^For whatever reasons (probably stupidity) I've never been able to use the Search function in the Anki 2 Browser fruitfully. The original was fine, however even after following exact steps as laid out in the manual, more often than not the search results fail to display results, regardless of the fact that the quoted text, etc. exists within the given field, etc.
Since the discussion is in respect to the desktop client; I have a copy of an already exported text file (currently a libreoffice spreadsheet) sitting on the desktop, waiting to be opened and searched. Almost all changes are done to a copy of said spreadsheet and re imported, anyway (aside template layout changes).
Re-importing from a spreadsheet of the given deck is a lot more user friendly to me, for making alterations (or doing a quick search of the deck for any specifics).
My approach not be very user friendly for you, though.
Since the discussion is in respect to the desktop client; I have a copy of an already exported text file (currently a libreoffice spreadsheet) sitting on the desktop, waiting to be opened and searched. Almost all changes are done to a copy of said spreadsheet and re imported, anyway (aside template layout changes).
Re-importing from a spreadsheet of the given deck is a lot more user friendly to me, for making alterations (or doing a quick search of the deck for any specifics).
My approach not be very user friendly for you, though.