Is there a problem with search in OneNote?

[Michael A]

I am running Vista Ultimate (if that may impact it) and OneNote 2007.

The problem:
I can search for a term in "all notebooks" but the search does not find
pages and sections which I know have the search term in them. (all of the
notebooks are opened, and I have "all notebooks" as the search type selected).

This is a serious issue because it means I can't trust OneNote searching
capability

--Mike

 

[Rainald Taesler]

I am running Vista Ultimate (if that may impact it) and OneNote
2007.

The problem:
I can search for a term in "all notebooks" but the search does not
find pages and sections which I know have the search term in
them. (all of the notebooks are opened, and I have "all notebooks"
as the search type selected).

This is a serious issue because it means I can't trust OneNote
searching capability

Really strange: the second question on problems with searching in 2
days …
Pls see the thread "Search Indexing" opened by "Oliver" on Jan 18.

I for one don't have these problems in my system running under Vista
Business 32 and WDS 4.

Which OS version are you using?

Is Onenote included in the list of indexed locations in "Indexing
Options" (Control Panel)?

Rainald

 

[Michael A]

I checked that thread and it seemed a different problem, but I will look more
closely at it and all the suggested links and readings.

When I did a search, ON found instances of the search word in the text of
images, in pages which were in different notebooks and seemed OK.

However it did not find all of them. For example, one it did not find was
acually the title of a page.

I am running Windows Vista Ultimate Service Pack 1 (32 bit)

--Mike

 

[YouBetcha]

Keep in mind a couple of things about windows desktop search (which is the
engine for OneNote). Note that it doesn't really work by searching, per se.
It actually indexes everything into a file that records each word and its
location in OneNote. When you request a search, it looks up the word on its
list and the outputs the locations. This makes it very fast.

The rules for searching are different from other search utilities you may
have used. Because the indexer collects WORDS (that is, text that is
surrounded by spaces) and then it looks for words in its index, you will not
be able to search for every string that is inside another string. it will
only find words that START with the search string.

For example, if you search for "bat" it will find "bathroom" but it will not
find "acrobat".

However, it does do some things simpler search engines won't -- if you
search for "carry" it will find "carries" and "carried", which are contextual
matches and not direct text matches.

Another thing to keep in mind. The indexer does not always immediately
index everything as soon as it is imported. If it isn't indexed, it won't
appear in a search result. It can take a little time after you import
something for it to be indexed and become searchable (I've never had to wait
more than a few minutes).

 

[Rainald Taesler]

I checked that thread and it seemed a different problem, but I will
look more closely at it and all the suggested links and readings.

Honestly speaking I don't know where to look :-(

When I did a search, ON found instances of the search word in the
text of images, in pages which were in different notebooks and
seemed OK.

However it did not find all of them. For example, one it did not
find was acually the title of a page.

Strange. I cannot remember to have ever come across such problems ...
Anything special wit the search word(s)?
Does this only happen with certain words?
Does it always happen and with all notebooks?

I am running Windows Vista Ultimate Service Pack 1 (32 bit)

OK, fine. This eliminates 64bit troubles.

Let me again ask: Is ON included in the list of locations being indexed?

In addition: Is the Indexing complete?
A useful instrument to check that is the "IndexerStatus" gadget [1]

Rainald
[1] Indexer Status Gadget
http://brandontools.com/files/folders/sidebar_gadgets/entry511.aspx
Download

 

[Michael A]

First. Thank you for your responses (youbetcha and Rainald)

I downloaded that gadget.
Yes ON is being indexed
The indices are up to date

the search string was "book"
ON found 19 occurrences:
A page with the title "Books" was not included in the list.

When I went to the different pages, I assume the page tabs that are on the
list are highlighted in yellow. So, the page with "Books" as the title (and
only word in the title) was also not highlighted.

If I enter the search string "book" while I am in the notebook with the
problematic page, it is still not found, although another page in the same
section as the problematic page with the word "book" in the text is found.
While I am in another notebook neither is found.

