A Plea for Flat Search Results

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34 comments

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    Adam Pearson

    Flat search results with reordering would help significantly with long-form writing. It would allow us to use tags to draw together text from disparate locations, reorder to suit, and export.

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    Miss Jenifer D Toksvig

    This! I desperately want this. Am finding it really challenging having 'to do' lists that show me the whole family tree of everything.

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    MR G R LEEMAN

    The number one feature I wish workflowy had!

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    George Jardim

    This would be the single greatest enhancement to WorkFlowy! At present a search, or clicking on a tag to refine what you’re looking for produces a very confusing view.  If WorkFlowy is about making sense out of many different types of information, then this is the big one!  If Workflowy could also sort the resulting view, that would be even better!

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    Stefan

    I strongly support this suggestion. Am using WorkFlowy for a short while only (regularly) but you already find me here on the forum asking for this feature... :-)

    Thanks for listening!

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    James Strupp

    Plus one this.  Having any way to reduce the "clutter" of search results (Including also a Ctrl+F "find" function, like in a browser), would really make the search function many times more useful.

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    Alexandra Scher

    PLUS ONE!!! PLEASE

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    Anton

    +1
    This would help so much organise the "Today" view I wish WorkFlowy had. Non-flat search results are too clumsy for that but this would solve the problem.

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    James Strupp

    I want to support this +1 also. I still wish a simple Ctrl+F find on my search results and in main WorkFlowy Home was available. I still find search results to be a confusing interface. By Browser has Ctrl+F for every page and I rely on it constantly. Plus One again on this feature please. Thanks...

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    George Jardim

    Just to reinforce what I’d said 2 years ago: "...This would be the single greatest enhancement to WorkFlowy!  At present a search, or clicking on a tag to refine what you’re looking for produces a very confusing view.  If WorkFlowy is about making sense out of many different types of information, then this is the big one!  If Workflowy could also sort the resulting view, that would be even better!".  Come on WF team, this is going to be great for you, and us users too.

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    Hi folks! We will get flat search in the form of "Search nodes". This is on our road map... but we first have to knock out bi-directional linking, document attachemnts (including images), color and a mobile revamp ;-) 

     

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    Debora S Gordon

    Yes yes yes!  And amen.  I need to produce a to-do list that is just a list of items.  No context needed, it's in the item itself.  Yes, there are other times that context is useful.  But not for my to-do lists.  Now that bi-directional linking, document attachments, and color are knocked out, where are you on this?

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    James Strupp

    Going to plus 1 this again, and hopefully search nodes are still on the roadmap. It would help navigate the clutter of search results in large notebooks. Thanks!

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    G.A. Epping

    +1 again

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    Search nodes are still on the roadmap! We have a version we're testing :-).

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    Zee M Kane

    The thing is I've honestly been hearing that, almost word-for-word, for years @Frank... literally 3+ years. 

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    > The thing is I've honestly been hearing that, almost word-for-word, for years @Frank... literally 3+ years. 

    > We have a version we're testing

    Or... I could totally just be making that up.

     
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    Michael Ruderman

    I believe in you Frank!

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    Alexandr

    Good news, thanks! Waiting for search nodes with flat results

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    G.A. Epping

    How are the tests going Frank? i would like to test too  ;) 

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    Although we do have a working model, the team is not currently working on this particular feature...

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    Zee M Kane

    Can't believe I let myself get my hopes up again...

    Feels like it's every 2 years, I fall for it again,.... I get excited, then get let down again. Here's the last time: https://twitter.com/jessep/status/1259901802587123712

    Never again :-/

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    @Zee,

    Maybe give it a 6-month time frame... or a year or two or three... No promises have been made. 

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    Zee M Kane

    no promises, no, but way too many teases.

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    I mean... we already have images, transclusion (mirrors), backlinking and several more features. To be fair, these are significant features we've come out with, and this makes "search nodes" a possibility now (as mentioned in the tweet below). We have a working (very buggy) model as of now... but we're focusing on getting out another significant set of features. 

     

     

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    Debora S Gordon

    Sigh. In the meantime, Flatflowy for Chrome is a lifesaver even though a little buggy.

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    Alexandr

    > Although we do have a working model, the team is not currently working on this particular feature...

    What a pity :(

    Inability to see flat search results makes hard to create daily/weekly agenda by tags+dates. Will have to switch to other app for this until search nodes implemented. However, Workflowy still stays best app for notes

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    Joseph Serio

    @Zee,

    Maybe give it a 6-month time frame... or a year or two or three... No promises have been made. 

    Or... I could totally just be making that up.

    Wow, this Frank person has quite the attitude -- perfect for customer relations. Risky considering the pace of changes of WF.

     

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    Joseph Serio

    Hey all. Here's a stopgap (not for mobile) that's working for me:

    Using a add-on like Stylus (which I like very much), for workflowy.com you can add this css:

    .uncompletedDescendantMatches {
        color: #d3d3d382 !important;
    }
    .matches   {
        color: blue !important;
        font-weight: bold !important; 
    }

    Obviously, change your colors, and bold or not, as you prefer but this allows me to really make the items matching the search terms stand out.

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    Jessica H Spaulding

    Please, please, please add this feature.  I love Workflowy as my all-in-one organizational system for projects, tasks and notes, but the inability to review a search without the visual clutter makes it very hard to access the information quickly.  To-do lists/tags with only three results look overwhelming when you have to sort through all the upper-level hierarchy.  

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