Desktop app: Opening/editing multiple notes

dpoulton · 2021-06-02T12:44:25.949Z

@Iutech welcome to the forum.

@laurent 's reply you quoted was dated 2018. Tabbed notes are now available as a plugin.

Here's my first plugin I wrote. It shall allow you to "open" multiple notes at a time in tabs. You can install it via the Joplin plugin system. Please see here for details. I hope it will help you to improve your daily work with Joplin. Features Display selected note as tab Additional display options below the tabs Navigation buttons ( historyBackward/Forward ) Completion status of all checklists in selected note Full breadcrumbs for selected note Pin note(s) to the tabs E…

I have also updated your other post regarding where to find out more about what Joplin can do.

rxliuli · 2021-06-02T13:15:12.202Z

It is impossible to support opening all notes at the same time. This is something that all note-taking tools cannot do. For example, I have 400 notes and I cannot open all notes at once, which will cause the program to freeze. And, in any case, you can only edit one note at the same time. Even if there are split windows, you can only edit at most 4-5 at the same time. Having said that, you can open all the notes at once through the plug-in, even if it may not make much sense

Iutech · 2021-06-02T13:32:58.460Z

rxliuli:

For example, I have 400 notes and I cannot open all notes at once

Thanks for the answer, but I'm not sure that anybody was talking about doing that ?
The problem is that right now it's not possible (afaik) to open two or three notes side-to-side (for example to compare text).
I did install the Note tabs and it doesn't allow it either; I had asked for that feature on his repository and he answered that it's not something he can do at the level of the plugin, that such a feature should be requested at the core Joplin level.

rxliuli · 2021-06-02T13:34:22.737Z

If editing functions are important to you, I still recommend external editors, which are more professional text editors.

robotcorner · 2021-06-03T05:23:27.765Z

I happen to STRONGLY disagree that viewing multiple notes and being able to edit them side by side is not useful. This seems the best method to condense sets of notes into coherent larger notes. This has been my workflow anyway with word, vs-code, or other apps throughout my life the past 10+ years. To think that this is not a very useful feature to me seems shortsighted to your immediate use case only. Developers can spend time on what they want, but I wouldn't discourage a new developer away from thinking this is a useful feature if they want to contribute their time. They wouldn't put this feature in a large majority of the other popular apps if it wasn't useful.

Iutech · 2021-06-03T07:18:01.317Z

rxliuli:

If editing functions are important to you, I still recommend external editors, which are more professional text editors.

Why not, what is the workflow you would propose in such situations ?

rxliuli · 2021-06-03T08:00:58.578Z

ref # Personal Experience Sharing: Using Joplin + VSCode as a Note-Taking Tool

Iutech · 2021-06-04T08:33:42.566Z

Thanks, but I don't see anything there that answers my question ?

rxliuli · 2021-06-04T11:16:43.268Z

Open two notes side by side

image2498×1440 225 KB

Compare two notes

image1253×858 70.4 KB

Iutech · 2021-06-04T11:38:38.249Z

Thanks, that is exactly what I want to do.
How do you achieve this ? If I'm not mistaken, it's not explained in the above link...

rxliuli · 2021-06-04T11:53:09.789Z

This is a function of VSCode, let me explain. . . You can take a look here:

Window segmentation: Visual Studio Code June 2018
Compare two files: Visual Studio Code - is there a Compare feature like that plugin for Notepad ++? - Stack Overflow

If you have never been in contact with a professional editor before, it is recommended to take a look at VSCode's series of video tutorials (you can skip the programming related parts)

code.visualstudio.com

Visual Studio Code Introductory Videos

Overview of Visual Studio Code's introductory videos.

Iutech · 2021-06-04T14:04:51.403Z

OK, the image shows the process clearly, thanks. The part that is done in VSCode, at least.
But what is your workflow between Joplin and VSCode since, if I understand correctly, you advise me to open my Joplin notes with VSCode if I want to compare files or segment the window ?

