[features] many suggestions, hopefully interesting

[mariomerinomartinez]

Dear Laverna developers,

I am writing this issue to you after trying Laverna for a couple of weeks. I am really happy with your work and I must say a big thank you, for the effort you have put into it. In fact, I am actually considering using it to replace all my other note-taking pseudo-systems.

While testing it, I compiled a list of features, etc that I believe would make Laverna even better. I have decided to share that list with you, in the hope that you may perhaps find some or any of the items useful for the future. I realize that some of the items are already mentioned in other issues, and I am sorry about that. I also apologize for the length of the list! I was quite thorough. Best wishes -

Feature improvements:

• Being able to log out. I want to be able to access my notes from a temporary computer and then not have to worry that my notes are still there when I leave!
• Version history for each note (with a slider bar and hot keys to visit previous versions, when entering history mode). This would be a huge plus. Then, also, the option to search also in the text of previous versions of notes (old notes showing up as results partially greyed out), or even limit by date range
• Linking to a notebook from a note
• Notes in dropbox are saved inside a weird one-line json file, instead of a plain md file that I can read with other software without explicitly exporting first
• Note export/sync should also handle attached files too --- right now they are left behind, and are stored in the current browser only. This is BAD
• A proper tree view of notebooks and notes is missing (i.e., one where I can click to collapse or expand part of the tree)
• The option to see the notes of one notebook and all its descendants (instead of just the one folder), by activating some switch
• hitting edit brings cursor to note title, instead of inside the note last position (tremendously useful if you exit a note and come back to it many times)
• double-clicking the note preview should open the note editor with the cursor at that position (where the last click occurred)
• Being able to edit the css of the layout easily, e.g. as a special system note.
• Being able to edit notebook list, tag list, options as "special notes" instead of using menus (actually, rather than)
• A proper documentation page is missing
• themes (mainly, a dark theme)
• Ability to create nested lists of open tasks. Marking the parent note done would affect the descendents
• Auto-writing [] (task symbol) when creating a task list, just like it auto-writes "*" for a bullet list or 1. 2. 3. for a numbered list
• keyboard short cuts to navigate, mark done and undone, tasks in a note in preview mode
• Showing creation AND last edit dates of notes
• Viewing additional metainformation about the note (IP from where it was generated / edited, number of words and characters, etc)
• Sharing (with a public or private (password-protected) link, and emailing a note
• Collaboratively editing a note (like in google drive)
• publishing a frozen version (or a live version) of a note for view only. Perhaps as a blog with other published notes!
• Adding new notes by email (e.g. send an email to [email protected])
• Selecting multiple notes to act on them (e.g. move into a notebook, add tag, delete)
• Import or export a single note from/to its json file
• Import notes from/to plain md files (this would allow migrating from exported simplenote account)
• no android app exists (it can be accessed from chrome browser and then create a home screen shortcut though, which is the same: the chrome bar won't show up then)

Things that can be improved:

• Note links should show the note title as text
• A more compact note list that can show more note titles per screen
• A more compact tree view of the notebooks.
• color notes? not my particular need, but can be handy
• editor parser sometimes has hickups.
• Would it be good if the editor component was standard ACE or codemirror? i dont know what it is now. Useful key shortcuts I miss: move selected lines up or down
• settings are not synced through dropbox (in each computer I synced I had to select 1000 notes in the list, editor mode, etc)
• searching should highlight word occurrences in the note list (showing title + snippet), AND in the note view
• tasks and notebooks could perhaps be unified into the same concept, by having hierarchical tags
• note list views should be equal to search operators. For instance, to find the intersection of notes with open tasks and notes in notebook foobar, one should be able to type in something like is:open in:foobar
• After search, the first note in the list should be displayed (instead, whatever was open is kept there, which is confusing. I want to see the information I am looking for)
• There should be the option (perhaps by editing a css file or similar) to remove menu, edit, etc buttons and just run on shortcuts. This gives more screen real estate for the notes, important in small screens
• A small graphical indicator somewhere showing when the note is saved (and auto-saved, if at all) would be good
• hitting ctrl+s exits the editor, which shouldn't be by default. It should exit only when I hit ESC by default. This, together with losing my position in the note when I open it back again, is annoying
• hitting edit brings cursor to note title, instead of inside the note last position (tremendously useful if you exit a note and come back to it many times)
• double-clicking the note preview should open the note editor with the cursor at that position (where the last click occurred)

My concerns about using Laverna as my single notetaking system are:

• Will it work efficiently with 1000+ notes and 100+ notebooks and 5000+ tasks?
• seems that browsing the next note (with J/K keys), it takes a while for the note text to appear on the screen...
• Will a large note speed it down?
• Can I really operate it fully mouse-free? (so far I think so, except for marking tasks done)
• Guess it does not have conflict resolution, if a note is edited in two places and then uploaded when back online. That would be dangerous. Can Laverna easily recover from a database error? how easy it is to lose all notes?
• Is note saved as I type? or only when I hit ctrl+s? I could lose precious work if it is not saved as I type...
• Continuity in time and development of the laverna project: seems almost stopped since last year
• Requires setting up sync by hand, which is a great feature, but can also mean that I am responsible for the server (I will likely forget the pasword, how to set it up in a new machine, etc). Currently dropbox is the best option for me, although I did not manage to set it up with encryption AND then sync a second machine to it.

[ecker00]

Could anybody experienced with this project address the questions in the concerns above? I'm especially wondering how conflict resolution is handled.

[nicodoggie]

From my experience there is no conflict resolution. Last one that synced replaces contents of the note, unless there is an option I missed. I've lost a few lines of notes because of it already.

[ghost]

some comments:

Feature improvements:

Linking to a notebook from a note

-> already supported

Adding new notes by email (e.g. send an email to [email protected])

-> even better: provide api to add a note, such that it can be used by 3rd parties: email server, IDE's, Browser plugins, etc

Import notes from/to plain md files (this would allow migrating from exported simplenote account)

-> already supported

no android app exists (it can be accessed from chrome browser and then create a home screen shortcut though, which is the same: the chrome bar won't show up then)

-> has been released, haven't tested so I don't know anything about it, see #946

Things that can be improved:

My concerns about using Laverna as my single notetaking system are:

Is note saved as I type? or only when I hit ctrl+s? I could lose precious work if it is not saved as I type...

-> I am using Laverna Desktop with Dropbox. Notes are saved as I type, Notes are saved even without saving (by closing the app or other reason). Pressing Cancel reverts back to last saved state.

[dan321-max]

Why isn't a dark mode for the web app?