Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Yes. When using the Browse window in Anki Desktop, I often try to search for a word (e.g. in German) to check if it already exists in my notes. However, this becomes problematic when the word is partially wrapped in HTML tags, like <b>, <span>, etc. used for formatting.
Example:
<b>über</b>setzen
Searching for übersetzen does not return a match, even though the word is there – just split across HTML tags.
Worse, in more complex formatting like:
<b>ge</b>stres<span style="color: rgb(181, 0, 91);"><b>st</b></span>
I cannot find the word gestresst at all, because it’s broken into several HTML segments. This makes browsing inconsistent and frustrating.
Describe the solution you’d like.
I’d love to have a search modifier like:
plain:gestresst
That would search the text content only, ignoring all HTML tags and formatting. It should match:
-
gestresst -
<b>ge</b>stresst -
<span style="color:red"><b>ge</b></span>stresst -
or even more broken-up versions
Alternatively, a simple checkbox in the Browse UI like:
[✓] Ignore HTML in search
would make this much easier to handle.
Describe alternatives you’ve considered.
-
Using wildcards:
e.g.Back:*>ge<* OR Back:gehelps if the prefix is entirely in a tag, but fails when tags are split mid-word. -
Adding a duplicate “clean” field (no HTML) to each note just for searching — works, but is clunky, adds overhead, and makes note editing prone to errors.
-
Regular expressions don’t help either because the word is no longer contiguous in the raw HTML.
Why this matters
For learners of languages like German, highlighting stems/prefixes (e.g. ab, un, ge) using bold or color helps with memorization — but it completely breaks search.
Adding a simple option to search the plain text only would greatly improve the experience and eliminate confusion when browsing existing notes.
Thank you for considering this!