Experimental WYSIWYG editor in Joplin

desk7 · 2020-04-02T15:10:19.051Z

I tried WYSIWYG editor a bit and I personally don’t like it. I think it betrays the spirit of markdown and its immediacy. I know this editor won’t replace the split-view but I think it would be much better an editor with in-place markdown preview: you have the advantage of seeing the result immediately in the same panel without having to give up the convenience of markdown and especially without having to click here and there to edit formulas, code, links etc. Famous examples of this approach are Typora, Zettlr and many others.
Is that a possibility you’ve already considered and discarded?

laurent · 2020-04-02T16:21:14.689Z

As far as I’m aware there’s no such editor in JS that would provide the customisation we need for Joplin.

But also you’ll find some people who are used to Typora and would prefer that way to format their text, and others (probably more numerous) who are used to real WYSIWYG like in Word, and they’ll prefer that.

In fact, I don’t think it would make sense to add a second Markdown editor to the mix (even if it’s a more advanced one like Typora), because that won’t address the main point that many people still want a Word-like editor.

As for clicking buttons to format text, we can always improve that over time with shortcuts, etc. (in fact Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I, etc. already works). And Typora also needs a separate text box for math formulas, diagrams, etc. It’s still code that needs to be entered separately.

desk7 · 2020-04-02T16:50:49.472Z

I point out that Typora doesn’t need separate text boxes: simply moving the keyboard cursor the preview disappears and the markdown code appears. Moving away the keyboard cursor, the preview reappear.
You say that people still want a Word-like editor. What does it really mean? I can’t understand: if I use Typora using shortcuts or buttons doesn’t it give you a Word-like experience? Meanwhile, if I am a markdown user, I can use markdown syntax flawlessly with preview and on full-screen, not half.

Sophia · 2020-04-03T04:56:11.858Z

Speaking strictly for myself, I have no affiliation whatsoever with Markdown. I like the cleanness behind the scenes, but I have no reason to ever look at it as long as the wysiwyg formatting looks good. In fact I don't like Markdown much, it's very restrictive (no colored text etc).

I think that is what Laurent means by people wanting a Word editor. I'm definitely not much of a geek and love the new editor exactly because it doesn't shove Markdown down my throat. I personally hate Typora for that reason.

The reason I moved to Joplin is because I was fed up with the lack of innovation at Evernote and their ever increasing prices and Joplin is almost a perfect replacement. Plus development is awesome and the price is right (go donate now!)

I think this editor might draw in a lot more users like me, who just want to clip web pages, make notes, collect recipes etc without any desire to look at the code.

Of course this is just one person's opinion, but that's how I see it

desk7 · 2020-04-03T07:50:42.964Z

Ok. Now I see your point.

jason-01 · 2020-04-05T11:33:58.704Z

I have just started using Joplin this week to check it out, previously I used Typora and now I use Mark-text as my daily note taking app, well I disagree with @Sophia on this one.

I have been using mark text which is imho a more refined version of typora and its open source too! my only problem with mark text is it tries to do too much(has all lot of features) but in some area it fails to get the basic right(problems with redo-undo, does not allow you to move the lone up by pressing alt+up arrow etc…), Joplin on the other hand does the basics well, i have no annoying bug i encountered in my first week on taking notes on joplin but i also felt it lacked some features that were present in marktext

I believe since joplin has to support both wysiwyg and markdown (it toggle between both the modes at anytime of writing notes), the wysiwyg would just be a very bare bones version of what it could be (like a wysiwyg editor with only making words bold , italic etc) it cannnot support variable fonts, variable font-size, font color, indentation, because how will the notes look when you toggle back to markdown. So in essence it people wouldn’t jump ship and leave their WYSIWYG editor to joplin because i seriously doubt how can joplin support both MD and Rich-text with all the complex features, so what is left is a very basic version.

In additon to that I know alot of people who would never touch wysiwyg, it would be waste of resources in implelementing a feature which half of the community might never use.
Plus believe me or not i feel i have more fliexibility when i write markdown, typora isn’t the best implementation of a inline-markdown editor and i belive Joplin can get alot of people to start using it if it does the inline markdown editor right.

I seriously urge you @Sophia to try an inline markdown editor, its simply the best of both worlds, i would love if @laurent can support it!!!

