We are aware of the issue with the badge emails resending to everyone, we apologise for the inconvenience - learn more here.

Petercard's avatar
Petercard
Helpful | Level 6
6 years ago
Status:
Closed

Implementing Boolean Operators in Searches.

Is there any way to use Boolean operators when using the search function in DropBox ? When I used the search I usually get too many hits, so a simple way of narrowing down the results would be very...
File access
sort
OliSturm's avatar
OliSturm
New member | Level 2

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

Jane's avatar
Jane
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
6 years ago
Hey OliSturm, it’s my understanding that your inquiry has been similar to what we’ve discussed here previously & that’s why I moved your post under this thread. Maybe my post in the previous page helps you narrow down the results, however I’ve also included your meticulous explanation in my report internally, as your constructive feedback helps us better understand your needs. 
 
Once you have a bit of time to check back on how these pointers work for you, please let me know if you have any follow-up questions or observations & it’ll be a pleasure to touch-base with you here. Thanks again for taking the time to drop us a line on the Dropbox Community & enjoy the rest of your day until we talk again! 
  • OliSturm's avatar
    OliSturm
    New member | Level 2
    6 years ago

    Hi @Jane,

    I've read the thread, but I'm afraid the topic is quite different - this thread is largely about file name search patterns, while my concern is about searching file content. Perhaps you are correct that both topics are related to "advanced search", but the title of the thread really has nothing to do with the topic of my message. I would appreciate it if you could reinstate my message as a separate thread for discussion.

    Thanks

    Oli