[Ann] CintaNotes 1.6.1 Beta 1

[CintaNotes Developer]

Apr 20, 2012 - Version 1.6.1 Beta 1
Hi guys! A new beta is ready, please check it out!

Enhancements:

• Ctrl+Enter in search field shouldn't clear non-matches
  
• Ctrl+Delete in the note editor to delete the current note
  
• Alt+Enter to open the note editor and close the main window
  
• Ability to view exported file after export
  
• Ignore empty lines on license recognition
  
• Made tag counters less obtrusive

Fixes:

• Fixed tag and text filters resetting after a timeout
  
• Pre-filtering with tag filter now always improves search speed
  
• Fixed regression: Crash on Ctrl+Enter in empty search field
  
• Fixed regression: Import from XML slower in 1.6 than in 1.5.7
  
• CN rewrote settings file on every run AND close, even if no settings changed
  
• Fixed some 125% DPI rendering problems
  
• Fixed "Column name is not unique" error on adding tag "__"
  
• Clipping from XChat was not working
  
• Tag search highlighted only first match
  
• Fixed incorrect tag rendering if tag name contained '&'

Download:
Installable: CintaNotes_1_6_1_Beta1_Setup.exe
Portable: CintaNotes_1_6_1_Beta1.zip

[Thomas Lohrum]

Alex,

thank's for the 1.6.1 beta!

• Untagged Notes
  A couple of weeks back i started to use untagged notes intensely. I discovered them as a new way to simplify my daily work. They are different from classical notes that i create to archive. Any time i need to take a note for some temporarily reason i now create a new note using the system wide shortcut Ctrl+Shift+F12 (which is now documented in the help). I save them using the Ctrl+S shortcut. I query them with the latest extension shortcut Ctrl+U. When i'm done with the note (maybe some days later) i can now easily get rid of the note with the new Ctrl+Delete shortcut. Alex, this is so awesome! Thank you so much!
• Alt+Enter
  Alex, this too is a great exentsion. It just feels so right Search a note, open it while getting rid of the search results with a single click. This is a pleasure to use when i want to edit one note only.
• Ctrl+Enter in search field
  It's unvbelievable the changes you made to this version. Just last night i had a need for this. And now, it's already there and comes so handy to use.
• Ctrl+Delete
  The key also functions for newly created notes, that are not stored yet. The dialog "Delete note?" appears and i can confirm deleting the note without any error. However, for notes not saved yet, Ctrl+Delete shouldn't be allowed, since it is not necessary. Still, this is more convenient than canceling the creation using Alt+C or clicking the delete button. Thus i suggest to modify the dialog text for notes, that are not yet saved, e.g. "The note has not been saved yet. Discard changes?"
• Ability to view exported file after export
  Nice extension I no longer need to search the file in the explorer and double click. Now i just click "View" and i am done.
• Tag counters less obtrusive
  Yes, now they are out of sight. My desire to turn the option off has reduced, though they are harder to read. Not sure what i like most. Current style or old style and having an option to easily turn them on/off using the context menu.
• Notes title
  The title is displayed in a different font (bold) than the note itself. This change is not documented, nor do i have a possibilty to change the font. The new style does not please me.

Alex, what to say? 1.6.1 is an absolute pleasure to use!!! This version... i am just excited. THANK YOU!!!

Thomas

[Thomas Lohrum]

1. The news post should mention, that the Ctrl+Delete key has changed. Now it deletes a note whereas Ctrl+D will remove any format settings.

2. The help is wrong. It should read "Ctrl+D Clears currently selected text of any formatting."

[CintaNotes Developer]

Thomas, thanks for your quick reply and for your thourough testing!
Of course help will be updated - it hasn't been yet.

[ChrisCN]

Wow - thanks for this version
Of course, my favorite is that CTRL+Enter does no longer clear the search field - this is such a great enhancement!
And saving a note no longer resets the tag and text filters.

