Brandon's Blog: Saturday, April 22, 2023

Writing into the void about whatever I'm on about

Saturday, April 22, 2023

Writing Test with Bike#

Notable differences vs. Workflowy:#

Not able to bold/italicize/link in the OPML format editor...#
This feels like a deal-breaker.#

Writing Test with Workflowy#

One of my challenges with this blog format is the writing experience in Drummer. It feels a bit clunky (that's very likely because I haven't figured out the keyboard commands and navigation shortcuts). It's very different from other outliners that I am used to.#
Using the list of OPML-compatible apps, I discovered a few alternatives that might work well#

Bike #

really lightweight #
fast#
opml-native#
costs $30USD#

Workflowy #

Maybe a bit much for my purposes#
250 bullets/mo on the free version might suffice; $5/mo for the Pro if needed#
iOS version#
Good links support.#

OmniOutliner#

I have an "Essentials" licence on my Mac.#
This may work as well.#
Links seem a bit awkward.#

None of the above options seem to have support for OPML-attributes, which is unfortunate. I was hoping for an easier way to add things like "flbulletedlist", "urlimage", etc.#
Test successful!#

It was quite easy to download from Workflowy, and import into Drummer. #
Slight problem: when I import, I can't make it a "post". I needed to rejig the outline in order for that to display properly.#

Show/Hide for Fields in Tana needs some enhancements#

Fields in Tana are quite powerful. #
You can create a set of default fields for Supertags, and they will automatically be suggested below the node as soon as the Supertag is assigned.#
The problem: They are distracting! #
Structured data is great; but sometimes you just want to focus on the text. #
For Fields to feel really good for me in Tana, they need some enhancements around visibility. The following might help:#

Ability to adjust the default show/hide preferences for a field for each Instance of that field.#

e.g. I may want "Area" to be "show when empty" on a project, but "always hide" on another Supertag.#

Ability to quickly toggle the visibility of all fields on a node. #

i.e. collapse them, without collapsing the sub-node contents.#
This should be assignable to a keyboard shortcut (which is easy to do as long as its in the Command Line.#

Ability to adjust the show/hide default for a particular session. Like adjusting light/dark mode.#

When I'm writing-focused, for example, I want to be able to enter a "hide all fields, unless I toggle them on for a node" mode. #

In summary:#

Adjust default show/hide for each instance of a field (on different supertags).#
Ability to toggle the collapse status of fields per node.#
Ability to toggle the default collapse status of fields globally.#

Currently, I don't use Fields as much as I could be, due to their overwhelming presence. I believe these changes would help users get the most of Fields, while allowing them to fade into the background when possible.#

Saturday, April 22, 2023

Writing Test with Bike#

Notable differences vs. Workflowy:#

Not able to bold/italicize/link in the OPML format editor...#
This feels like a deal-breaker.#

Writing Test with Workflowy#

One of my challenges with this blog format is the writing experience in Drummer. It feels a bit clunky (that's very likely because I haven't figured out the keyboard commands and navigation shortcuts). It's very different from other outliners that I am used to.#
Using the list of OPML-compatible apps, I discovered a few alternatives that might work well#

Bike #

really lightweight #
fast#
opml-native#
costs $30USD#

Workflowy #

Maybe a bit much for my purposes#
250 bullets/mo on the free version might suffice; $5/mo for the Pro if needed#
iOS version#
Good links support.#

OmniOutliner#

I have an "Essentials" licence on my Mac.#
This may work as well.#
Links seem a bit awkward.#

None of the above options seem to have support for OPML-attributes, which is unfortunate. I was hoping for an easier way to add things like "flbulletedlist", "urlimage", etc.#
Test successful!#

It was quite easy to download from Workflowy, and import into Drummer. #
Slight problem: when I import, I can't make it a "post". I needed to rejig the outline in order for that to display properly.#

Show/Hide for Fields in Tana needs some enhancements#

Fields in Tana are quite powerful. #
You can create a set of default fields for Supertags, and they will automatically be suggested below the node as soon as the Supertag is assigned.#
The problem: They are distracting! #
Structured data is great; but sometimes you just want to focus on the text. #
For Fields to feel really good for me in Tana, they need some enhancements around visibility. The following might help:#

Ability to adjust the default show/hide preferences for a field for each Instance of that field.#

e.g. I may want "Area" to be "show when empty" on a project, but "always hide" on another Supertag.#

Ability to quickly toggle the visibility of all fields on a node. #

i.e. collapse them, without collapsing the sub-node contents.#
This should be assignable to a keyboard shortcut (which is easy to do as long as its in the Command Line.#

Ability to adjust the show/hide default for a particular session. Like adjusting light/dark mode.#

When I'm writing-focused, for example, I want to be able to enter a "hide all fields, unless I toggle them on for a node" mode. #

In summary:#

Adjust default show/hide for each instance of a field (on different supertags).#
Ability to toggle the collapse status of fields per node.#
Ability to toggle the default collapse status of fields globally.#

Currently, I don't use Fields as much as I could be, due to their overwhelming presence. I believe these changes would help users get the most of Fields, while allowing them to fade into the background when possible.#

© copyright 2023 Brandon Toner

Last update: Wednesday April 26, 2023; 5:19 PM EDT.