Feature Request: boolean in live search field

[jdien]

Hi,
I love Bookends, switched from Endnote and never looked back. One request: could you enable boolean searches for the live search field? It would be easier than having to go to the Find window. Also, it caused me some confusion. It took me awhile to realize that typing in "ERP and N400" caused it to search for articles with the word "and" in addition to "ERP" and "N400" rather than being a boolean search.

Thanks!

Joe

[Jon]

Hi Joe,

That is a boolean search (a boolean AND search). You can do a boolean NOT search by preceding the term with a negative sign (dash), as in

-2009

There is no OR live search, and that's for a reason. This is not a heavy duty search operation (that's what Find is for) and there are no groupings, so I can imagine that the logic of such searches might not be intuitive. For example, if you search for

Smith +Jones Fred (where + means OR), the search would probably be Smith AND Fred OR Jones, although the user might have intended Smith OR Jones AND Fred.

Jon
Sonny Software

[jdien]

Yes, I know what a boolean search is. That's why I used the term in the title to my post. If you are saying that Live Search is indeed supposed to use booleans then this is a bug report because it's not working. Here are the particulars:

OS X 10.6.2
Bookends 10.6.3 (all the current updates, including the Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 1)
The Live Search field is on the default "all fields" setting.

For example, the following search in the live search bar yields 7 hits:

Bentin ERP

The following two searches yield only 6 hits:
Bentin and ERP
Bentin AND ERP

The hit that differs between the two lacks the word "and" in any of the record. When I type in "and" into the abstract field it now shows up in all three searches. On this basis I conclude that the Boolean search is not working. I'll be happy to send you a copy of my database if that would help with troubleshooting.

Thanks for the quick response!

Joe

[Jon]

The boolean "AND" operator is not a word in this case, it is the space character (or any character Bookends doesn't index). You do not use the word "and", "or", or "not". If you do, Bookends *searches* for the word "and, "or", or "not" in your references.

This is how to do a boolean AND live search:

Bentin ERP (means: "Bentin" AND "ERP")

This is a boolean NOT live search:

Bentin -ERP (means: "Bentin" NOT "ERP")


Jon
Sonny Sofware

[jdien]

okay, sounds like we're on the same page now. So my suggestion then is to modify Live Search so that it works more transparently and more flexibly. Here are my ideas (for what they are worth):

either use "and" rather than space as meaning the Boolean AND or have live search ignore the word "and" and also implement quotation marks to indicate when a space is meant to be used literally (e.g., "recording standards"). It would be nice to have "or" as well but I understand the reasoning you described earlier on why to leave it out.

Thanks for taking the time to consider my suggestions!

Joe

[Jon]

Live search updates as you type. Having "an" match as you type and then "and" not match when you add the "d" isn't a good idea. There is no need to screen out "and" or any other word -- don't type it unless you want to search for it. The convention of using a space as the AND operator is common and convenient and will not change. I'll make sure that the space is the boolean AND operator is spelled out in the User Guide. FYI, you can't use Live Search to search for phrases (containing spaces) or punctuation. It's an incredibly convenient and fast search because it searches indexes (which means words only). If you want phrases, etc., use Find and search for "characters".

Jon
Sonny Software