watt [MVP - InfoPath]]

Chris,

Thanks for the comments.

I hadn't assimilated that a closed section effectively prevented
searching.

The OneNote interface is, therefore ... I would suggest, misleading.
Since the option is "Search: My Entire Notebook". And from what you
say it isn't searching the entire notebook.

Perhaps a more appropriate terms is "Search: All Open Sections". Which
isn't, as you explained, always the same thing.

Andrew Watt
MVP - InfoPath

 

[alainr]

I think it is important to consider that it would be useful to have a little
feature that allows you to set search filters, in which you can manually
select which files in the MyNotebook folder may be excluded/included from
searches, and have these preferences stored. I don't see the point of
leaving eveything open, cluttering-up your workspace. Usually, I know where
things are in my workspace. I think the major benefit of organization tools
is to maintain a clean and clutter-free workspace to be able to focus on
immediate tasks. It is therefore convenient to have an organized workspace
that may be extensive, but yet easy and efficient to navigate through. My
primary use for the search utility is therefore to find things I have lost,
which are not in my workspace. It is nice to have a quick search tool to
find things arond in the immediate workspace, but what takes a crippling
amount of time and energy is to find something that is stored in the boxes
somewhere in the basement. A search capability that finds a keyword in a
buch of closed sections doesn't have to be lighting fast, it just has to be
faster than me opening them all and looking through each one of them.