Some thoughts after trying MindForger (Windows version)

[sbstn87]

Hi guys,

I have been testing the Windows version of MindForger lately and I have decided to do a short write up of my experiences and issues I have stumbled upon. I do not know if this is a right way to do this but I have decided to gather all of them in one place and post here.

I have divided my summary into two sections: bugs/issues and features which I decided to do by comparing MindForger to the other two note taking apps I have been using - OneNote and Joplin. If you think that any of the issues I have listed is not an issue, but I have been doing something wrong, let me know.

Bugs & issues:

• right clicking and selecting "View page source" does nothing
• right clicking and selecting "Save page" does nothing
• selecting Mind -> Export -> CSV freezes MindForger
• clicking columns: Rs, Ws, Modified does not sort the notes
• 'Open home Notebook' button does nothing
• using 'Open Markdown file' button from menu does open an empty notebook after selecting a .md file, without any possibility to do anything; I had to open my repository once again to see it

Features wanted:

• option to export a single note, not only the entire notebook (which is called Outline in MindForger)

• exporting notebook should create a folder with notes in separate .md files

• there should be a three/four column view: Notebooks, Notes in the selected Notebook, edited markdown source and optionally the rendered HTML output

• when right clicking on a note, a menu should show up

• there should be an easy way to see all the tags for a selected note; maybe an additional column besides: Done, Rs, Ws and Modified?

• maybe an option to import notes from EverNote? Joplin has this functionality and this is only a one time thing so that's not very important to have

• web clipper, but there's already an open issue for that

• an ability to use an external markdown editor; Joplin has this option and I use it to edit files using ghostwriter, which I consider to be the best markdown editor out there; one could of course write the text using ghostwriter and then copy it into MindForger, but it is much nicer to have a live connection between them that does not need additional copying; this option would also solve:

  • split view when editing, I would like to see both the markdown source and the rendered HTML output
  • option to change the font size in the editor
  • spell checking when editing a note
  • when in the editor mode, a menu above the edited text with formatting options (bold, insert table, insert image, etc.)
  • ability to insert an image by dragging and dropping it, currently it links to the file

[dvorka]

@sbstn87 this is really great! Thank you investing your time and providing such a comprehensive feedback - I really appreciate it!

I will process this issue to separate bugs/enhancements/... w/ severity and plan them by adding them to future MindForger releases. I apologize, but it will take me a few days as my time to work on MindForger is limited - I will update you here on my progress.

I really value your interest in MindForger! :+1:

[asprionj]

I also quickly tried MindForger (also under Windows, for now), it's a great tool! Besides the bugs, one main design desicion for me is hard to understand; it relates to

exporting notebook should create a folder with notes in separate .md files

Why do you store a Notebook in a single .md file? You could, for example, just have the top-level .md file and all Notes in a sub-folder called the same as the Notebook. This would allow for re-usage of the individual Notes for other things, finer version control (e.g. by using Git) of the mindforger-repository, etc.

BTW, is there already an issue for version control and collaboration? Right now, the metadata is stored in the markdown files themselfes, so this would be messed up when using e.g. Git to collaboratively share a single mindforger-repository.

[SmilingHorse]

option to change the font size in the editor

Font size for the File menu would be welcomed too. :)

@dvorka Would it be possible to close / redirect the issue tracker over at https://github.com/dvorka/mindforger-repository/issues ? I've originally raised the File menu font size issue over at https://github.com/dvorka/mindforger-repository/issues/21 by mistake and there some other issues over there so it doesn't seem I'm the only person to do that particular error...

Thanks!

[LightTemplar]

exporting notebook should create a folder with notes in separate .md files

I would suggest also an import of a single notebook from such folder. I have for now many such folders with small notes.