In OO5 the search box always defaults to Filter instead of the old normal search (now called “Batch Find”). I don’t understand what use case you would want to use Filter for over Batch Find. When you search with batch find it shows all lines that match the query AND you can click on one to view it in the outline’s context. Filter simply shows you the matching lines with no ability to go to that line. So Filter is simply a crippled version of Batch Find. It’s horribly annoying because every time I want to search I now have to switch to Batch Mode to get the uncrippled search back because OO5 keeps defaulting back to this crippled Filter search. Am I missing something? What actual use case could one have for Filter over Batch Find, especially one important enough to make Filter the default?
Filter isn’t a crippled version of Batch Find, it’s something different, for other needs. While Batch Find is an elegant way to quickly locate specific parts shown in their total context, Filter lets you extract specific parts and read or edit only those. I could for example use tags in my outline rows, and then find only those rows that contain a certain tag. The context may then be irrelevant, I just need to see the tagged rows, collected and without distractions. To me, the Filter feature has made it possible to use Omnioutliner as a light-weight database program. Normally I would prefer to see the filtered rows with their complete hierarchy, as I can do with saved filters, but I can see the point in having this fast Filter feature with its different presentation as a complement to saved filters.
That said, I really agree with you – there should be a possibility to use Batch Find as default. You could make it more likely to appear in a future release by asking The Omni Group (omnioutliner@omnigroup.com) for the feature. Batch Find and Filter are two different things, and it should be possible to use them independently, with separate commands and keyboard shortcuts.
You can tag individual rows? How is this done?
Well, only fake tags, like words with a normally not used character in front of them, for example @today. Then a filter that searches for that.
Ah… got it. Thanks!
Me Too. I greatly miss the ability to easily find with context - the way I used find in OO3. I’m surprised that among all the keyboard shortcuts, there is none for ‘batch find’. I wish I could
(1) set a preference for ‘batch find’ as the default
(2) use a keyboard shortcut for batch find
I completely agree with Jan_H that “Batch Find and Filter are two different things, and it should be possible to use them independently, with separate commands and keyboard shortcuts.”
I wonder whether I could script batch find and assign it to my own keyboard shortcut?
I can’t find how to make any script at all work with OO5, and reverted back to OO4. If you have some pointers/URLs, I would like to read them. Thanks!
Not sure if it’s bad etiquette to post the same message in multiple threads, but I posted the comment below in the OO thread about how SLOW OO5 is compared to OO3 (OO5 very slow compared to OO3?). It is also related to this thread so I’m posting it here too.
Sent to OmniOutliner Support 2017-10-06 Filter mode vs. Batch Find mode in the search box. While it seems like Filter might be useful to some folks, it almost never is for me. I want to see the context that comes with Batch Find, and especially to scroll up and down in the sidebar with the Batch Find items showing, and click on them to see them in context within the file. Wouldn’t mind that Filter was an option, but there’s no way to configure OO5 to make Batch Find the default, which I really want to do. Please consider making Batch Find the default, or at least making it a user configurable preference.
Still no separate keyboard commands, but in OO 5.3 the application at least remembers the last used mode in Batch Find/Filter. A big improvement.