[ChrisCN]

I know CTRL+Enter in the search field is only a part of this request http://roadmap.cintanotes.com/topic/105239-workaround-for-search-as-you-type-not-really-useful-for-tags/ and as a 'quick win' a more than welcome change.

Would it be very difficult to NOT clear the current tag filter on every CTRL+Enter?

_____________
Let me give you an example:
Note title: "this is a simple note"
tags: "status project color"

If I type (in the search field):
-> simple
-> simple projc
>> ok, now I notice project is a tag and hit CTRL+Enter
-> simple colo
>> I again notice that color is a tag and hit CTRL+Enter again

as a result I see all the notes with tag "color" containing the text 'simple'
>> the filter on the tag 'projekct' is lost.

Thanks
ChrisCN

[Thomas Lohrum]

Hi Chris,

actually from what i am reading: Whenever i press Ctrl+Enter, Alt+Enter or Shift+Enter all words in the search field which are not a tag will remain as a regular text filter. All words that match a tag will be applied as a tag filter for either "and", "or" or "not". The tag filter will never be cleared. Thus consecutive tags can easily be applied. For this to work the focus must remain in the search-box, which is the case already.

Thomas

[CintaNotes Developer]

Chris,
I now understand your idea quite well, thanks! I think it is easy to implement (although there's not enough time to include this in 1.6.1).
But what if I want to replace the current tag selection? with your suggestion it becomes impossible.

Maybe tag recognition should also kick in on plain Enter?
So plain Enter press in search box => parse for tags, and if found, replace current tag selection;
and Ctrl/Shift/Alt+Enter = Ctrl/Shift/Alt+Click in tag sidebar?

[Thomas Lohrum]

But what if I want to replace the current tag selection? with your suggestion it becomes impossible.

You can always use the mouse to change the selection in the sidebar. The request for keyboard support is for adding tags only with and/or/not without the need for creating them with the mouse.

Maybe tag recognition should also kick in on plain Enter?

Now i would no longer be able to do a simple word-search in case that word incidentally matches a tag, right?

So plain Enter press in search box => parse for tags, and if found, replace current tag selection;
and Ctrl/Shift/Alt+Enter = Ctrl/Shift/Alt+Click in tag sidebar?

It sounds interesting, but i am not sure, whether this change should actually be implemented. Maybe this particular change could be provided in a (pre)beta to give it a try and decide thereafter, whether to keep or discard that feature.

Thomas

[CintaNotes Developer]

You can always use the mouse to change the selection in the sidebar. The request for keyboard support is for adding tags only with and/or/not without the need for creating them with the mouse.

The point is, if someone prefers to use keyboard, s/he should have the possibility to replace current tag selection with a new one, using only keyboard and without having to reset the filter first.

Now i would no longer be able to do a simple word-search in case that word incidentally matches a tag, right?

Why not? Search is as-you-type you don't need to press Enter. After search, just press Tab or Down instead of Enter. Or simply click in the notes list.

It sounds interesting, but i am not sure, whether this change should actually be implemented. Maybe this particular change could be provided in a (pre)beta to give it a try and decide thereafter, whether to keep or discard that feature.

Probably, I'll shelve it for 1.7 Beta then)

[ChrisCN]

But what if I want to replace the current tag selection? with your suggestion it becomes impossible.

Well, we still have ESC to clear the current filters and start a new search all over.

The need to replace a selected tag would imply that one is working with one tag at a time - then this would be useful.
So we need a key for that...

Maybe tag recognition should also kick in on plain Enter?
So plain Enter press in search box => parse for tags, and if found, replace current tag selection;
and Ctrl/Shift/Alt+Enter = Ctrl/Shift/Alt+Click in tag sidebar?

This sounds consistent to me.

Now i would no longer be able to do a simple word-search in case that word incidentally matches a tag, right?

why that? you can hit space and down to go to the list of notes (or am I missing something here?)

[Thomas Lohrum]

The point is, if someone prefers to use keyboard, s/he should have the possibility to replace current tag selection with a new one, using only keyboard and without having to reset the filter first.

