editor pane shows contents of multiple files at the same time?

< Next Topic | Back to topic list | Previous Topic >

Posted by jimspoon
Sep 25, 2015 at 01:04 AM

I’d like to see a text file viewer / editor that works as follows:

(1) the text of each note is stored in a separate disk file.
(2) the editor displays the contents of multiple text files at the same time, in a single scrollable pane, as if the multiple text files were a single text file.
(3) within the editor/viewer pane, the notes can be arranged in the usual outliner hierarchy, split, joined, reordered.
(4) adding a text file to the folder of text files adds the note to the outline (though it may not yet be put in a particular location yet, i.e. it might be put in an “inbox” node.

Why would I want something like this?

(1) ease of synchronization, e.g. using dropbox.
(2) multiple short notes can be viewed and edited in the editor pane, providing a visible context for the short notes, and minimizing the amount of “navigation”, clicking, etc.

Anything like this out there? I haven’t found much.

Beyond the above, I’d also like each note to be able to contain metadata in the form of attribute / value pairs. This would enable tabular displays, with filters, etc.

Posted by Paul Korm
Sep 25, 2015 at 02:14 AM

You didn’t mention platform, but if I understand requirements (1) thru (4) correctly, then Ulysses does these things on OS X / iOS.

Ulysses does not do attribute/value pairs but individual files & sheets can have keywords and notes.

Posted by Paul Korm
Sep 25, 2015 at 02:15 AM

... and Scrivener

Posted by Marbux
Sep 25, 2015 at 08:28 PM

jimspoon wrote:
I’d like to see a text file viewer / editor that works as follows:

x—snip—x

>Why would I want something like this?
> >(1) ease of synchronization, e.g. using dropbox.

I’m not seeing how this would gain any ese in synchronization using dropbox. Dropbox only syncs the portions of a file that has changed, not the entire file. Sync would be very slow if entire files had to be replaced.

>(2) multiple short notes can be viewed and edited in the editor pane,
>providing a visible context for the short notes, and minimizing the
>amount of “navigation”, clicking, etc.
> >Anything like this out there? I haven’t found much.
> >Beyond the above, I’d also like each note to be able to contain metadata
>in the form of attribute / value pairs. This would enable tabular
>displays, with filters, etc.

Other than the separate files requirement, the rest of your list of requirements can be done in NoteCase Pro. Notes can be split and joined, and while split reordered. Each note has its own properties and can have custom properties that consist of key/value pairs. The property values can be displayed in columns and the notes sorted by column (best done in most cases in the List Pane where ordering changes are done only in memory, not in the permanent document). For example, I commonly use a custom “event date” property, so that I can list notes and sort them by event date to get a timeline.

But I’m not sure what happens with all of the node metadata when joining nodes. For sure, the joined node would get new creation/modification dates. Apologies for my ignorance but I rarely use the join marked nodes feature. Each node can have the following node properties (some are mandatory):

Attachments (files)
Clones
Clone Source ID
Created Date
Custom Properties
Done
Hyperlink Anchor (for link to note title, bookmarks, etc.
Hyperlink (for link from note title)
Hyperlink Idx (for link from note title)
Icon
Last Modified Date
Marked
ID (22 character UID)
Read Only
Recursive Idx
Sibling Idx
Source Language
Tags
Task Done Date
Task Due Date
Task Expiry Date
Task Priority
Task Repeating
Task Started Date
Task Status
Template
Title

Best regards,

Paul

Back to topic list