allow global filters as part of smart queries' (saveable – top level – UI anchored)
implementing a system – as part of smart queries – that allows for a kind of 'modal' use via 'sticky and persistent filters'.
smart queries could accomplish something like 'virtual notebooks' or 'virtual sections' within one notebook.
in this vision smart queries would work as a kind of lense I can define and easily return to.
for that the smart queries would need to include / allow the following:
• easy saving for re-use
• being 'sticky' / persistent for a selected period / session (that is optionally);
• this would also mean they can work as 'background' to further filtering / queries / operations
• and, finally, this would also need some good UI-cueing, as to really work like a 'mode'; i.e. such semi-permanent / persistent / sticky filters (working via saved smart queries) would need to be well visible / flagged in the UI as long as they do filter out the global content
– btw: all this would not only be nice itself, but possible also amend the issue of otherwise 'walled' notebooks, as it could all happen within one, more dynamically 'segmented' notebook... (take as easiest example global filters like 'personal', 'work', 'hobby'; could also be something like 'workstream A', 'workstream B', 'workstream C'; or more on the side of functional differentiation: 'research', 'structural ideas + notes', 'writing'; etc. etc.)
– for a positive reference case see implementation in Amazing Marvin:
• https://help.amazingmarvin.com/en/articles/5234564-global-filter
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I am still rooting for a global filter that works more on a "top-level basis" compared to purely local and situational filters or queries – and allows to set a "focus" across different activities within a space.
The conviction that this really helps Capacities in terms of experience but also options for "segmented work" (focus sessions) was just reinvigorated by the introduction of this very logic into another venerable notetaking app: Bear.
You can read the description here (👉 https://community.bear.app/t/focus-on-tag-feature-workspace-like-workflow/18916). And, I think looking into that will also illustrate the request a bit more, and make its usefullness even clearer. (DevonThink already has this global filter mode since long, and there are several other apps that also make use of this "many workspaces in one" paradigm).
So, just wanted to give this another impulse, and point to the recent introduction in Bear. 💫
– … and here the implementation of it, Bear-style 🙂
👉 https://blog.bear.app/2026/07/bear-2-9-use-tag-as-workspace/