Maybe a new shortcut could be used to just clear the tag selection. Though i think the need to replace the tag selection isn't that high. I don't want things getting to complicated. Chris' suggestion is simple, because it adds more functionality without burden.

Why not? Search is as-you-type you don't need to press Enter. After search, just press Tab or Down instead of Enter. Or simply click in the notes list.

Yes, that is correct. Though i usually ENTER to complete my search and move to the notes list. I don't want to start using TAB. Again, Chris' suggestion is simple. It adds functionality only: press Ctrl/Alt/Shift+Enter. It doesn't change/break things.

Thomas

[Guest]

So plain Enter press in search box => parse for tags, and if found, replace current tag selection;
and Ctrl/Shift/Alt+Enter = Ctrl/Shift/Alt+Click in tag sidebar?

It sounds interesting, but i am not sure, whether this change should actually be implemented. Maybe this particular change could be provided in a (pre)beta to give it a try and decide thereafter, whether to keep or discard that feature.
Thomas

So what is your concern here?

[ChrisCN]

Though i usually ENTER to complete my search and move to the notes list. I don't want to start using TAB.

You can still use ENTER if you hit space before that.

[Thomas Lohrum]

So what is your concern here?

Example:

first note
Title: Delphi Blogs
Tags: <no tags assigned>

second note
Title: Delphi Blogs
Tags: delphi

Now do a search for [delphi blogs]. With 1.6.1 beta 1 i will get the following results:
ENTER: will find both notes
CTRL+ENTER: will find the second note only

Now if we do change the behaviour as suggested we actually make CTRL+ENTER the default when pressing ENTER only. The result is that i might not find my note anymore! [EDIT:] ENTER should only apply a new tag filter, when a tag filter is already active. This could solve the issue.

Maybe tag recognition should also kick in on plain Enter?
So plain Enter press in search box => parse for tags, and if found, replace current tag selection;
and Ctrl/Shift/Alt+Enter = Ctrl/Shift/Alt+Click in tag sidebar?

I have re-read that sentence and noticed i missunderstood before. Yes, ENTER could replace any existing tags, thus function as a reset of the tag filter. BUT, suppose i enter a search word that i expect in the notes text, incidentally it is also a tag. This would reset the complete tag filter assigned so far, right? (*1)

quote]You can still use ENTER if you hit space before that.

I will get different results just because in one case i enter a space? I'm afraid most users quit here.

Summary
A solution could be to also implement Chris' request http://roadmap.cintanotes.com/topic/90864-mixed-tag-text-search-it-should-make-no-difference-whether-a-search-phrase-is-part-of-a-titletext-or-a-tag/. If that feature would be available we could actually change the behaviour to allow ENTER to apply tags or as Alex said "tag recognition should kick in on plain Enter". Reseting the tag filter on ENTER should only happen when there is a tag filter active already. One issue left though, see (*1).

Thomas

[ChrisCN]

Summary
A solution could be to also implement Chris' request http://roadmap.cintanotes.com/topic/90864-mixed-tag-text-search-it-should-make-no-difference-whether-a-search-phrase-is-part-of-a-titletext-or-a-tag/. If that feature would be available we could actually change the behaviour to allow ENTER to apply tags or as Alex said "tag recognition should kick in on plain Enter". Reseting the tag filter on ENTER should only happen when there is a tag filter active already. One issue left though, see (*1). Thomas

Thanks for your explanation - I think I now understand most of your points.
I agree that both of my requests should be implemented

But after all this pros and cons - what could be the quick solution for 1.6.1?
- CTRL+ENTER will NOT reset the tag filter
- ENTER will reset the tag filter (only if a tag filter is already active)

Regarding *1
In this case you will only get a good (IMHO) result if 'mixed tag text search' is implemented.
Till then, we will have to decide if the tag or the text has more relevance to us. This general problem already exists in 1.6 (only the other way round because ENTER now activates a "text search" and not a "tag-search").