Implementing Boolean Operators in Searches.

Please make it so that you can search for phrases using like "xyz and abc" instead of only being able to search for a single word. This would be a BIG improvement for the search funactionality.  

Hi,

I have a large archive of scanned documents in PDF format and I'm testing the (new to me) OCR search functionality. The recognition quality seems good and I can find items using specific unique terms easily. However, I can't figure out how to do anything more than enter a basic search string - and even that isn't always interpreted the way I want it.

Here's a simple example. I see a charge on a credit card statement of GBP 31.34. I'd like to find the receipt document that includes that value. So I search for 31.34. The result set is large, and it includes documents named "2017-08-03-15-31-34.pdf" or similar. When I access documents from the result set, it is very hard to see if "31.34" even appears in them anywhere - there's no highlighting of the search term, and I'm pretty sure some of the result documents don't even contain that term. Btw, the actual document I'm looking for is part of the list - but it takes 30 minutes of manual browsing to identify it.

Now, this is a simple example. It seems impossible right now to specify an exact search string - when I say "31.34", I don't mean any document that contains either 31 or 34 (which is what Dropbox seems to be doing at this time). In reality I would really like to be able to combine terms:

"Customer Ltd" AND (invoice OR quote)

"Customer Ltd" AND (NOT "Project Beta")

This kind of stuff is rather standard and I don't think further examples are needed. I'm impressed by the document recognition and indexing capabilities, but without a search engine that supports more than the most basic auto-interpreted search terms, the value of the entire feature shrinks drastically.

Maybe I'm missing something? 

Thanks

Oli

Can you plz add/allow advanced search queries in your web interface (eg. boolean operators) ? WHY IS THIS CRUCIAL? Since you've introduced "Smart Sync" not all files are on my drive anymore. I used to be able to search them with my OS search engine, which is way better equipped than the dropbox search and find what I need. Now I am depending on your online search, but I can't filter in any way the massive result list anymore... :-( Anybody else having the same, or similar needs? (I found some old threads, but was not allowed to follow up on them. E.g.: https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Accounts-billing/Fulltext-search-syntax/m-p/258941#M17933

No, Dropbox has no such functionality. The search function on the Dropbox website is very lacking. If you're syncing your files to your computer, just use your operating system's search function. You'll have much better results.

Please add this feature.

Yes, a boolean search feature would be a great help in eliminating a response for every word in the search.  Please implement this feature.

please add this feature.  way too many hits otherwise.

This idea is going to need a bit more support.

We've updated the status to encourage more users to back you up!

This is the critical NEED without which my company may soon switch to another cloud storage source

Please add Boolean Logic as a feature to narrow search results.