New Feature: Search Across All Your Todo Lists

Posted on April 12th, 2025 by FreeTodoList Team

We're excited to announce a powerful new feature that many of you have been requesting: full-text search across all your todo lists! This update makes it easier than ever to find specific tasks, no matter which list they're in.

How to Access Search

We've made search accessible from multiple places in the app:

1. Main Navigation: Click the Search link in the main navigation menu
2. Dashboard: Use the search bar at the top of your dashboard
3. Mobile: Tap the magnifying glass icon in the bottom navigation

What Can You Search For?

The search feature looks for matches in the text content of your todo items. For example, you can search for:

• Keywords like meeting, call, or email
• Project names like website or report
• People's names like John or Sarah
• Specific content like quarterly budget or presentation slides

Rich Search Results

Search results provide comprehensive information about each matching item:

• The matching text with your search terms highlighted
• Visual indicators for completed and overdue items
• The list each item belongs to (with a direct link)
• Due dates (if set)
• Creation dates
• Completion status

You'll also see aggregate statistics about your search results, including the total number of matches, how many are completed, and how many are overdue.

Use Cases for Search

This new feature is particularly helpful in several scenarios:

1. Finding Tasks Across Projects

If you organize your todos by project (one list per project), you can now easily find all tasks related to a specific topic across all your projects. For example, search for email to see all email-related tasks from different projects.

2. Locating That Important Task You Remember Creating

Can't remember which list contains a specific task? Now you can search for keywords you remember from the task description and locate it instantly.

3. Getting an Overview of Related Work

Search for a client's name or project keyword to get a consolidated view of all related tasks across your various lists.

4. Quick Access to Time-Sensitive Items

Search for terms like deadline, urgent, or specific dates to quickly find time-sensitive items that might be spread across multiple lists.

Tips for Effective Searching

• Be specific: The more specific your search term, the more focused your results will be
• Use distinctive keywords: Search for unique terms that are likely to appear only in the items you're looking for
• Check multiple lists: Notice which lists your results come from—you might find related tasks in lists you hadn't considered
• Use the dashboard search bar: For quick, on-the-fly searches while you're managing your lists

Technical Details

For those interested in how the search works:

• The search is performed across the body text of all your non-archived items
• Results are ranked by relevance, with exact matches appearing first
• The search runs in real-time, so new items are searchable immediately after creation
• Currently, search does not include archived items or list titles

Coming Soon

We're already working on enhancements to the search feature based on early feedback:

• Advanced filtering options (by date range, completion status, etc.)
• Search within archived items
• Saved searches for frequently used queries

Try It Now!

The search feature is now available to all registered users. Log in and try searching across your lists today—we'd love to hear what you think!

Have ideas for improving search? Please send us your feedback to help us make this feature even better.

Happy searching!