About Queries and Logical Operations

To make it easier to find the articles in large data files, Personal Knowbase allows you to combine keywords using logical, or boolean, operations. You can build these logical expressions using the Build Query Command (Edit Menu). The results of your query appear in the Titles column of the Index Window. By default, query results are updated automatically when you make changes to your data which affect them.

Logical expressions, or queries, are built by using operators to modify descriptive operands. In this case, operators include AND, OR, and NOT. Operands include keywords, a lack of keywords (NOKEYS), being bookmarked (BOOKMARKED), having attachments (ATTACHMENTS), or being associated with a keyword group (GROUP).

Parentheses can be used to specify the order in which operators are applied to operands. If no parentheses are used in queries with multiple operators, the NOT operator takes first precedence, followed by AND, and finally by OR. There is no limit to the length of a query.

Double- or single-quote characters are used to specify keywords containing spaces or parentheses characters.

You can also restrict the results of a query by specifying the earliest or latest dates for the article date.

By combining keywords into logical expressions, you can find articles meeting almost any criteria.

Saving Queries

When you create a query with the Build Query command, you can save it for future use with the current data file by clicking the Save Query button. Once you have saved a query, you can run it using the Run Saved Query Command (Edit Menu) and make changes to it using the Manage Saved Queries Command (Edit Menu).

Examples

For example, let's say that the keyword "meetings" is assigned to all of your meeting notes and the keyword "Wilson project" to everything related to that project. If you were looking for a note that you know was from a meeting which did not involve that project, you could create a query to list all titles associated with "meetings", but not with "Wilson project": meetings AND NOT "Wilson project".

More Examples:

Query

Results

BOOKMARKED

Equivalent to the Show Bookmarked Titles Command (Article Menu).

NOKEYS

Shows all articles with no keywords assigned.

ATTACHMENTS

Equivalent to the Show Articles with Attachments Command (Article Menu).

GROUP: work

Show all articles associated with any keyword which is a member of the group called "work".

June AND July

Shows only articles associated with both June and July. Equivalent to placing these two keywords into the Selected column of the Index Window and setting the Selected Keyword Mode to AND.

June OR July

Shows all articles associated with either June or July. Equivalent to placing these two keywords into the Selected column of the Index Window and setting the Selected Keyword Mode to OR.

Report AND NOT July

Shows articles associated with Report, but not associated with July.

June AND BOOKMARKED

Shows only bookmarked articles which are associated with the keyword June.

June AND NOKEYS

Has no results. If an article is associated with the keyword June, it can't have no keywords.

June OR NOKEYS

Shows articles associated with June and also any articles with no keywords.

June AND ATTACHMENTS

Shows articles associated with June which also have attachments.

NOKEYS AND NOT BOOKMARKED

Shows articles which have no keywords and are not bookmarked. A good way to fetch articles that you forgot to assign keywords to.

(June OR July) AND Report

Shows articles associated with Report and also with either June or July.

June OR (July AND Report)

Shows all articles associated with June, and also articles associated with both July and Report.

(June AND Iowa) OR (July AND Ohio)

Shows articles which are either associated with June in Iowa, or associated with July in Ohio.

For more information, see these Procedures:

Finding Articles Not Associated with a Keyword

Finding Articles without Keywords Assigned to Them

Listing All Articles Related to a Keyword Group