Creating new objects from the Search-UI

Describe the solution you’d like

New object from Search-UI
I’d like to be able to create a new object from the search list. This will allow for a more fluid workflow.

Use case: After searching for a note, and not finding any notes in the search list that I find matches the subject, I would like that there is an option to “create new note” in the list with search results. The option “create new object”, should be shown at the top before the other results in the list.

Describe alternatives you’ve considered
By not having this function/option, the user will need to first enter the search-UI, and if there is no previous object, then they need to exit the search UI, press on create new note.

Additional context
The above workflow is present in other note taking apps such as Roam research, Obsidian, Tiddlywiki.

People that use apps for knowledge management will over time have written more notes than they can keep in their memory. Because of that, they might create duplicate notes on the same topic. Therefore, it is a good practice to always first search for if you have written a note on a topic, before deciding to create a new note.

Edit by @sambouwer: I’ve split this topic:

11 Likes

If this is what you mean, it’s possible (maybe it’s something a new version introduced?):
image

This is still not possible and I’d like that too, so +1.
image

Maybe someone could split this into two feature requests and close the first one?

Hi @Rade,

The first request is indeed not possible yet, so thanks for requesting it! I think this would be a great addition.

The second request is possible in two ways:

  1. Use the method described by @kerbless. It is slightly different as the @-mention option is used to add inline links to existing Objects with the option to create a new Object on the fly.
  2. Alternatively, you could turn the entire block into a new Object, but this does not allow you to search for existing objects, leaving the two steps disconnected (first use the / menu to link to an Object, and when you don’t find it, use the Block menu to turn the whole Block into a new Object.

I would also be in favor of splitting this into two separate topics and adding a link to each other in the topic. This is easier for status tracking when (only one) of these features is implemented or improved. @Rade do you agree? If so, I can split the topic for you.

1 Like

Hi guys, thanks for getting back to me! I’ll play around with the two ways that you mentioned.

You can definitely split the request into two.

One thing that I’d like to emphasis is that when creating a new object from an existing note and only adding the title, it would be nice to have the title of the new object in italics (or another way) to signify that it is a stub. Likewise that it is shown in italics in graph-mode, and un-italicized when contents have been added to the body of the note.

From a writers perspective, this will create a more natural flow of capturing ideas in the spur of the moment. That is, when writing notes I might think of other related ideas/topics that I ought to write, but at the moment don’t have the time to elaborate on, or that needs to be researched first before I can write them. To be able to quickly write them down as stubs will make sure that I don’t forget them, and later visually remind med which notes are stubs (titles in italic or another formating), so I can continue working with them at a later time.

Thanks for the tip of create object “note that does not exist” from link-UI.

1 Like

Maybe it should be split into three notes:

  • Create a new object from Search-UI
  • Create a new object from Link-UI
  • Create a new ‘stub-object’ from Search-UI and Link-UI.

Stub-object = only title with no contents in the body. (The title of the stub-object is in italics, until text has been added in the body.)

You can decide what’s best, two or three requests.

2 Likes

Thanks! I will look into this and split the feature request either into two or three topics. The more specific the better, so probably three :wink:

As a side note: the Anytype team is working on improving flows for these kind of things, so this feedback is very welcome!

2 Likes

@Rade there you go! Could you please review and comment or DM me about whatever
needs to be adjusted?

1 Like

Looks good, I have nothing add!

Adding feature requests or bug reports became much more fun :slight_smile:

2 Likes