What it is
Search is literal keyword lookup across your notes' titles and transcriptions. Type a word, see every page containing it, instantly.
Why it matters
This is the original promise: "I know I wrote about this somewhere" stops costing twenty minutes of page-flipping. Because search reads the transcription — including your corrections — it gets better every time you fix a word.
How to use it
- Type into the dashboard search bar ("Search or ask about your notes...").
- The note grid filters live to matches.
- Open a match: in the viewer, the exact words you searched for glow briefly on the handwriting (older notes flash the whole line), and the pill at the top ("3 matches") re-flashes them or jumps into Live Highlights on tap. If the match is in a part of the page without highlight mapping, the transcription panel opens instead — you're never left without the payoff.
Scoping: search inside a notebook by opening it first; combine with the star filter for "starred notes containing X". Timelines have their own search box on the Timelines page, which also looks inside node answers.
Tips
- Search is case-insensitive but literal — it finds spellings, not synonyms. For meaning, use Ask.
- Searching a person's name is the classic move. Names are exactly what you remember and exactly what's written.
- No results for a word you're sure exists? The transcription may have read it differently. Open the note you suspect, check the word with Live Highlights, and correct it — search will find it forever after. More in Search can't find a note.
Current limitations
- No fuzzy matching: typos and spelling variants don't match.
- Search doesn't look at dates — use the calendar to browse by time, or give Ask a timeframe.
- Handwriting that was never transcribed correctly can't be found until it's corrected — search sees the text, not the ink.