2Do boasts the most powerful search engine on the App Store. Combined with the power of dynamic Smart Lists (a.k.a Saved Searches) you can create highly specific filters that match your needs.

Searching for Actions, Task Types, & Task Attributes

You can use any of the following reserved search keywords (without quotes) to filter on specific tasks. This is extremely useful when combined with dynamic Smart Search Lists. You could, for example, create a smart list on the term ‘type:audio’ and quickly navigate to all tasks with Audio notes without hunting through a long list (and without the need of changing sort options).

• “type: action” – will return all tasks with any action set
• “type: call” – will return all tasks with a Call action
• “type: sms” – will return all tasks with a SMS action
• “type: email” – will return all tasks with an Email action
• “type: browse” – will return all tasks with a URL action
• “type: visit” – will return all tasks with a Visit action
• “type: google” – will return all tasks with a Google Search action

• “type: audio” – will return all tasks with an Audio file
• “type: pict” – will return all tasks with a Picture attachment
• “type: note” – will return all tasks with notes

• “type: proj” – will return all projects
• “type: chck” – will return all checklists
• “type: task” – will return all tasks (not checklists or projects)

• “type: hiprio” – will return all high-priority tasks
• “type: medprio” – will return all medium-priority tasks
• “type: lowprio” – will return all low-priority tasks

• “type: repeat” – will return all recurring tasks
• “type: overdue” – will return all overdue tasks
• “type: tomorrow” – will return all tasks due tomorrow
• “type: today” – will return all tasks due today
• “type: donetoday” will return all tasks that were completed today

Searching for Tags

To look for tasks with the tags ‘home’ and ‘work’, you can type the following in the search field:

tags: home, work

To filter on all tasks that have at least one tag set, type the following:

tags: ?

Or to filter on all tasks without tags, you would type:
tags: ~

Soundex

The Soundex Search capability of 2Do is perhaps the most understated, probably because no other application offers anything like it.

When taking notes, synchronizing tasks from an external source, or adding quick ToDos, one doesn’t always remember how one spelled a particular name, a place or the not-so-obvious spelling mistakes one made. That should be the least of one’s worries.

Thankfully with Soundex (which is ON by default and can be switched OFF) you don’t need to worry about all this when searching through your tasks. Soundex matches on similar sounding words (thus the name), which is what you want when looking through ToDos and their associated Notes, Tags etc.