Finding ideas

Find is where you get ideas back out of your bucket. Search for what you remember, even if you used different words, then narrow the results with tags and dates.

#Search

Open Find from the menu, or press / from anywhere in the app when you aren't typing in a box. The cursor goes to the search box ("Search ideas… or #tag").

With an empty search box, Find lists your most recent ideas. Start typing and results update as you type. You don't need to press Enter. Find shows up to 20 results.

Search uses two methods together:

• Meaning. Each idea is indexed by what it is about, so growing basil indoors can find Turn the kitchen shelf into a herb garden that waters itself, with no words in common.
• Keywords. Ordinary word matching, in your idea text, its tags and its notes. Matching is in English and includes related word forms, so planting also finds plant and plants.

Meaning search uses only the idea's own text. Tags and notes are found by keyword.

#How results are ranked

Each result gets a match score, which shows as a percentage on the card, such as 84%.

• Most of the score comes from how close the idea's meaning is to your search.
• An idea that also contains your words gets a fixed bonus, plus a little more for a strong word match. This stops a precise word match from being pushed down by ideas that are only close in meaning.
• An idea that matches only by meaning has to be really close to show at all. If nothing in your bucket is close, Find says "Nothing surfaced. Try other words." It doesn't show weak matches.

Results are sorted with the highest score first.

#The status line

The line under the search box shows what kind of results you're looking at:

When a filter is on, · filtered is added to the end.

Ideas that you dropped while the hourly indexing limit applied are found by keyword until they are indexed. See Limits and privacy.

#Search by tag

Type a tag on its own, such as #garden, to list every idea with that tag, newest first. Typing # opens the same tag suggestions as on Drop. Pick one with Tab, Enter or a click to search for it right away. The tags you type show as colored chips in the search box.

You can also click any tag on a card, anywhere in the app, to go to the tag search for that tag.

A tag search only works when the box has the tag and nothing else. #garden basil is a normal search for those words. To search for words within a tag, use the tag filter and type your words in the box.

#Filters

Two buttons next to the status line narrow everything Find shows: the latest list, normal searches and tag searches.

#Tag filter

Click Filter, and pick one or more tags. Type in Find a tag to narrow the list, use ↑ ↓ and Enter or Space to select a tag, then click Done. The button changes to Filter · 2, for example.

When you pick more than one tag, Find shows only ideas that have all of them. Filtering by #garden and #weekend gives ideas tagged with both, not ideas with either one.

#Date filter

Click Any time and choose how far back to search:

• Past week
• Past month (30 days)
• Past 3 months
• Past year

These are measured from when each idea was dropped. You can use a date filter together with a tag filter.

#Remove filters

Each filter you use appears as a chip under the buttons, such as Past month × or #garden ×. Click a chip to remove that filter. If you have two or more, Clear all removes them all. If a filtered search finds nothing, the message has a Clear filters button.

#Filters in the URL

Filters are saved in the page address, so Back, refreshing the page and bookmarks keep them:

https://ideabucket.app/search?tags=garden,weekend&when=month

when can be week, month, 3months or year. https://ideabucket.app/search?tag=garden opens a tag search for #garden.

#Open an idea

Click or tap a result to open it. Or move to it with Tab and press Enter or Space. The card opens to show the whole text and the idea's notes, where you can read and add notes. Click it again to close it.

Cards with notes show a small notes icon, with the number of notes if there are more than one. Notes are searched by keyword too, so a word that is only in a note still finds the idea.

The card's buttons work here as they do on Drop: Edit, Archive and Delete, each with Undo. See Capturing ideas, and Notes, archive and trash for notes.

#Search the archive

Archived ideas don't show up in Find. To search them, go to Profile → Archive (or Archive in the sidebar on a wider screen).

The archive has its own search box ("Search the archive… or #tag"), which works the same way as Find: by meaning and keyword, or by #tag. Tag suggestions there come from the tags on your archived ideas. With no search text, it lists the ideas you archived most recently. Tag and date filters aren't available in the archive.

To put an idea back in your bucket, click Unarchive (the box with an arrow) on its card. You see Moved back to your bucket, with Undo.

#Search offline

Idea Bucket keeps a copy of your ideas on each device you use. This is up to 500 of your most recent ideas, including some archived ones. When you have no connection, Find searches this copy instead, and the status line says Saved ideas · offline.

Offline search is simpler:

• It matches words only, not meaning, and there are no match scores. Every word you type must be in the idea's text, its tags or its notes. Parts of words count, so gard finds garden.
• Notes are included only for ideas whose notes you have opened on this device.
• #tag searches and the tag and date filters still work.

If nothing matches, Find says "No saved ideas match. Try again when you’re back online." When the connection is back, Find runs your search again online.

#Keyboard

Keyboard shortcuts has the full list, including the Mac app's global search shortcut.