Every time I search for something in a Dynalist document, I always wonder why the functionality actually filters the results.
What I’d need is to see all the matches highlighted, with parent nodes expanded as required, with the possibility to jump to the previous/next found match.
Filtering is something that I still need, but far less than a classic search feature.
If you’re in the web app, I would recommend using the browser search and see if that meets your needs.
Ctrl-F is taken by Dynalist, in Chrome you can use Ctrl-G.
Hi Erica, thanks for reaching me! I’m using the Mac desktop app, but anyway the browser’s search doesn’t expand nodes, does it. So it can’t find anything inside a collapsed node, which makes it unreliable, if not unusable at all.
Did you try Flat search?
Did you try Expand All?
Hi BigChungus,
flat search actually activates a filter, showing only the nodes containing a matching string. Expand all can solve the problem of collapsed nodes, but it takes one or two clicks, and it resets the current expand status of all the items.
The way I see it, the current implementation of the search functionality is an advanced one; what is missing is the basic version of it.
It sounds like you want it to temporarily expand-all when you do the browser-level search, then go back to your custom collapsed list.
I wonder if a feature request could be for 3rd toggle between Expand All and Collapse All. So, If you press the Expand All hotkey, and then the Collapse All hotkey, it actually just goes back to your Custom Collapsed document. If you press Collapse All again, it collapses everything, and if you press Expand all again, you return to that middle state of custom collapse levels. And if you are fully expanded or collapsed, and toggle a node to expand or collapse it, it should overwrite your Custom Collapse and become the new one. That could be nice.
There are a few custom collapse scenarios you can assign hotkeys to, if you use a very predictable collapse structure
The point is really to have a fast, intuitive search, something I really don’t feel now.
When I press cmd+F and start typing, my list starts to be filtered, and I always have the sensation, for a moment, that something is not right. It’s the same feeling that I have when, for example, I press home key in the middle of a paragraph, and the cursor moves to the top of the document, instead of the beginning of the line.
It’s so obvious, to me, that a search is not a filter, that I find really interesting (in the positive way, don’t get me wrong) how it’s not the same for the other users.
Instantly filtering into a smaller, just as editable document, especially using #tags, is probably the most core paradigm that attracted people to Workflowy (and then it’s spiritual fork, Dynalist). It’s very unique and very powerful.
I agree, it is, that’s what I also said in my first message. It’s just that is not a search, rather a filter. Search and filter are two different things.
I also find the filtering v unhelpful. I want ctrl-f to highlight matches, NOT filter. I need to use the brower’s “find in page” function to do what I want. So, Dynalist, please stop overriding ctrl-f
