Hierarchical notecards

[AsafKeller]

I, too, see the potential in this. It would be *very* useful if the hierarchy could be retained when exporting the notes, preferably as an OPML format.

[ozean]

Does the lack of comments mean the people asking for this feature are happy with this? Or they no longer care? Please comment, one way or the other.

I guess it means that we’re not as often checking the forum as you do!

I like the second mockup more than the first.

[Jon]

I, too, see the potential in this. It would be *very* useful if the hierarchy could be retained when exporting the notes, preferably as an OPML format.

I'm not sure what you mean by the hierarchy. It's just our own markup that Bookends is pretty printing. The actual text in the notes field might look like this

#This is the header
@23 This is the note, preceded by the cited page

#Another header
Another note.

Jon
Sonny Software

[AsafKeller]

I'm not sure what you mean by the hierarchy.

I (apparently mistakenly) understood that the hierarchy would have a structure like this:
#This is a header
##This is a sub-header
This is a note
##This is another sub-header
And its note
#And another header

I suppose I was reading into the proposal more than was intended.

[Jon]

You want three levels? What kind of (final) look are you looking for (no pun intended).

Jon
Sonny Software

[AsafKeller]

What kind of (final) look are you looking for

I am not too concerned about the 'look' within BE. I would like to be able to collect notes in an outline form, and then export the notes (to Tinderbox, Scrivener, etc) as OPML for writing. Support for MultiMarkdown within Notes would take care of this (although would not address the 'look' within BE.) If you enable MultiMarkdown (MMD) support, all that will be needed is the ability, within BE, to use (a publicly available) MMD to OPML exporter.

[Jon]

Ah, I see. Interesting. This of course goes well beyond the intent of this feature in Bookends (which is how to organize notecards). But I'll think about it.

Jon
Sonny Software

[Jon]

I guess it means that we’re not as often checking the forum as you do!

That is no doubt true. But don't you get a notification when a post is added to this thread? You should (unless you unchecked that option when you submitted).

Jon
Sonny Software

[ozean]

I do – but sometimes I do not click the supplied link immediately *gasp* and let it sit in my "forums" inbox for a day or two before I do. And sometimes I click it, read it, feel overwhelmed by the complexity of contemporary life, hit command-W, and stare on the snowy landscape outside for a while until I become hungry and get myself something to eat…

[aechallu]

I like the two proposals and the second slightly better. My suggestion is to try to distinguish "orphans" from "children" notes by using indents or a thicker top line (orphans and parents/headers have a thick top line, children have the usual thin outline).

On subheaders: In my opinion they would be good even if they are visually not distinct, because it means the user can reuse MMD notes or export them to MMD.

Thanks for going back to this feature request, and I'm checking the notify button...

[Jon]

By children vs orphans, do you mean those with headers and those without? If so, they are distinguished already. The headers are obvious (darker, single line, bold text) and the accompanying note is half-height. Isn't that enough? Or do you mean something different? If so, please post a mock-up of what you mean.

Jon
Sonny Software

[aechallu]

As I was doing the mockup I realized that there's a confusion in the proposals, at least in my mind.

In my proposal, I was thinking that the notestream was something like this:

Code: Select all

#this is header1

@123 this note depends on header1 (it's a child)

this other note also depends on header1 (it's a child)

#this is header2

@123 this note depends on header2 (it's a child)

Notice that the structure follows the same principle as the current implementation of notecards: blank space separates notecards, but adds some cosmetic touch to notecards that start with numerals.

It seems to me that you're thinking on structuring notes in this way:

Code: Select all

#this is header1 <notice no blank space here>
@123 this note depends on header1 (it's a child)

this other note is an orphan because it's surrounded by blank spaces. 

#this is header2
@123 this note depends on header2 (it's a child)

It may have been an oversight in the example you provided, but I believe that it's better to follow the logic that has applied so far to all notes: that blank spaces separate notes. BE is then agnostic of children or orphans. The only thing that makes a header a header is that one or more #'s at the beginning of the note adds some decoration to the notecard, but there's no other structure to it (i.e. lack/absence of blank spaces). Also, my suggestion, and I believe it's AssaffKeller's as well, is that BE parses one or more than one consecutive # as a header. There's no need to distinguish sublevels, I'm just happy with BE understanding that ## should also have the cosmetics of a header.

Applying this rationale, there are no children and orphans. Only notecards that receive the header cosmetics (bold would be enough for me) and notecards that don't get any cosmetics. For that reason, I lean toward the first example you provided, but without the indentation/centering.

Makes sense?

[Jon]

Yes, but it won't work. As I told you, row heights are invariant. Just because I draw a header at half-height doesn't mean the cell is half-height. It is not, it is the same height as the others. The note associated with the header is in the bottom half of the cell.

As I said earlier in this thread, I've changed the focus of this feature a bit and the header (the top half) applies to the note (bottom half) in the same cells. If you click on the header or the note below it, you'll be editing the same text:

#I'm a header
I'm a note. We're both in the same notecard.

Jon
Sonny Software

[Jon]

In re-reading your comment I think I may have missed your point. If I have it correctly, you simply favor the first example I posted. You can be a header or a note, but not both. In contrast to the second example, where headers can have notes. Actually, in the second example you are not forced to add a note -- you can have a standalone header. So that gives you more flexibility. Here's an example.

[aechallu]

OK, I now understand. It seems to me that the first alternative you showed is better (without any indent) because it is a direct representation of the notecard structure (header and not headers). The second proposal creates the impression of three different types of notecards. But in any case I am not opposed, it's an improvement. Thanks.