[UX] Starting a new note and tags area

After updating to version 1.2.6 I noticed two changes on the desktop app I do not like at all:

  1. When I create a note and I enter the title it is not possible anymore to start with the text after typing return. One has to move the cursor into the text field with the mouse.
  2. The tag area is now at the bottom of the screen. So you do not have all the meta-information (title, tags) in one place as it was used previously. But even worse: After you moved the cursor the whole screen down for creating a tag the editor window for tags opens still at the old place above. So you have to move – at least with your eyes, but you want to choose from the dropdown list also with the mouse – twice across the whole screen.

I am not sure if I missed something but I was really surprised as my old routine of opening a note and adding tags did not work as supposed anymore.

I am using Joplin for Desktop

Copyright © 2016-2020 Laurent Cozic
Joplin 1.2.6 (prod, darwin)

Client ID: fa6b88d838eb4576bce5ac60876fe473
Sync Version: 2
Profile Version: 34
Keychain Supported: Yes

Revision: f5f117c (master)

The reason it's that way is that not everyone use tags, and even if you do, some notes won't have tags. In that case, there will be a blank white bar at the top of the screen, which is not ideal. It's less of a problem at the bottom.

It's possible the current setup is not the best and I agree it's not great when you have to look up and down all the time to get the right info, but not sure how to improve it at this point.

Is it possible to not show the bar if a note has no tags?

Just a couple of options to suggest for consideration

Option 1

  • Have the "In: Notebook" button appear at the top of every note, not just when selecting a set of notes by tag (I think @uxamanda has suggested this in another post)

  • Use the space to the right for tags

    • The note editor bar does not bounce up and down when you move between notes that do show "In: Notebook" and those that don't, as it does at the moment.
    • There is now space for tags to the right of "In: Notebook" that will not disappear if there are no tags.
    • The single bar provides the details of how the user has classified the note (notebook / tag(s))
    • The notebook / tag list is now always immediately after the title (consistent)
    • If there are no tags this space between the title and the note itself appears a bit "wasteful", as it does at the moment.

Option 2

  • Have the "In: Notebook" button appear at the bottom of every note to the left of the tags / tags button

  • Move the tag editor dialog from, dialog top edge 20px below the top of the window, to, dialog bottom edge 20px above the bottom of the window.

    • The note editor bar does not bounce up and down when you move between notes that do show "In: Notebook" and those that don't, as it does at the moment.
    • The single bar provides the details of how the user has classified the note (notebook / tag(s))
    • The editor toolbar is now always immediately after the title (consistent)
    • When you click the button to edit tags the editor appears near the area you clicked, not at the top of the window.

Both options

  • Make the tag behave like "In: Notebook" in that if you click on it it places all notes that share that tag in the note list.
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If the "In: Notebook" and tags were combined it may require some styling to present them "unified". Crude mock-up below...

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As a workaround you can use the Tab key instead. (Tested with 1.3.9. I'm not sure, if that's also the case with 1.2.6.)

Thank you! Tab works with 1.2.6 too.

Yes, tab works for shifting focus to the note, and for the tags you can at least use the (configurable in the latest versions) shortcut key to bring up the tag selector (I think it's ctrl+alt+t by default in 1.3.9?)

I would LOVE it if Option 1 was implemented!!!
Thanks @dpoulton for this post!

I would even add the navigation buttons to this bar. Then I could make the editor toolbar invisible (since I don't need it), but I wouldn't "lose" the navigation buttons.

Here's a screenshot of what I am meaning:

navigation-bar

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