Snow Leopard Service: Evernote Search

Installed Services appear at the bottom of your Contextual Menu

Installed Services appear at the bottom of your Contextual Menu

Updated On September 30, 2010

Here is a fun one for all you Snow Leopard users — a service which, with a simple mouse click, lets you highlight any text and search through all your Evernote items for it!

Instructions

Just highlight a passage of text anywhere that Snow Leopard’s Services are available. Control-Click (a.k.a., “Right Click”) to get a context menu and select “Search In Evernote” to search for that highlighted passage of text  in Evernote!

When you highlight text and run the Service, Evernote will launch and a separate Evernote window of Notes will open up containing just your search results. Note — it may take a few seconds for the search results to appear so, just give it a few seconds if at first you see “0 Results”.

When I say “anywhere that Snow Leopard’s Services are available”, that means most applications on your Mac — but keep in mind that there are a few “straggler apps” where this service isn’t available. 1

One caveat — this new version of the Service doesn’t have the pop-over window and also requires Evernote Version 1.10 or above as it uses Evernote’s new AppleScript implementation. Personally, I think things work faster and cleaner this way but, if you prefer the old way, I’ve left the download button for that version of the script at the bottom of the page.

The Fine Print

(Otherwise known as “Stuff You Should Know Before Installing”)

  • I am providing the Service for the benefit of the Mac community. While it works wonderfully for me, I cannot take responsibility for any data you might lose (or if your laptop turns into a pumpkin or something…)
  • “Community” means “participation”. Please share with the rest of us how you think this service could be improved (and feel free to help someone if they don’t understand something!)

How to Install and Use

  • Download the ZIP file from the link below:
  • CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

  • When unzipped, click on the installer package called “Search in Evernote Service” and follow the instructions.  The installer will copy a Service to your system Services library.

Old Version of the Service

If for some reason you’d like to download the old version of the script (with the pop-over preview window) it is here:

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Found a bug?

Click Here To Submit Your Bug Report!

Interested in what other Services are available for Snow Leopard?

Click here to see the latest list!

Interested in what AppleScripts are available for Evernote?

Click here to see the latest list!

Please Donate to Support These Releases!


  1. Cough..cough… FIREFOX! Cough! []

11 Responses to “Snow Leopard Service: Evernote Search”

  1. Joe December 2, 2009 at 10:03 pm #

    Justin,
    To be clear, the Safari popup window for evernote is not popping up. I see it installed two things during the custom install.

    I think this issue is something similar that I am having with certain Applescripts. Something along the line of 64 bit compatability i think.

    I have 10.6.2 and safari 4.0.4

    When i run the service, i get this error in my console log:

    12/2/09 9:54:28 PM Automator Runner[291] Error loading /Library/ScriptingAdditions/XSLT Tools.osax/Contents/MacOS/XSLT Tools: dlopen(/Library/ScriptingAdditions/XSLT Tools.osax/Contents/MacOS/XSLT Tools, 262): no suitable image found. Did find:
    /Library/ScriptingAdditions/XSLT Tools.osax/Contents/MacOS/XSLT Tools: no matching architecture in universal wrapper
    12/2/09 9:54:28 PM [0x0-0x29029].com.apple.Safari[245] 2009-12-02 21:54:28.632 Automator Runner[291:903] Error loading /Library/ScriptingAdditions/XSLT Tools.osax/Contents/MacOS/XSLT Tools: dlopen(/Library/ScriptingAdditions/XSLT Tools.osax/Contents/MacOS/XSLT Tools, 262): no suitable image found. Did find:
    12/2/09 9:54:28 PM [0x0-0x29029].com.apple.Safari[245] /Library/ScriptingAdditions/XSLT Tools.osax/Contents/MacOS/XSLT Tools: no matching architecture in universal wrapper
    12/2/09 9:54:28 PM [0x0-0x29029].com.apple.Safari[245] Automator Runner: OpenScripting.framework – scripting addition “/Library/ScriptingAdditions/XSLT Tools.osax” declares no loadable handlers.

    If you solve this, I think it will solve some other apple script issues that poped up on snow leopard.

    What version of /Library/ScriptingAdditions/XSLT Tools.osax do you have?

    Getinfo shows me:

    2.1.1, Copyright 2004-2008 Late Night Software Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

    Of course if im down the wrong path , let me know!

  2. Dan Byler February 26, 2010 at 6:05 pm #

    Nice work, sir!

    Installation: took a while to get it installed since I don’t give admin access to programs without good reason, so I had to use Pacifist to extract the workflows. It also didn’t require a logout, just restarting an app to refresh the service. I’d suggest distributing both the installer and the needed files.

    Use: works like a champ, love the quick access. I may need to look into some DEVONthink-Evernote syncing just so I can use this.

  3. Robert Homes February 16, 2011 at 1:26 am #

    While you wait for the code to produce some results, could you display the mouse cursor as an hourglass or some other icon to indicate something is happening?

  4. Joe December 2, 2009 at 4:11 pm #

    I wish i could say its working but its not. I can select text in Say safari and choose the service ” Search in Evernote” but nothings happening in evernote.

    Any ideas?

  5. Justin December 2, 2009 at 4:26 pm #

    Hi Joe,

    First, I’d try reinstalling the service and restarting the computer. After doing so, try again and — remember — there’s a bit of lag time before the preview window opens (it has to send the request to Evernote’s server and generate the results page).

    If that doesn’t work, let me know. It may be an issue with the Automator action which generates the preview and, if that’s the case, I can walk you through an alternate way to make sure it’s installed!

    ( …and just to be thorough, which version of Snow Leopard / Safari are you running?)

  6. Joe December 2, 2009 at 10:15 pm #

    Ok, figured it out. The permissions were incorrect on the folder for the web popup service. It had a strange permissions lock on the folder in /Library/Automator folder.

    BTW, If you know anything about that XSLT tools version info, that would be great.

  7. Justin December 2, 2009 at 10:58 pm #

    Joe,

    The Permissions issue makes sense and, if anyone else has experienced an error like this, please let me know! So far, you’re the only one who has reported it…. but if needed, I can dive back into the installer and take a look to see if something there is causing a permissions glitch.

    But the real question…. how do you like it now that it’s working for you? 😉

    On those unrelated XSLT errors, I read a blog posting at latenightsw.com which said:

    For those who use my XSLT Tools scripting addition, I’m finding that the underlying XML and XSLT libraries make heavy use of Carbon APIs that are not available on 64-Bit Mac OS X 10.6. As a result, I’m still not sure if I’ll be able to create an upgraded version of this Scripting Addition.

    You may want to contact Mark directly to see if there have been any developments since he posted last month.

  8. Joe December 3, 2009 at 7:17 am #

    Justin, Oh its very cool. I love reading and playing with your script magic.

    Is this a proof of concept for evernote, something that you are trying to have then put in the Evernote desktop app. Totally agree it should be added.

  9. Jordan T-H February 21, 2010 at 12:34 pm #

    Had the same issue as Joe. Fixed it the same. Neat script.

  10. Justin February 21, 2010 at 1:02 pm #

    Thanks for the report, Jordan!

    I’ll figure out what is happening permissions-wise with the installer and upload a new (hopefully fixed) build ASAP!