Notes Improvements: Back/Fwd,Favourites,Created/Updated Time

[coohle]

I use EPIM Pro on a daily basis since 2007. I have a large notes collection and I would like to suggest the addition of three features which I believe would greatly improve the usability of the Notes module for users who use this module extensively. These are standard features found in other note taking applications such as Ultra Recall, MyBase, etc (my point being that they are very useful features):

1. Add basic back/forward navigation through viewed notes (same behaviour as when browsing web pages and using the "Go Back" and "Go Forward" commands). The Back/Forward buttons could be displayed on the Notes bar. Clicking the Back button would open the previously viewed note, etc.

2. Add the "Favourite Notes" feature: Provide an option to save notes to a Favourites list and allow quick switching to a particular Note by selecting it from a Favourites drop down menu item (same as the Favourites/Bookmarks feature in web browsers).

3. Provide information about the creation and last update date of a note. This information could be displayed either on screen somewhere (for example on or below the toolbar), or if that's not possible, then in a new "Properties" window that would be invoked by right clicking the note in the tree and selecting "Properties".

I hope that you will consider the addition of these features.

Thanks,
Ivan

[Max]

Hello,

thank you for the suggestions! They all sound logical and useful. However, can not promise a quick implementation, as we have a long list of other things...

[ypim]

I vote for 2) and 3).
These are really great suggestion - and they improve the work with epim!

[trollpk]

I would like these features too.

[rocketranch]

The notes section really needs this improvements coohle suggested

[coohle]

Now that version 5.5 is out and stabilized, I would like to bump this thread which contains some simple but very useful suggestions related to the Notes module. I hope that the interested user base is significant enough to make this a feature for version 6.x (there's another thread with the same feature request: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11819)

Thanks!

[hannibal_barca_1974]

I am in strong agreemement with the originator of this thread, coohle, who in supporting his suggestion for navigating his notes, also quoted my own thread viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11819 which is on the same topic. In addition to the two of us, ypim, trollpk, rocketranch, scotty, escaltz and petrsimanek have all expressed an interest in this initiative to the significant betterment of the Notes Module.

Of course it is understood that there are multiple modules in this great PIM, and every user has his favourite module(s) and their own specific uses of this software, and so in appreciation of the efforts made by the developers on the new EssentialPIM website and a determination to improve all of the existing modules, I commend that the three of coohle's suggestions in this thread, be incorporated into a future release!*


*within a year would be nice, if at all possible with your other commitments to EPIM.

Thanks, Paul.

[coohle]

First of all I would like to thank you for a very nice 6.0 version. The performance of the Notes section is noticeably better, it loads faster at startup and the searches seem to be faster as well. Also, the ability to format the font of the notes topics makes a significant improvement in trying to find "that" important note. So, thanks for these improvements, much appreciated!

I assume that the new set of features for the next major release is in planning so I would like to bring your attention to the features mentioned in this old thread which was supported by a good few users in the forum. The improvements would allow us to spend less time searching through the Notes and time is everything these days.

I hope that you will consider the addition of these features.

Thanks,
Ivan

[mattz]

I agree... nice job on V6.0, thank you!...

the notes features as per top post would be nice, but I would vote for a slightly different priority:

• 1- back/forward [#1 above]
  2- properties (created/modified/size/etc) [#3 above]
  3- favorites [#2 above]

Matt Z.

[Scotty]

Agreed. These 3 improvements would be excellent
Great time-savers.

I would probably use option 1 (forward<>backward buttons) more times daily than any other feature of EPIM.


Rgds
Scotty

[Max]

Hello,

thank you for your comments.

Regarding the favorites- what if you create a special tree called "Favorites" and store Notes there?
Regarding last modified data- so far you can see the last modified date of Notes in Tools-> Advanced Search (enable "Last modified" field)

[coohle]

Hi Maxim,

I have over 4000 notes which have been categorized over the years in 5 tabs, each with a complex tree structure. I don't find it feasible to pull out some specific notes into a new 'Favourites' tree as it would break the original structure.

The point of the 'Favourites' feature is to allow us quick access to the notes we use most often and display them in the regular Notes view. A workaround which I'm using at the moment is to have a special note with links to all the 'favourite' notes. The problem with this is that clicking the links opens up a popup window instead of oppening a note in the notes view which is not ideal (for example if I want to reference sibblings of the opened note I still have to look for the note manually). Perhaps the solution could be to have an option to open the notes-link in the Notes viewer instead of in the popup window?

Thanks,
Ivan

[Max]

Hi Maxim,

I have over 4000 notes which have been categorized over the years in 5 tabs, each with a complex tree structure. I don't find it feasible to pull out some specific notes into a new 'Favourites' tree as it would break the original structure.

The point of the 'Favourites' feature is to allow us quick access to the notes we use most often and display them in the regular Notes view. A workaround which I'm using at the moment is to have a special note with links to all the 'favourite' notes. The problem with this is that clicking the links opens up a popup window instead of oppening a note in the notes view which is not ideal (for example if I want to reference sibblings of the opened note I still have to look for the note manually). Perhaps the solution could be to have an option to open the notes-link in the Notes viewer instead of in the popup window?

Thanks,
Ivan

OK, point taken.

[MetalDrop]

I'd like to add a +1 for the Created and last changed / modified information.

Specifically I would like to see them shown in the status bar, I know the database tracks both of these things they are just not exposed in any place that is really useful, and adding them to the status bar would require trivial amounts of work.

You can get the created date by using advanced search, but there is no way that I can find in the EPIM interface to find the last changed date.
Which brings up the request of also adding a last changed / modified column to advanced search, so you can see the information and sort by it.


The back/forward options is a sudo +1 as I've made the request for EPIM to support the standard and widely available back/forward mouse buttons, and this would be a great example of where they could come in handy.

[FireStarter]

I vote for 1 and 3, as long as they don't clutter the interface (option to show/hide the path, shortcut for (1)).