Changing notebooks shouldn't exit current note

restreachi · 2024-10-29T12:07:51.914Z

Add a toggle for: clicking on different notebooks on the sidebar shouldn't exit the current note (currently it exits if the note isn't in that notebook)

This would be useful bc:

Sporadic reason: Sometimes you edit a note and want to see what other contents you have in other notebooks.

Main reason: When i want to open new notes in a different notebook and switch back and forth, this approach always opens at least 1 intermediary note in between them, so it messes with keyboard back and forward navigation. (like in VS Code)

muzak · 2024-10-29T19:55:02.218Z

How would the note you want to edit show in the note list among the newly selected notebook's notes?

Features that open notes in new windows might (eventually) help with those reasons, such as Toggle external editing or the work in progress Feature Request: Multiple Windows - #13 by personalizedrefriger.

t0dd · 2024-10-30T03:20:55.103Z

As I have detailed time and time again here in this discourse, stuff like this would be solved if the active note and active position in a note were persisted and tracked in every notebook throughout the application. This may be my longest running and most desired feature request.

I.e., As you click through notebooks and edit or read notes and documents, your cursor in every single note would be tracked. That way, when you click into a notebook, you land right were you were in the last note you were working on, no matter the ordering of of notes in that notebook.

Current behavior is that you end up at the top of the first note in a notebook. This behavior is almost never what you want to happen.

In your use case, you just want to dip into another notebook to see what's there. When you click back, the note you were work on is the one that is opened, and your cursor is exactly where you left it.

restreachi · 2024-10-31T10:57:52.594Z

I did think about this, but i don't think thats important. The easiest thing to do is to simply not show the note in the notelist, I don't think that's bad UX. While i was using standard notes that's how they did it and it was intuitive.
You could also put the opened note on the top of the notelist and isolate it with a spacer or divider to signal that it doesn't belong to that notebook.

Also a related setting could be for keyboard navigation behaviour: does going back to last/next note with a keyboard shortcut change to that note notebook (current behaviour) or the notebook doesn't change. I see both behaviors as being useful/logical so it's easiest to leave it like it is now.

Also another reason for this feature i forgot to mention is that you might have some more sensitive notes in Joplin. This way if you are showing somebody else your notes, you need to worry if switching to another notebook will open a note you don't want them to see.

restreachi · 2024-10-31T11:20:19.306Z

Would love this feature too but i see how it would be a bit harder to implement. (And the switching to the last used note in a certain notebook isn't the desired behaviour for me over not switching at all, but obv useful for many others) But I think my feat request would be rly easy to implement. Even as a option/toggle.

shikuz · 2024-10-31T23:29:02.073Z

t0dd:

this would be solved if the active note and active position in a note were persisted and tracked in every notebook throughout the application

I can imagine a plugin that achieves that. I'll give it more thought when I get the chance.

t0dd · 2024-11-01T11:15:04.026Z

@restreachi I can see what you are saying. A separation of the view of a note from the navigation throughout notebooks.

Hm.

That's a thought. My gripe is that if I click into a notebook, I get kicked to the top note in whatever ordering scheme I have chosen and the cursor placed to the top of that note. It's just very crude.

The back button helps you kick back to the note you were in previously, but it too … sticks you right back at the top of the note. ARGH!

And so, I would love to merge these behaviors.

If I am perusing notebooks, DON'T switch out the note in the editor/viewer.
1.a. Bonus feature: Show an italicized note title of the note currently in view no matter what notebook you are currently navigating. This italicized title merely indicates that that note is virtual.
If I go back to a note I was previously editing/viewing (via the back and forward buttons, or if I just click on a note), take me back to the last cursor position in that note. I.e., track all current cursor positions in all notes and have fallback behaviors for the cases where that note disappears or the note has changed beneath it (changed via a sync from elsewhere, for example).
2.a. Bonus feature: if you don't have feature (1) enabled, switch to the last note opened in a notebook when clicking into a new notebook.

What do you think of this merger of ideas?

@shikuz If this is resolvable via a plugin, that would be stellar. What do you think of this logic as described?

—

There is a feature in development by @personalizedrefriger that would help with the first use case, but it's only for the desktop and doesn't achieve independence of the primary window: "Desktop: Multiple window support" https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/pull/11181

@restreachi Does this meet your needs?

shikuz · 2024-11-01T11:25:37.337Z

I already have a mock-up plugin for the feature you described above (it's being tested).

But (1) is a tough one. Customising the note list is possible (so perhaps italics and custom position are possible), although it's not my forte. But as far as I know there's little control over the notebooks. Therefore, whenever you open a note, the notebooks and note list are automatically updated. So if you try to keep the same note open by telling Joplin to reopen it, its parent notebook will reopen too. But maybe there is a way I'm not aware of.

t0dd · 2024-11-01T11:49:01.927Z

shikuz:

maybe there is a way

One person found a way for feature (1), but it is a bit different than what we envisioned. See my updates to my comment above.

shikuz · 2024-11-02T02:14:31.492Z

Just published the first release of the plugin.

restreachi · 2024-11-02T10:51:58.622Z

Answering to your update:
Eh thats a different feature and isnt exactly for the same use-case. What i ask for i rly simple: just dont tie the opened note to the opened notebook.

t0dd · 2024-11-02T16:17:32.472Z

shikuz:

Just published the first release of the plugin .

Sticky Note ... heh. That name implies something else. Just a thought. That being said, I am excited to try it. I shall let you know.

restreachi · 2024-11-07T09:13:30.769Z

Hey, do you know if implementing my functionality is in the scope of what a plugin can do?

shikuz · 2024-11-07T11:11:41.993Z

restreachi:

What i ask for i rly simple: just dont tie the opened note to the opened notebook.

I believe that this isn't within the scope of a plugin, but rather a core app thing. Maybe @personalizedrefriger can comment on that.