Find notes and content
Filter the list you are looking at, search notes, tasks, projects, files and colleagues all at once, or find text inside the open note.
Applies to Web · Mac · iPhone app
CommonNote has four ways in to search: Search this list… filters the note list you are looking at, Global search looks through everything you can see, the Command palette is the quick keyboard route, and Find in note searches inside the one note you have open.
Which search to use
| Where | How to open it | What it searches |
|---|---|---|
| Search this list… | The box at the top of the note list (it reads Search notes… on touch screens) | Note titles and bodies, within the list you are viewing (All notes, a notebook, a tag, Trash and so on) |
| Global search | Global search in the sidebar, ⌘G, or the Search tab on a phone | All five kinds: notes, tasks, projects, files and colleagues, with filters and sorting |
| Command palette | ⌘K | Command names, recent notes and the top global search results. Open global search with advanced filters takes you to the full view |
| Find in note | ⌘F with a note open | The body of the open note. Find only — there is no replace |
Use Global search
- Click Global search in the sidebar, or press ⌘G.
- Type in the box (Search notes, tasks, projects, attachments, and colleagues…). Results update as you type.
- To narrow things down, use the chips underneath. Notes, Task, Project, Files and Colleagues all start switched on; click one to turn it off.
- Click a result to go straight to that note, task, project or colleague. Results load 30 at a time; if there are more, Show more results appears.
Each result shows its notebook path (parent › child), the note it lives in for tasks and files, and, where it can, the heading (§) the match sits under. Note results are tagged Title match or {n} in body.
What each kind actually searches
| Kind | Text searched |
|---|---|
| Notes | Title and body — your notes, notes shared with you and notes in notebooks shared with you |
| Tasks | The text of task lines (checklist items and so on) inside notes |
| Projects | Your project names and the text on cards and the canvas inside them |
| Files | File names only. The contents of PDFs and documents are not searched |
| Colleagues | Name, nickname, username, and the alias and memo you added |
Search modes
| Mode | Example | Finds |
|---|---|---|
| Literal text | PCR temp | Exactly what you typed, spaces and + included |
| All terms (+) | PCR+temp | Items that contain both PCR and temp |
| Regex (.*) | PCR|ELISA, sample-\d+ | A regular expression, typed without slashes. Lookahead, lookbehind and backreferences are not supported |
Turn on the Aa button (Match case) to tell upper and lower case apart. A query can be up to 200 characters.
Filters and sorting
Click Filter to add conditions. The button shows how many filters are on, and Reset filters clears them all.
- Location and ownership: Notebook (with Include nested notebooks), Project, Owner, Ownership (Mine and shared with me · Mine only · Shared with me only), Favorites
- Dates: Updated from – Updated through
- Tags: up to 20, matching Any or All
- Tasks: Task completion, Task status, Task assignee, Due from – Due through
- Colleagues: Colleague’s team, Favorite colleagues, Colleague archive status
- Files: Attachment type (images, PDF, text, audio, video)
Sort by Relevance, Last updated, Recently created or Name. On a phone, the sort menu is inside the filter panel.
Good to know
- A locked note you haven’t unlocked in this session can only be found by its title, and the result is marked Locked note · title match only. Its body is searched once you unlock it. See Lock notes and notebooks.
- Global search skips Trash and Templates. To find something in the trash, open Trash and use the note list search box there.
- Messenger messages don’t appear in Global search. Use Search conversation (the magnifying glass) inside the conversation.
- If the scope is very large you’ll see a notice that the results are partial. Add words to your query or apply a filter.
- Find in note (⌘F) uses the same three modes. With All terms (+) you can limit matches to the whole body or to the same paragraph or cell. It shows up to the first 500 matches.