Dear Joplin development team and community members,
As a Joplin user, I’ve deeply recognized its advantages in note management during long-term use. Based on actual usage scenarios, here are optimization suggestions for the search function to elevate the product experience:
Add a “Notebook-Limited Search Box”
The current search box supports global search. It is recommended to add a “notebook-limited search box” beside the existing search box (e.g., on the left or top). Take the screenshot scenario as an example: when a user enters “Chinese” in the search box, inputting “Resource Library” via the new notebook-limited search box first can precisely lock the search scope within the “Resource Library” notebook. This filters out content from other notebooks, avoiding redundant global search results—especially beneficial for users with complex note classifications to quickly locate target content.
Display Note Path in Search Results
In search results, each note should show its “note path” alongside the title. For instance, for the note “Container Station interface is in English, how to change it to Chinese?” in the screenshot, display its path: “Resource Library > Commodity > QNAP”. By intuitively presenting the notebook hierarchy, users can skip repeatedly tracing the notebook structure and directly locate the note via the path, significantly improving content-positioning efficiency after retrieval.
If these two optimizations are implemented, they will form an efficient search workflow—“scope limitation—precise search—quick positioning”—upgrading Joplin’s classification management and search logic. We hope the development team will consider these suggestions to make the tool more practical! Thank you for the team’s continuous efforts. May Joplin keep iterating and evolving into an even more ideal note-management tool! @laurent
Thank you for your response. While the “notebook:” search filter effectively restricts the search scope, repeatedly typing this lengthy command in daily use is cumbersome. Adding a dedicated notebook-limitation search box directly on the interface would offer a more intuitive and efficient solution, streamlining the process and reducing repetitive input for an improved user experience.
Regarding the display of note paths in search results, I will explore the recommended VS Code Style Note Search plugin as a temporary desktop workaround. However, native support for showing note paths in the official search function would provide users with a more cohesive and seamless experience, eliminating the need to rely on third-party plugins.
Thank you again for your efforts. I look forward to future user-centric optimizations in Joplin. @muzak
Thank you for recommending the VS Code Style Note Search plugin. After testing it, I noticed that only the first several search results show the notebook location, and the complete note path isn’t fully displayed—many results lack the path information. This inconsistency fails to fully satisfy the demand for clear note positioning.
Considering the plugin’s limitations, native support for displaying complete note paths in the official search function is still urgently needed. It would offer a more reliable and uniform experience. Appreciate your attention to this improvement. @muzak
As far as native search goes, you can try requesting note path as a column for the detailed note list style. That style can can be toggled via View > Note List Style > Detailed (and has an existing Notebook: Title column to show/hide). Select Compact to return to the default style.
Thank you once more for your help. I’ve followed the suggestions, such as switching to the “Detailed” note list style to view the Notebook column and exploring the Note List Preview plugin discussion. Unfortunately, these still don’t resolve the two major pain points: there’s still no efficient way to quickly limit the search scope, and the note path isn’t fully shown in search results.
While these workarounds via styles or plugins are somewhat useful, they can’t match the seamless experience of native features. I truly hope the official team will consider enhancing the native search function—by adding a dedicated notebook-limitation search box and natively supporting complete note path display. This would greatly elevate the search experience.
Thanks again for your assistance. Anticipating these user-focused optimizations in Joplin.
