docs/help/contents/search-and-navigation.md
Every list view has a search box at the top of it. Type into it and Notesnook searches the notes in that view — the whole notes list, one notebook, one tag, favorites, trash — matching both note titles and the text inside notes, and showing you the matching passages.
Search runs on your device against the local database. Nothing about what you search for is sent anywhere.
You can also narrow a search with filters — by tag, color, date, or whether a note is favorited, archived or filed in a notebook.
Search in Notes, Search in Notebook, Search in Trash and so on.Escape, or click the ✕ in the box, to clear the search and go back to the full list.Ctrl+F (⌘+F on macOS) puts the cursor in that box whenever the editor isn't focused. If you're in a note, Ctrl+F opens the editor's own find bar instead.
| You're searching | Matched on |
|---|---|
| Notes | Title and the full text of the note |
| Notebooks | Title and description |
| Tags | Title |
| Reminders | Title and description |
| Attachments | Filename, file type and hash |
| Trash | Deleted notes and notebooks |
::: info Locked notes The content of a note in your private vault is encrypted, so it is never added to the search index. Locked notes are found by their titles only. This is a limitation of end-to-end encryption, not a bug.
:::
Search understands filters — field:value pairs you add to a search to cut the results down. Filters only work when you are searching notes.
::: warning Put your words first, filters last A word typed after a filter is swallowed into it, and the whole search silently returns nothing:
favorite:true meeting — finds nothing at allmeeting favorite:true — finds favorite notes containing "meeting" ✓Always write what you're looking for, then the filters.
:::
Where to look
| Filter | Finds |
|---|---|
title:budget | Notes whose title matches |
content:budget | Notes whose body text matches |
Without either of these, your words are matched against both content and title.
Tags and colors
| Filter | Finds |
|---|---|
tag:work | Notes with the tag work |
color:red | Notes with the color red |
Values match the tag or color's exact title. Quote anything with a space: tag:"work stuff".
Dates
| Filter | Finds |
|---|---|
created_after:2026-01-01 | Notes created after that date |
created_before:2026-01-01 | Notes created before it |
edited_after:2026-01-01 | Notes edited after it |
edited_before:2026-01-01 | Notes edited before it |
Write dates as YYYY-MM-DD. Words like yesterday are not understood and will make the search return nothing.
Yes / no filters
Each takes exactly true or false.
| Filter | true finds | false finds |
|---|---|---|
favorite: | Favorited notes | Notes that aren't favorited |
pinned: | Pinned notes | Unpinned notes |
archived: | Archived notes | Notes not archived |
readonly: | Read-only notes | Editable notes |
locked: | Notes in your vault | Notes outside it |
tagged: | Notes with any tag | Notes with no tags at all |
colored: | Notes with any color | Notes with no color |
in_notebook: | Notes filed in any notebook | Notes in no notebook |
The last three are the quickest way to find notes you never filed: in_notebook:false lists every loose note, tagged:false every untagged one.
locked: only works once you have created a vault.
Add as many as you like — a note has to satisfy all of them:
roadmap tag:work favorite:true edited_after:2026-06-01
That reads: notes containing "roadmap", tagged work, favorited, and edited since 1 June 2026.
You can also search with filters and no words at all, which lists everything that matches:
in_notebook:false archived:false
| Search | What it gives you |
|---|---|
in_notebook:false | Notes you never filed into a notebook |
tagged:false | Notes with no tags |
favorite:true edited_after:2026-07-01 | Recently edited favorites |
tag:receipts created_after:2026-01-01 | This year's receipts |
budget content:quarterly | "budget" anywhere, "quarterly" in the body |
locked:true | Everything in your vault |
true and false must be lowercase. favorite:TRUE or favorite:yes makes the search return nothing.colour:red searches for the literal words rather than filtering by color — the spelling is color:.Tag:work returns nothing.A note that matched shows its title with the matching words highlighted, and the number of matches found inside the note on the right.