So, what I did was make and delete a change to both pages. Now both are found.

The trouble is, one does not know in advance if there is a glitch that
exists which did not index pages under certain circumstances. So I don't know
if there are lots of exceptions which occurred and I am unaware of it.

--Mike

--
Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life

I checked that thread and it seemed a different problem, but I will
look more closely at it and all the suggested links and readings.

Honestly speaking I don't know where to look :-(

When I did a search, ON found instances of the search word in the
text of images, in pages which were in different notebooks and
seemed OK.

However it did not find all of them. For example, one it did not
find was acually the title of a page.

Strange. I cannot remember to have ever come across such problems ...
Anything special wit the search word(s)?
Does this only happen with certain words?
Does it always happen and with all notebooks?

I am running Windows Vista Ultimate Service Pack 1 (32 bit)

OK, fine. This eliminates 64bit troubles.

Let me again ask: Is ON included in the list of locations being indexed?

In addition: Is the Indexing complete?
A useful instrument to check that is the "IndexerStatus" gadget [1]

Rainald
[1] Indexer Status Gadget
http://brandontools.com/files/folders/sidebar_gadgets/entry511.aspx
Download

 

[Rainald Taesler]

First. Thank you for your responses (youbetcha and Rainald)

De nada ;-)

I downloaded that gadget.
Yes ON is being indexed
The indices are up to date

OK fine.

the search string was "book"
ON found 19 occurrences:
A page with the title "Books" was not included in the list. […]
So, what I did was make and delete a change to both pages. Now both
are found.

Really strange.
Perhaps some wring (hidden) character in the word that was the culprit?

The trouble is, one does not know in advance if there is a glitch
that exists which did not index pages under certain circumstances.
So I don't know if there are lots of exceptions which occurred and
I am unaware of it.

I fully agree.
The worst bug those not being predictable.

As it could be that you stumbled over a bug, it might good to post a bug
report in "Connect", the place for submitting suggestions and bug
reports to the developers team:
http://connect.microsoft.com/onenote/

Rainald

 

[YouBetcha]

The only one I'm able to take a shot at is the last sentence, just make sure
you have chosen the appropriate option for "search this section" "search this
notebook" "Search all notebooks, etc" found by clicking on the down arrow in
the search box.

 

[Michael A]

Yes. thanks again guys (generic guys in case one or both of you is a girl)

Thanks for the link Rainald, I will post it as a possible problem.

Yes, I had "search all notebooks" selected.

I guess for some reason, perhaps those problematic pages were not indexed.

However, there could not have been special characters in the title which
would have interfered with the search since when I made and deleted an
arbitrary change (not in the title) OneNote then found the pages (from
anywhere).

And besides, I actually typed in the title (the content was pasted from the
web), and I never make mistakes in my typing (hahaha).

--Mike

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Yes. thanks again guys (generic guys in case one or both of you is
a girl)

You're welcome ;-)

Thanks for the link Rainald, I will post it as a possible problem.
Thanks!

Yes, I had "search all notebooks" selected.

I guess for some reason, perhaps those problematic pages were not
indexed.

Could be. The question would be: how and why??

However, there could not have been special characters in the title
which would have interfered with the search since when I made and
deleted an arbitrary change (not in the title) OneNote then found
the pages (from anywhere).

Interesting, indeed.

And besides, I actually typed in the title (the content was pasted
from the web), and I never make mistakes in my typing (hahaha).

LOL

Alle the best
Rainald

 

[undisclosed]

Hi,

I had similar problem. Even though I already had the onenote folde
checked in the indexing options

This what I did and it started working for me

I went into control panel> Indexing Options> Advance> File type...
Then I selected all One note related type, i.e one, onecache, onepkg
onetoc, onetoc2
Then I selected "Index properties and File Contents" Radio button
Then Say yes to the Rebuild index Popup

I dont know which one of them fixed it... but Onenote search starte
working right away

Goodluck
I love Onenote
Sam