Sophia · 2020-04-05T19:17:11.579Z

Always happy to read different opinions, that way we learn from each other

Sophia · 2020-04-06T01:12:11.215Z

Found a small bug: in the new editor, links won’t open (not even if you right click and choose open web page). I have to go back to the split view to open links!

laurent · 2020-04-06T14:46:18.293Z

A few thoughts about the wysiwyg vs inline-markdown issue:

Before settling on the current solution, I’ve tried 3 or 4 other editors and none of them was good enough. So at some level, it doesn’t matter that much if inline-markdown is better or not, there’s just no existing editor that would work for Joplin.
WYSIWYG has probably been the most asked feature for Joplin since the day it was released. It’s been asked dozens of time in many different forums. Almost never did anyone mentioned they’d like inline-markdown editing. We’re a bit biased in this forum because we like Markdown, but truth is Typora is a very niche editor and what everybody is familiar with is regular Word-like wysiwyg editor.
If somebody is motivated enough, they can always add Typora like feature on top of what I’m developing now. TinyMCE would definitely support inline-editing. In fact, even if we wanted Typora style editing, we’d still need the work that’s being done now first.

jason-01 · 2020-04-09T13:37:40.421Z

Thank you @laurent for being understanding about this, one more reason i prefer an inline-md editor is the space i get while taking down notes, i usually take down notes while watching youtube videos, and it becomes really annoying if you constantly need to switch panes,

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while this becomes incresing annoying in split markdown mode

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bedwardly-down · 2020-04-17T20:15:23.908Z

I’m not sure if this is the proper location for it, but the mobile version on iOS 13.4 needs a bit of adjustment.

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The tool bar needs to be raised a bit. I keep accidentally hitting the word bar at the top of the keyboard when i try to hit some of the buttons.

laurent · 2020-04-17T22:24:38.501Z

bedwardly-down:

I’m not sure if this is the proper location for it, but the mobile version on iOS 13.4 needs a bit of adjustment.

This thread is for the desktop wysiwyg editor. We don't have a thread yet for the new mobile editor actually. I was planning to make an announcement for it by I'm waiting till we upgrade RN as that will fix a crash in Android.

bwl21 · 2020-04-19T20:41:33.431Z

I am looking for a proper replacement for Wunderlist and Joplin is really promising. But this feature (I would call it antifeature) is really making me nervous. I am so tired of wasting time with making WYSIWYG editor to do what I really mean.

But on Mobile we need a working “Share” feature such that I can send stuff with the share menu to Joplin. This is IMHO more important than WYSIWYG

tessus · 2020-04-19T20:48:56.518Z

bwl21:

I am so tired of wasting time with making WYSIWYG editor to do what I really mean.

Why? You don't have to use it. I have never even opened the WYSIWYG editor on my main Joplin instance. (I started it one time in my local dev build for testing purposes.)

bwl21:

But on Mobile we need a working “Share” feature such that I can send stuff with the share menu to Joplin.

It's being worked on. We had a share-to-joplin on Android for text data, but the module we've used is not maintained properly and broke when we upgraded react-native. On iOS it never worked and I'm not sure what the status is.

bwl21 · 2020-04-19T21:23:21.048Z

Thanks for your reply. As long as you do need remove the plain markdown editor, I don’t care about the WYSIWYG stuff.

The issue with „share“ is really bad. I mostly crate todos and Notes using „share“ on my mobile …

We will see.

Thanks

b.

tessus · 2020-04-19T21:35:14.511Z

bwl21:

As long as you do need remove the plain markdown editor,

Hahahaha, definitely not. This would be a total showstopper - at least for me.

bwl21:

The issue with „share“ is really bad.

Yes, I agree. That's why I haven't upgraded my Android version. The last version that had the share-to functionality (only for text though) was 1.0.316. If you are using iOS, you are currently out of luck.
Please note: If you use E2EE, you won't be able to use 1.0.316, because the encryption algorithm has changed and 1.0.316 does not understand this new algorithm.

SteveShank · 2020-04-21T23:19:56.360Z

I’d also like to get this back. For the interim, I can sometimes use copy and paste into Joplin from wherever. Sometimes I end up emailing myself.

huy · 2020-06-03T00:30:00.159Z

For those of you who wanted to try this out and couldn’t find the mentioned menu: View => Layout button sequence, and choose "Split / WYSIWYG"

You now I have to click the Code View button to toggle back and forth

pasmon79 · 2020-06-16T22:45:09.396Z

Can we get some keys for entering katex on toolbar like “, $$”?

Salasso · 2020-07-13T12:54:19.267Z

This is definitely moving in the right direction! I love it!!! THANKS!