Passages are only shown in the detailed list. Switching the notes list to compact view collapses results to titles.
The command palette is a desktop and web feature. Press Ctrl+Shift+P (⌘+Shift+P on macOS) — Ctrl+Shift+: works too — to open it. Start typing and it fuzzy-matches every command in the app:
Notes, {{notebooks}}, Tags, Favorites, {{reminders}}, {{monographs}}, {{trash}}, {{settings}}, {{helpAndSupport}}, Keyboard shortcuts, {{attachmentManager}}.{{newNote}}, {{newNotebook}}, {{newTag}}, {{newReminder}}, {{newColor}}.{{newTab}}, {{nextTab}}, {{previousTab}}, {{closeCurrentTab}}, {{closeAllTabs}}, {{undo}}, {{redo}}, {{goBackInTab}}, {{goForwardInTab}}, {{toggleFocusMode}}.{{toggleTheme}}.Move with ↑ and ↓, run with ⏎. Press Delete on an entry under recents, or click the ✕ on it, to drop it from the list.
::: info Not on mobile The command palette and quick open are only features of the desktop and web apps. On mobile, use the search bar and the side menu.
:::
Quick open is a desktop and web feature. Press Ctrl+P (⌘+P on macOS) for quick open. It searches your notes, notebooks, tags and reminders by title and opens whatever you pick. With the box empty it lists your recent items and the notes already open in tabs.
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
⏎ | Open the highlighted item |
Ctrl+⏎ / ⌘+⏎ | Open the highlighted note in a new tab |
Shift+⏎ | Open a new tab titled with whatever you typed |
Shift+⏎ is the fast way to turn a search that found nothing into a new note: type the title you were looking for, press Shift+⏎, and start writing.
Ctrl+, (⌘+, on macOS), or open {{settings}} from the side menu.{{search}} box at the top of the settings sidebar.The search covers every section at once — section names, group headings, setting titles, their descriptions and their keywords — so you can find a setting without knowing which section it lives in. {{noResultsFound}} means nothing matched.
The notebooks and tags lists have their own filter box, separate from note search.
{{notebooks}} or Tags from the side menu.Filter notebooks... or Filter tags... box at the bottom of the list.Clearing the box restores the full list.
Sorting is set per view, and separately for each individual notebook, tag and color — so you can keep one notebook alphabetical and everything else newest-first.
{{orderBy}} and choose the direction.{{sortBy}} and choose the key.There are seven sort keys. Which ones are offered depends on the list you're in:
| Sort by | Available in |
|---|---|
Date created | Everywhere except trash |
Date edited | Everywhere except trash and tags — and, on mobile, except reminders |
Date modified | Tags, and reminders on mobile |
Date deleted | Trash |
Due date | Reminders |
{{title}} | Everywhere |
Relevance | Search results |
The direction labels change with the key: {{aToZ}} / {{zToA}} for {{title}}, {{earliestFirst}} / {{latestFirst}} for Due date, {{mostRelevantFirst}} / {{leastRelevantFirst}} for Relevance, and {{oldestToNewest}} / {{newestToOldest}} for the date keys.
Grouping splits the list into labelled sections. Six modes are available:
{{groupBy}} | Result |
|---|---|
{{default}} | Today, Yesterday, This week, and so on |
{{none}} | One flat list, no headers |
Abc | One section per first letter |
Year | One section per year |
{{month}} | One section per month |
Week | One section per week |
{{groupBy}} and pick a mode.Clicking the group header itself opens {{jumpToGroup}}, which scrolls the list straight to any section.
Grouping isn't offered for reminders or for search results — those are always sorted, never grouped.
Compact mode drops each row to a single line: title, plus small icons for locked, favorite, read-only and expiring notes, and the time. It fits far more notes on screen.
It's available on the notes, favorites and notebooks lists, and it also collapses search results to their titles.