(Apologies if there are other threads about this - I couldn't find anything when I searched.)
I recently migrated to Joplin from Evernote, and so far it has been a massive improvement, and aside from a couple of things that I've sorted out using plugins it works pretty much the way I'd like.
The only major issue I'm still facing relates to one part of the interface. I am using Joplin to organise a mixture of typed notes and scanned documents. Often when I scan things in I edit the date created parameter to match the date on the document itself (e.g. the date a letter I scanned was written rather than the date I scanned it in), and at present the process I'm using to do this takes several steps - clicking "Note Properties", then the little button next to "Updated" or "Created", then selecting a date. Interestingly, years ago this worked the way I liked in in the main window of Evernote, and then they hid it down under a couple of submenus (the same way that Joplin seems to handle it) and also prevented changes to the date updated, limiting it only to date created, which at the time was an annoying change for me that I eventually just put up with unhappily.
Since this is a function I use with almost every note I create, is there any way to edit this field directly from the main window? It would save me probably 5-10 seconds per note and also dramatically reduce the amount of mouse movement needed to do this task. Being able to type a date in rather than pick it from a calendar would be even better. I note that the last modified date of the note is visible there is read-only as far as I can see. Not sure if this is an option somewhere that I've missed, or if someone has made a plugin to do this already. Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Sort of. I know I can do it that way, but since I do this for almost every note, I was wondering if there is any way to edit the date/time from the main screen without doing the four steps needed through the "i" button (press 'i' -> press the edit icon -> click the text box -> select a date). If the date could be typed in the box to the left of 'i' then I could do this with one click and some typing. When I have to do it for hundreds of notes this is a lot faster. This used to be how it worked in Evernote but then they changed it to make it take multiple steps like how it currently seems to work in Joplin, which to me was a significant downgrade. I was hoping there was some way to streamline it in Joplin, either through a setting I've missed or a plugin.
We wouldn't make that part of the main app, however it's exactly for this kind of specialised workflow that plugin support was added. You could indeed have a button or keyboard shortcut that opens a dialog and allows you to set the date easily.
That's simple to implement but you'd need to be familiar with writing plugins, or find someone who can do it for you.
Thanks for your reply. Makes sense. I have no familiarity with plugin-writing (or coding of any sort), so unless I go on a bit of a learning adventure I'd be unlikely to figure out how to do this myself.
I'll admit I'm a little curious as to the categorical statement that you wouldn't make it part of the main app - given that there is currently already a read-only text box showing the date updated sitting at the top of each note, it would seem like a minor change to allowing this field to be edited directly on that screen rather than read-only, which would allow people with a similar workflow to me to speed things up quite a bit for themselves. Anyone who didn't want to use it wouldn't have to touch it.
Obviously Joplin is not Evernote, but I recall at the time that their app changed how this works to how Joplin handles it, there was quite a lot of support on their forums for reverting to the old system, which suggested to me that my workflow here is not an unusual edge case and that this is something that other users might also enjoy. Is there somewhere I could log it as a feature request?
Anyway, I'll leave it at that. If anyone who reads this has the knowledge to turn this functionality into a plugin and would be willing to do so it would be much appreciated! (I'm aware this is a big ask from an internet stranger)
Makes sense. Without knowing how much work would be involved with fulfilling my request I'm a bit uncomfortable just approaching an existing plugin developer and asking them to do something like this for me. But I'll have a think about it!