1. A method of searching an electronic filing system, the method including the steps of: obtaining a handwritten search query in the form of digital ink; obtaining a text search query including a text search term; performing a search of at least one database for instances of the text search term; performing a search of the at least one database for handwritten annotations that are less than a given physical distance from at least one of the instances of the text search term; comparing the handwritten search query and the handwritten annotations in order to determine matches between the handwritten search query and the handwritten annotations; and providing results of the comparing step as output.