How do you use search and tags to get around?

[HTHawks]

@Alan

ancestor:somedate Is this something you actually do? I would imagine you don’t know the date of some topic so it seems this one is kind of artificial.

I used that example due to the part of your earlier statement: “…some organized by topic, some organized by date, as a log…” …figuring searching by ‘somedate’ would be relevant to your inquiry.

@Alan

In order to do this search it seems you first must go to a document root, because search won’t find anything that’s not under the currently displayed relative root. Somehow I wasn’t aware of the back arrows. They don’t exist on iPhone, but i see it here in the desktop app.

I use the desktop app mostly. I did not realize not back arrows on the phone-app!
It seems you are correct about doc-root search, unless you use one of the other search methods, which only gives you either

• all docs, or
• flat results (not editable)

@Alan

What sort of searches do you find commonly useful that you would bookmark them? For what sort of note taking? (This question is for everybody.)

I have some really long joined OR statements, e.c. See:
https://talk.dynalist.io/t/please-consider-adding-ancestor-element-to-facilitate-simpler-deeper-searches/

SOME EXAMPLE SEARCHES:
• Example1: #NOW @Person1 OR #LocaleX #Today (without any quotes) searches for anything tagged with NOW and Person1 tags, OR having tags LocaleX and Today
• Example2: Using the “ancestor” operator. Logic Note: only direct parent is targetted.
@Person2 #NOW OR @Person2 #Today OR #Today ancestor:@Person2 OR #NOW ancestor:@Person2 OR @Person2 ancestor:#NOW OR @Person2 ancestor:#Today
…will search all occurances of items tagged Person2 either containing Now or Today tags, OR with “children” list items relevant to Person2 Now and Today tags, i.e., all variations.
• Example3: parent:@Person2 ::any List where the Parent Item is tagged Person2
• Example4: parent:@Person2 #NOW OR parent:@Person2 #Today …Any List where the parent item is tagged Person2 and the children are tagged either NOW or Today

@Alan

… the idea of searching for stuff …

Searching isn’t just “searching”. I think of it as “filtering” In many cases… out of a huge mixed list of all sorts of things I can change the list presentation to only present a “viewport” of what I wish to focus on.

For instance: I have 10 properties with various contractors and employees, different projects going on all over, various resources for different things (water, power, communications, maintenance, building, planning, etc, etc), AND in different timeframes…

…SO, I can see a full list organized by, say, properties, then jobs, then interspersed with people, things, and time…
a filter with "ancestor:<this property> OR <thisproperty> (or even using <these properties>) now hides all the other properties not currently under consideration. Then add/mix-in the next logic operator, say to do with communications, then say to do with a couple different companies/contractors, then say some timeframes…
…NOW I’m looking at exactly what I need to focus on, and nothing that I don’t AND I can edit/update right there in the FILTERED RESULTS.

…kind of thing… I hope that makes sense.
I’m not saying this is a workflow/setup for you, or even that I am not still working on figuring out how to better handle it, but hopefully this provides some potential options to consider.