Any rich text note taker app compatible with X1 Search?

Posted by Slartibartfarst
Aug 3, 2015 at 02:59 PM

Jon Polish wrote:
>Are you saying that X1 can search within an Ultra Recall database?
>Jon
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I’m not sure, but I suspect that what might be meant is that Ultra Recall’s own integral search function can search the UR database and any embedded/attached files.
. The thing is that you seem to be coming at this with a fixation on data compatibility with the search engine, rather than how best to search the data. From a search engine design perspective, that is putting the cart before the horse. What you need is a search engine that can cope with your data in whatever format it is in.
. I don’t profess to know anything much about X1 Search, but I noticed in their FAQ the claim that it is able to search SharePoint libraries.
Microsoft Office products and Internet Explorer have a very good integration with MS SharePoint, so I would presume that X1 might be able to cope with all the file types from MS Office products and IE that are stored in SharePoint libraries. Therefore, since OneNote is an MS Office product, then its files (e.g., including the .one file extension) would presumably also be searchable by X1 - at least, within a SharePoint library.
. This doesn’t necessarily translate to X1 being similarly able to search within those same file types on a client PC’s hard drive, but I would expect it might. Have you exhausted that possibility?
. Otherwise, you could consider using OneNote, and relying on the excellent index/search capability within WDS (Windows Desktop Search) to search within MS Office files - including OneNote Notebooks with .one file extension. Not only does that WDS search cater for text, but also for OCRed/Alternative Text from images containing text and saved in the OneNote Notebooks, and for the spoken word in audio files (e.g., mp3) saved in those Notebooks. It is that index/search capability of WDS that became a factor in my choosing to use OneNote as my primary PIM (Personal Information Manager).
. However, though, from experience, the integration of WDS with MS Office products (including OneNote) seems superb, that is only true:
.(a) where the OneNote Notebooks are stored on the client Desktop - i.e., the WDS product does not index/search (hasn’t got the search connectors) to see any files stored on OneDrive, nor does it index/search the local cache for OneNote Notebook that are stored on OneDrive. Go figure.
.(b) where MS Office document files are NOT embedded/attached within OneNote Notebooks (hasn’t got the search connectors to see any files stored within OneNote Notebooks).

How then can WDS find OCRed text within images, and find spoken words within audio files when these are stored within OneNote Notebooks on the local client drive?
The answer seems to be that OneNote’s built-in OCR, audio and index/search functionality does that, and dovetails the index into WDS’ index/search connectors.
. What I find a serious let-down though are 2 points:
.(i) WDS’s design demarcation such that it won’t index/search outside of the local client drive (e.g., it won’t index/search OneDrive).
.(ii) that MS Office documents embedded/attached within OneNote Notebooks saved on the local client drive are not indexed/searchable either by OneNote or WDS index/search functionality.

In the age of the much-touted MS Office integration and “Cloud Technology”, these two points would seem so dumb as to be deliberate, surely?
Or maybe not.