On the desktop we can do all kinds of fancy stuff. On the mobile we are limited.
Personally, I do not use the mobile for extensive note taking/editing anyway, but I would like to have access to (view) the information in the notes.
On the desktop I can use a plethora of fancy note taking/editing tools. On the mobile I can use a plethora of simple note viewing tools. Several tools exist that allow me to share desktop and mobile notes. If you’re privacy minded you can use a private cloud like Nextcloud. Otherwise use Drive, Dropbox, etc.
I’m not sure anymore what the added values of Joplin are compared to e.g. NextCloud Notes and QOwnNotes.
Not sure what you mean? If there are alternatives, I guess the question is instead why you’re still using Joplin? And the answer to that will be the added value.
Lots of people prefer to have a few text files they sync on their devices, and that’s fine. Personally I need more than this, and each user will have their own different reasons.
To first answer your question: I’m still using Joplin (for testing, not production) hoping it will get to the point that it will be more useful for me than the alternatives. It has potential.
I think that initially I hoped that Joplin would evolve towards a simple but powerful abstract, cloud backed, notes storage server, accessible via a well-defined API, and complemented by a simple but useful user interface. Other clients could provide dedicated user interfaces using the storage server.
In theory, the storage server is still there (the headless server) but it is merely an API to the SQLite database. Except for the browser clippers there are no tools AFAIK that use the API.
But most important (for me): the user experience of Joplin is still below average. Tools like VNote and QOwnNotes have an advanced user interface, the result of many years of user interface evolution. You can customize the interface for simple and complex use. The Joplin UI is still basic and inflexible. Nevertheless some users will love it since it is what they want. It’s just not what I want.
I am not saying that Joplin is a failure, au contraire, it is an excellent initiative and I hope it blooms. I like a lot of Joplin’s features but after more than a year of trying and experimenting Joplin and I are still not near to the point where I’ll start migrating my vast collection of decades of notes.
Thank you, this is a great long expected feature! This is amazing, testing it now.
One thing I’ve noticed is that its Markdown formatting style may be inconsistent with manually written markdown notes by many users. This will break consistency in text formatting once someone changes from manual to WYSIWYG and back, when editing a note.
Specifically, bulleted lists use * and three spaces tabulation (while many might use - and a single space), with an empty line in-between the items.
Is that something that can be left configurable, so that users can adapt to their own style?
No, the goal is to generate valid Markdown from the HTML, but there won't be any attempt to make that Markdown pretty or configurable. For more control over how the Markdown should look, there will still be the Markdown editor.
I do hope that it will match the terminology of the import feature and web clipper eventually though. I test edited a few notes and now part of the note uses the asterisk for italic and the edited sections suddenly switched that to the underscore.
Though this might not be a big deal (they both work), my inborn quest for uniformity rebels against that haha.
As I’m making progresses with this I indeed notice a few inconsistencies with the generated Markdown, which I’m fixing. The generated Markdown would be similar to the one from the Stackoverflow toolbar for example.
So *italic*, **bold**, and lists: (I’ve removed the extra spaces)
- One
- Two
If you notice any other inconsistencies please let me know.
Will do! And thanks so much for all your hard work... either you have three clones of yourself running around or you are part machine... I haven't figured out which yet
For what it is worth, I’ve been using the wysiwyg editor for about a week now, and am very happy with it. Windows 10. I haven’t found any issues yet. I tend to have multiple windows open sharing space on 2 monitors and leave Joplin open all day, taking notes, as well as using previous notes to work. So, Joplin only gets half of one monitor. I also have notes for stuff I’m working on in multiple places, so before normally had 4 panels open. It’s much easier to find things which I bullet list or bold or use a header to make it stand out with 3 panels instead of 4.
I’d used Evernote for years and imported about 2,000 notes. Even before wysiwyg I found it better and more useful than Evernote. This editor is even better, plus I can always switch back if needed.
One more thing, is that a Wysiwyg editor was needed before I could recommend Joplin to business clients who simply won’t be able to handle markdown.
Glad it's working for you, as the goal of this release is indeed to have a stable base usable on a daily basis, and which can be improved over time. And indeed wysiwyg will make the app more accessible to less technical users.
I'm happy to say that the issues I had with the WYSIWYG editor seem solved:
Images display correctly now
Italic is consistent with the rest of my notes
Bullet points are now spaced correctly
The only minor inconsistency now is when I clip a web page or import Evernote, lists bullet points are displayed as * and the new editor changes those to -. It's absolutely no deal breaker, but you asked to report these things I actually prefer the - so I wouldn't be at all upset if you changed it to the dash everywhere.
Thanks for all your hard work, loving Joplin more by the day!
I actually prefer the