What are the search options available for ad-hoc searches in OmniFocus? I’ve found I can search for contexts and projects as normal text that matches action titles everywhere, but I can’t say “only find things in this particular project.”
I’m also looking for a way to search for just flagged or unflagged actions, and search by due date.
Is there a comprehensive list of available search criteria somewhere? I’ve searched but can’t seem to find such a thing. Thanks!
Search isn’t “search.” It is actually “filter.”
To find things in a specific project, select the project. Then search.
When you search in OmniFocus 2.7 for the Mac you limit the scope of the search results by limiting what is showing. Here are a few references and tips that might help! Thank you for asking about this.
OmniFocus Pro Only
Use Focus to select a project or projects to restrict searching those items.
Use Custom Perspectives to search for Flagged/Unflagged,
by Due Date and so on. The bottom part of OmniFocus Perspectives
Editor may help some, along with this Inside OmniFocus Post.
OmniFocus Standard or Pro
Use the Flagged view to find Flagged items. Search (As of OmniFocus 2.7 on the Mac) is currently limited to what is showing in each view. For Standard, try using the available perspectives as a way to limit the search. You can also combine with using the View menu to limit the items showing.
This doesn’t limit the search, but it does help bring what you want to search for to the top of the view. Select just the projects you want to search on, then Use Edit>Sort Once options to bring the items matching the criteria you desire higher in the outline view. Sort Once works on the items you have selected in the Outline view to reorganized them temporarily depending on the criteria you select…
Use the Find feature under the Edit menu along with using Strings for stepping through more simple searches. Use the same Find dialog with Regular Expressions selected for more complex find/replace criteria. Overview of Find with Regular Expressions is a handy reference.
Thanks, that’s somewhat useful. I’m currently iOS only, and was hoping for something similar to Gmail search (and yes OmniFocus calls it a “Search” box on iOS). Something like is:flagged, project:Car, has:attachment or excluding / negating criteria such as -is:flagged.
I realize I can drill down to a particular project or context or the flagged items first before searching, but I don’t want to have to do a bunch of thinking and tapping first, I’d like to just type things in whatever order happens to make the most sense at the time.
