# Search as in notepad?

**URL:** <https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/search-as-in-notepad/21748>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [15 November 2021 07:22 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/search-as-in-notepad/21748 "2021-11-15T07:22:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jerrylususu](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/jerrylususu/32/3577_2.png) [@jerrylususu](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/jerrylususu)\
**Post date:** [15 November 2021 07:22 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/search-as-in-notepad/21748/1 "2021-11-15T07:22:00Z")

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OS: Windows 11 (22000.282)  
Joplin: Joplin 2.5.10 (dev, win32), Revision: b80242d

Hi! I am trying to make the search in all notes behave as a plain text editor (such as notepad), but I can not figure out how to do so. The problem is that I can not search a partial word, for example, search "prov" and let "provoke" appear in result. In another example, search for "SQL" don't show "MySQL".

I understand that search for full word helps improve precision, but I am just working on some chemical related project and search with partial of the word is a necessity for me. Is it possible to change some settings to achieve this? Currently I think the only way for me to do so is just to export all my notes into a markdown folder and use something like VSCode to search in it.

Thanks!

 ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/uploads/cozic/original/2X/8/8d625c13192250aa686580e0a81597d13c5d191b.png)

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**Author:** ![jerrylususu](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/jerrylususu/32/3577_2.png) [@jerrylususu](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/jerrylususu)\
**Post date:** [15 November 2021 07:40 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/search-as-in-notepad/21748/2 "2021-11-15T07:40:37Z")

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OK I just figured out a workaround. It seems I can use wildcard to search, so just do `*keyword*` can make the notes containing my keyword to be displayed in the result list. However if I want to locate the precise location of my keyword in the specified note I have to do another in note search.

The whole thing seems pretty strange frankly...

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**Author:** ![jerrylususu](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/jerrylususu/32/3577_2.png) [@jerrylususu](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/jerrylususu)\
**Post date:** [15 November 2021 14:46 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/search-as-in-notepad/21748/3 "2021-11-15T14:46:52Z")

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The previous solution is incorrect. The correct way to do so is to prefix your query with `/`, which will force the search implementation to skip the index and fallback to basic text search. Depend on your needs, you may use quotes to achieve true precise search.

See [GitHub - laurent22/joplin: Joplin - an open source note taking and to-do application with synchronization capabilities for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. Forum: https://discourse.joplinapp.org/](https://github.com/laurent22/joplin#searching) for more info about searching in Joplin. Closing this issue for now.

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**Author:** ![rxliuli](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/rxliuli/32/4083_2.png) [@rxliuli](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/rxliuli)\
**Post date:** [15 November 2021 14:52 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/search-as-in-notepad/21748/4 "2021-11-15T14:52:18Z")

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If you want, you can use the vscode plugin, which is much better for searching a single document

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**Author:** ![jerrylususu](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/jerrylususu/32/3577_2.png) [@jerrylususu](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/jerrylususu)\
**Post date:** [15 November 2021 15:08 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/search-as-in-notepad/21748/5 "2021-11-15T15:08:59Z")

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Thanks! I just tried, but the search selection window is kind of limited... I can not examine one note after the other from the list of search results...

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**Author:** ![rxliuli](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/rxliuli/32/4083_2.png) [@rxliuli](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/rxliuli)\
**Post date:** [15 November 2021 15:20 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/search-as-in-notepad/21748/6 "2021-11-15T15:20:59Z")

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This is a limitation of vscode api, but for batch replacement of note content, I plan to use [joplin-batch-web](https://joplin-utils.rxliuli.com/web/joplin-batch-web/#/en-US/) Add a web page to achieve this function

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**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/uploads/cozic/original/3X/1/c/1c948e33314e232a0927789508474d8624f4270b.png) [@system](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [15 December 2021 15:21 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/search-as-in-notepad/21748/7 "2021-12-15T15:21:39Z")

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