Armando, thanks for posting, as always.
Ok, let me explain my thoughts on all of this. It's not that I haven't tried to use IQ the same way as I did with Evernote, I have. But they are different animals, and each inevitably has its own strengths/weaknesses. I like the ctrl-f feature of IQ, but I can confidently say it's not as easy to use as Evernote's was. Let me explain that bit. It's not really IQ's fault. IQ just does so much more that to achieve a similar effect as Evernote is going to be naturally more complex. In evernote, you just start typing in the permanently docked search bar on the top. As you typed, the list of notes got shorter and shorter to just the matching ones. More importantly, every matching result was highlighted.
Now, IQ does the same search as you type with the ctrl-f window. But it's not as simple to use. First of all, it's a separate window. I recommend having a permanatly docked search bar that will filter the
displayed grid and not the entire database (or have an option for either/or). The other complicated factor is that unlike Evernote, the information in IQ is stored in a variety of fields, not to mention the html pane. So how can the results be displayed, with all the matching terms highlighted, AND all the fields (inlcuding the html pane) being visible? That's a tough one, and I can't figure out a solution to that yet. With Evernote, there was only one 'field", which was the box the notes were in. So it was easy to highlight and display the matching results...there was only one thing to show. But with IQ, there are multiple.
Let me simplify IQ's interface to just the regular fields in the grid, and the html pane. To me, those are the two main areas to show in a search result. And I know that IQ searches them all already, but I'm talking about how the results are displayed. I also realize that many features have been added to that find window, all of which are really cool. however, the display is not as nice as Evernotes was.
Actually, I just came up with a solution, here is my stab at it:
--First, have a permanantly docked search bar (like Evernote) that searches the current grid only (just to keep things simple).
--As you type in it, the actual grid will be filtered down to only the matching results. This would work the same as if you picked the "Show selected items in search grid" feature already present in the ctrl-f window. The difference here being that everything is happening in the current grid. No new windows, no special find dialog...it's all in the same window. And as you backspace or clear the search box, all the grid items would reappear as normal. In essence, it's the ultimate grid filter.
--Thirdly, ALL matches are highlighted. The matches in the normal fields are highlighted, and the matches in the html pane are highlighted. Multiple word searches would have different color highlights for each word (like Evernote and Google's highlighting features).
I think those would be some amazing new features for IQ. The key is to do everything in the same window and the highlighting. That is what made Evernote so nice to use.
Now, as for Onenote, there is only one feature about it that makes me want to use it over IQ in some cases. That's the whiteboard idea where I can just write anywhere, place pictures anywhere, there is no structure to it. Other than that, I see no other reason to choose it over IQ. Here is an example of something I can do with Onenote that I can't do in IQ. I'm buying a new suit and I have pictures and bits of information all over the place for it, but I need to move them around freely:
Well, I hope my suggestions prove to be useful.
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