Again, I couldn't find an explanation about how to do that in the links that you provided.

rxliuli · 2021-06-04T15:18:23.872Z

In general, I use both vscode and joplin at the same time, so use joplin-vscode-plugin to connect them, nothing more.

test 2

vscode has many excellent features, I can't list them all (the official document will do it), I just explain the features related to joplin notes (mainly some plug-ins)

bbusschots · 2021-09-24T09:51:48.108Z

I just want to add my voice here and say that this is extremely basic functionality, and that as a new user I am literally stunned that something so basic is missing in an app that has been around for so long.

I assumed I was just being dumb and that I was missing the obvious "open in new window" button, but alas no, the app assumes people only want one note at a time. That may be true for some, but it's absolutely not true for me.

I REALLY want to get away from EverNote, and there is so much that is right about Joplin, but this is just an absolute clanger — I've paid for a year of cloud, but at this stage I feel like I've wasted my money and am going to be forced back to EverNote

johano · 2021-09-24T14:04:30.715Z

Have you tried adding the Note Tabs plugin?

Daeraxa · 2021-09-24T16:50:03.209Z

What functionality are you lacking by being able to open the note in an external editor rather than the Joplin editor? I tend to use Joplin directly for editing a note and open up any additional notes in MarkText if I want to compare. Otherwise I'll open them up in a proper IDE.

bbusschots · 2021-09-24T23:02:43.317Z

I have — it's better than nothing, but still only shows one note at any one time. I can't spread my notes out across my screen, nor can I have different notes in different spaces. I'm a HUGE spaces user, and a huge note taker, I have always been able to have the right note in the right space depending on what task I am working on. I feel utterly trapped in Joplin

bbusschots · 2021-09-24T23:04:56.825Z

I tried that — it's a dirty hack. Each note has a different copy of the editor in the task switcher, and the windows all have cryptic names so you can't tell which note is which.

The ability to open multiple notes is table stakes. I'm SHOCKED that people are surprised people might want such trivially basic functionality. I never expected to be asked to justify the most basic basic basic feature of an app on a WINDOWED OS.

I'm asking for some butter for my bread, and people are reacting as if I'd asked for a golden spoon!

Daeraxa · 2021-09-24T23:25:04.928Z

My, we do have a flair for the dramatic don't we? Generally it doesn't tend to go down well when one joins a community and then acts up against the people attempting to help and explain.

If this functionality was truly as basic a requirement as you claim then it would be in the application. The fact is that it hasn't therefore means it can't be a "basic basic basic" feature or it would have made it in long ago. I rarely have more than one or two notes open at once, if I wanted more then I would use something like @rxliuli's vscode-plugin which works extremely well and leverages all of the power of a full on IDE/editor.

Joplin has a lot of happy users and sure, I imagine some or a lot of them would like this feature (I mean, I wouldn't exactly say no) but it is hardly a dealbreaker for the masses or it wouldn't have a userbase this large and I personally would prefer for other things to be developed in preference.

There are plenty of other note applications out there, if your particular workflow is so intrinsically tied to the features of an application then I would advise using them for a bit first to work out which one actually suits your needs best - there is never going to be a one size fits all solution.

rxliuli · 2021-09-25T03:19:42.674Z

In fact, the real advantage of multi-tab pages is that they can display two at the same time for comparison, which is not practical for most people, including programmers who spend most of their time focusing on a few files and then quickly switching files.
But if this ability is very important to you, then you can use a professional external editor, such as vscode + joplin-vscode-plugin, each choice is a trade-off and trade-off.

https://joplin-utils.rxliuli.com/joplin-vscode-plugin/

Most of the time I open two files at the same time for comparison(git), IDE even has a special editing mode to support displaying only the file currently being edited, just like joplin's default behavior

Full use of vscode will give up part of the joplin plugins, but you can also use some of the vscode plugins. This is also a choice for us. If joplin does show some "essential" plugins, maybe we will choose to use them at the same time