Ability to exclude pages from search results when you are not in that specific book #3327

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OVERLORD · 2026-02-05T06:22:25+03:00

OVERLORD commented

2026-02-05 06:22:25 +03:00

Originally created by @mw-christensen on GitHub (Nov 3, 2022).

Describe the feature you'd like

I would like a checkbox option when you go to the edit page for a stack or book with text that says something like "Exclude from search results when not in this stack [book]". The functionality would be that all pages in that stack or book would not show up in the search results unless the user was actively navigating in that stack or book.

As an example; let's suppose there are two stacks; "Finance Department", and "HR". The "Finance Department" would have the checkbox checked but the "HR" stack would not.

Now if someone is in the "HR" stack and does a search for "pizza invoices" nothing comes up. But if someone is in the "Finance Department" and does the same search, thousands of results will come up for different invoices that are from the "Invoices" Book.

Describe the benefits this would bring to existing BookStack users

There are many instances where you might have a book that only has information that is valuable to a small number of people but still needs to be accessible by everyone. If this option was enabled, search results would not be crowded out by pages that contain the keywords but are likely not relevant to what someone is searching for.

For my specific use case, we use Bookstack to archive questionnaires. Every once in a while we need these but most of the time we don't. The problem is that we have several thousand pages of questionnaires and every search I do for anything brings up many more pages than needed and the valuable search results do not show up easily.

Can the goal of this request already be achieved via other means?

No. There is advanced search but this does not allow for the removal of results. If there was an "Exclude Tag" option in the search results, that would likely be an easier way to implement what I am hoping to accomplished (but in a much less obvious and elegant way and it would require vigilance with tags).

Have you searched for an existing open/closed issue?

I have searched for existing issues and none cover my fundemental request

How long have you been using BookStack?

6 months to 1 year

Additional context

(I just want to say Bookstack is AMAZING. I am very impressed. I have used Zendesk and Confluence in previous roles and I would much rather use Bookstack than either of those. Thanks for making such great software.)

Originally created by @mw-christensen on GitHub (Nov 3, 2022). ### Describe the feature you'd like I would like a checkbox option when you go to the edit page for a stack or book with text that says something like "Exclude from search results when not in this stack [book]". The functionality would be that all pages in that stack or book would not show up in the search results unless the user was actively navigating in that stack or book. As an example; let's suppose there are two stacks; "Finance Department", and "HR". The "Finance Department" would have the checkbox checked but the "HR" stack would not. Now if someone is in the "HR" stack and does a search for "pizza invoices" nothing comes up. But if someone is in the "Finance Department" and does the same search, thousands of results will come up for different invoices that are from the "Invoices" Book. ### Describe the benefits this would bring to existing BookStack users There are many instances where you might have a book that only has information that is valuable to a small number of people but still needs to be accessible by everyone. If this option was enabled, search results would not be crowded out by pages that contain the keywords but are likely not relevant to what someone is searching for. For my specific use case, we use Bookstack to archive questionnaires. Every once in a while we need these but most of the time we don't. The problem is that we have several thousand pages of questionnaires and every search I do for anything brings up many more pages than needed and the valuable search results do not show up easily. ### Can the goal of this request already be achieved via other means? No. There is advanced search but this does not allow for the removal of results. If there was an "Exclude Tag" option in the search results, that would likely be an easier way to implement what I am hoping to accomplished (but in a much less obvious and elegant way and it would require vigilance with tags). ### Have you searched for an existing open/closed issue? - [X] I have searched for existing issues and none cover my fundemental request ### How long have you been using BookStack? 6 months to 1 year ### Additional context (I just want to say Bookstack is AMAZING. I am very impressed. I have used Zendesk and Confluence in previous roles and I would much rather use Bookstack than either of those. Thanks for making such great software.)

OVERLORD added the 🔨 Feature Request label 2026-02-05 06:22:25 +03:00

OVERLORD closed this issue

2026-02-05 06:22:26 +03:00

OVERLORD commented

2026-02-05 06:22:32 +03:00

@ssddanbrown commented on GitHub (Sep 15, 2025):

Thanks for the original suggestion @mw-christensen, but since there's been little further desire for this I'm going to close this off.

The fundamental request here does have significant overlap with existing issue #1691, which has a bit more support.

If there was an "Exclude Tag" option in the search results, that would likely be an easier way to implement what I am hoping to accomplished

If it would still help, In v24.10 we did add the ability to do just that: https://www.bookstackapp.com/blog/bookstack-release-v24-10/#advanced-search-term-negation

@ssddanbrown commented on GitHub (Sep 15, 2025): Thanks for the original suggestion @mw-christensen, but since there's been little further desire for this I'm going to close this off. The fundamental request here does have significant overlap with existing issue #1691, which has a bit more support. > If there was an "Exclude Tag" option in the search results, that would likely be an easier way to implement what I am hoping to accomplished If it would still help, In v24.10 we did add the ability to do just that: https://www.bookstackapp.com/blog/bookstack-release-v24-10/#advanced-search-term-negation

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Reference: starred/BookStack#3327