Desktop app: Opening/editing multiple notes

Features
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In this project, and I guess in many open source projects, we often have users who come here and say that such or such feature should obviously be present because everybody needs it. But actually that's just you - you need it, and that's fine, but don't assume everybody else does. In fact editing in new windows has been requested only a few times over several years, so I'm confident many users don't actually need this, or can do without it.

It doesn't even begin to compare with how many times multiple profile support has been requested, or spell checking (now done), note sharing, or note encryption. There's a ton of features that would have higher priority before multiple windows support.

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@ajay My delivery is direct and blunt. I'm not going to sugar coat things just so that they sound better.

If people stopped interepreting my words and just read them as they were written, there'd be no problem. So I can easily turn this around and say: don't lay words in my mouth. Read my words properly.

While I understand there are more diplomatic ways to word certain things I don't think it's necessary. Did I offend someone by stating a fact? Not really my problem. We are not in kindergarden, deal with it.

However, if you think I personally attacked someone, by all means, let's talk about it. I'm not an unreasonable person, just not for sugar coating and all that political correctness crap. If that makes me a bad person.... (fill in the rest).

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I didn't say everybody needs it, just that Evernote users have been conditioned to having it, and they represent a huge % of note app users. But of course you have much better visibility on feature requests, and if this is far behind other feature requests, then it makes perfect sense that this is not something you will take up. Thank you.

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I didn't have a problem with your response, but I did find @laurent's response more informative. Do I want ability to open/edit/view multiple notes simultaneously in any note app I switch to? Yes. But I realize I'm just a prospective passenger, not the driver. And when the drivers let me know that this feature isn't in high demand compared to other features, well there's really not much I can say to that, is there?

On that note, is there a place I can view feature requests and their popularity and perhaps submit my own vote?

I'll have to play around with using external editors and see if that works for me. The future direction of Evernote which involves no security (no more "Local Notebooks", and no encryption) is a non-starter for me, so I'll have to move somewhere, just trying to figure out where that will be.

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Feature requests are discussed in the Features category on this forum. You might find similar topics, but Laurent's reply in the first comment of this topic was pretty clear.
While unlikely does not mean never, it certainly points out that there are more pressing issues/features to tackle.

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(@jb261 - I have replied to your post but it is more aimed at the forum in general - Just thought I'd let you know!)

Does Joplin need to be competitive? Could it not be argued that Joplin doesn't have to compete or meet "feature parity", in whole or in part, with any other software as all it needs to be is Joplin. It does not need to try to acquire any other apps "market share" because it's not in the market in the first place. It's more a single dev project with that person's approach to a particular task and if people like what they see they get involved. If they don't they stick with what they are familiar with or find something else. I see Joplin as being only concerned with its software and its method. It has no need to find ways into a user's wallet. In short, it has different driving factors. Of course if it can "steal" great ideas it should!

Sophisticated does not always mean better. I moved to Joplin when Evernote thought it was getting ever so sophisticated but in fact made simple editing like cut & paste (a basic function) a right pain in the ....

I cannot argue that financial support can only be useful but I believe that a larger userbase actually benefits Joplin more by attracting those that can code to add code, thereby giving Laurent a chance to get the feeling back in his fingertips after years of typing...

With that in mind I also think that due to how quickly Joplin moves forward some think that there is a large core team of devs continually working on this project. I did. There is certainly a core but it is also apparently not large. I am not sure if GitHub is showing here what I think it is showing but I'll link to it anyway. This is basically a single person's project which others help with.

I have spent a lot of time on this forum and seen feature requests that I was convinced would not gain any traction with @laurent only for him to have the feature in place by the next release. I have also seen feature requests that go nowhere because it is not a route he wishes to take with his project. From what I have seen I cannot say that Laurent is anything but reasonable and is more than happy to consider any well-argued request (and some quite cryptic ones as well!).

I think it's great that so many enthusiastic people come here to make suggestions that they feel can improve Joplin. However frustration can creep in if those people feel that they are not being listened to. However, recently I was pushing for a minor change that was apparently not going to happen. After some time it was introduced, so if an idea is not taken up now it may still be in the future.

But the person suggesting may think the feature is an obvious "must have" or a "deal breaker" and Laurent does not and that is where we come to the crux of the matter, it's his choice what he spends his time doing. I find it easier to accept "defeat" by seeing Laurent as the project's Benevolent Dictator for Life (BDFL) who, like it or not, has the final binding say on any matter. Never spiteful but based on practicalities and personal opinion. (As an aside, when it comes to "telling it as it is" I consider @tessus the project's "Linus Torvalds" - only tessus is slightly more blunt... :slight_smile: )

@jb261 also there's nothing wrong with being the passenger and not the driver because occasionally the passenger, with a few words, stops the driver from falling asleep at the wheel!

9 Likes
27

In case someone wanting to open/view/edit multiple notes finds this thread, you can use an external editor for this. I'm using Typora and have multiple notes open. This effectively replicates what I was able to do in Evernote as it relates to opening multiple notes simultaneously. The one drawback is you have to hit save in the external editor for the edits to be saved and reflected in Joplin. CTRL+S is quick enough for me since my hands don't have to leave keyboard, but just have to get into habit of hitting it.

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If the editing function is important to you, then you can consider using joplin vscode plugin, I think it can meet your needs.

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

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Any reason for that ?
This feature would be very useful.

O

You mean automatically, and from Joplin directly ? While still having Joplin open and editing in it ?

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@Iutech welcome to the forum.

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

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

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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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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

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

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Open two notes side by side

image
image2498×1440 225 KB

Compare two notes

image
image1253×858 70.4 KB

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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...

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

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)