I was thinking that it would be great if I could save searches in the Sidebar. I keep the Sidebar open at all times. I like that it is similar to how I view and use Finder windows.
As I learn how to use TaskPaper I get better at creating Boolean searches to show just the tags that I need to keep up with. Instead of having Typinator expand the code for advanced searches that I am building, [Example: (@task or @nearfuture or @whyputoff) and not @done.] it would be far nicer to have my advances searches as saved searches in the sidebar.
I already click on a project in the sidebar to work with that project. It would be efficient to use the same idea and motion to also click on saved searched in the sidebar.
ADDED: It looks like this idea was tackled a while back, but I cant see that it was ever resolved? I tested some examples and found no working solution. How is this going now? Saved Searches in TP3 - #33 by jackbrannen
There is a great deal of discussion about saved searched in file launchers like Keyboard Maestro (which I have and use), but that is not at all what I am looking for. There is also a suggestion that an @search element has been added that would have special meaning within TaskPaper3 similar to Projects, Tasks, Tags, and Notes. But I am not testing that this is working i anyway that I can see? Script: Keeping a list of Saved Searches that can be used anywhere
Saved searches should be working. You can read more about them at the end of this page:
http://guide.taskpaper.com/making_big_lists_smaller.html
Thanks. I am trying the examples from your suggestion. This is not working. If I understand your direction, this should have populated in the sidebar and when clicked should have executed this search. But this is not populating in the sidebar as “TODO” or as anything else.
TODO @search((@task or @nearfuture or @whyputoff) and not @done)
The problem is that both ( and ) characters in your search must be escaped with \ so as not to conflict with the tag value syntax. I think this will do what you want:
TODO @search(\(@task or @nearfuture or @whyputoff\) and not @done)
Generally I’ve come to the conclusion that using @search to store saved searches is a good feature to have for super geeks, but not the best default way to do things. In the future I’ll be adding a preferences section where you can define saved searches that will be used in all of your docs, and that won’t require special syntax other then search syntax.
Wow, that works great. You don’t have to improve it on my account - except for one thing. Is it possible to do this and exclude the search string in the results? Otherwise this is exactly what I wanted. Thank you.
I suppse I am not that afraid of geekery. I keep my calendar on my desktop by date and event using Geektools via icalbuddy. I use scripts in Typinator to track how many days since an event - or to an event. But may I suggest that you may be overlooking how some code can be extremely useful so long as it is clearly explained with clear examples offered?
When a lot of code happens it gets way to complex for the average user to figure out. That is one of the reasons I have a love/hate relationship with Applescript. It is supposed to be easy and in small doses it is. But look at most any power users applescript and it is totally confusing. Easy … yea right.
Your simple search code and the suggestion to escapee certain characters works great. This will allow me to begin to build a TaskPaper document that actually will work well for my purposes.
To Do @search((@task or @nearfuture or @whyputoff) and not @done)
Waiting @search(@wait)
To exclude I would just make that part of your search logic… so some form of not @search.
It’s actually for lots of people (including my own) account. You are certainly not the first to run into questions and problems using @search tags. Including searches in the document is neat and useful sometimes. But most of the time I’d much rather not need to store the search in the document where I have to look at it.
Generally I try to build a geeky foundation that’s flexible. But I think one of the next steps for TaskPaper is to start putting in some good defaults so most users don’t have to dig into the geeky details.
Thanks.
To Do @search(((@task or @nearfuture or @whyputoff) and not @done) and not @search)
FWIW: There is an escape character before the final paren but that is not being displayed here on this page.
Solved: Got this to exclude @done tags.
Fixin-ta @search(@nearfuture and not (@search or @done))