First impressions of anytype

[Missionary]

Hello everyone,

I just started using anytype yesterday. I did go through the app interface and navigation. As a habit, I always make a list of pros and cons as comparison with other apps, what the new app’s good at and what it lacks of. I have to say it’s very much like Notion but works offline, free and secure.

Pros

• Version History: Restore to older version
• Support offline
• Free & using computer storage
• Search bar always stays at the top
• Tables support multiple lines within a cell

Cons

• No embedded Youtube video (iframe)
• Bugs

1. Delete key does not work. E.g. when I select a block / table row or column, it pops up a list of options including delete (del). I hit delete key on Mac, but it won’t delete.
2. Color options have to be clicked twice. E.g.When I select a group of text, it pops up a format list. I have to click one of the color options twice.
3. I cannot delete metadata key value. E.g. in status, I type the value done. Then I decided to change it to Completed. But I cannot delete the older value done. It just re-surfaces every single time.

• No empty space to breathe at the bottom page
• Single window: no multiple panes like Obsidian
• Keyboard shortcuts modification? What is the hotkey for underline ?

What I expect

• Support Calendar view
• Tag supports Apple emoji
• Change relation type
• Outline to navigate within a long page
• Popover when hover a cursor over a link / object. That is one of the most powerful features in Obsidian that makes it great ! I just quickly scan the content of the object instead going in & out.

[abheek]

I have a calendar view feature request that you can upvote to help consider it faster and bring it into production and testing

[sambouwer]

Hi @Missionary, thanks for sharing your first impression! Always good to see there are multiple pros in the list of first impressions .

I’m linking some existing bug reports and feature requests so you can check them out and add a vote for the ones you like. Additionally, I’ll indicate where you could create your own bug reports of feature requests.

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@Missionary

No embedded Youtube video (iframe)

Embedding Youtube videos

Describe the bug I pasted a Youtube video link but there is only a play button, and I cannot watch the video. [截屏2021-12-24 上午9.31.06] To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior: Go to ‘video’ Paste the video link See an error Expected behavior It should be viewed after the link is pasted in the block. System Information: OS: MacOS BigSur, 11.4 Device Manufacturer/Model: Mackbook Pro 2017 Anytype Version: 0.22.3

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@Missionary

1. Delete key does not work. E.g. when I select a block / table row or column, it pops up a list of options including delete (del). I hit delete key on Mac, but it won’t delete.

This is a known issue:

Deleting blocks with Delete or Backspace is not working properly

Describe the bug Whenever you select a whole block with its button on the left you are not able to delete it with Delete or Backspace. It works when you move mouse cursor to the pop-up menu (though not always, but I haven’t been able to find a pattern. So the block will not be deleted when mouse is in position 1 in screenshot, and may be deleted when mouse is in position 2. [image] To Reproduce Create a block Select it by clicking its button (the one that shows on the left when you ho…

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@Missionary

Color options have to be clicked twice. E.g.When I select a group of text, it pops up a format list. I have to click one of the color options twice

Could you make a screen recording of this, with the mouse clicks visualized if possible, and file that in a bug report? I haven’t seen anything similar on the forum, so you might have found a new bug.

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@Missionary

I cannot delete metadata key value

This is a known issue with tags. For a comprehensive list of (other) issues with tags, check out:

List of Tag-related issues

There are many major and minor bugs with Tags that cause confusion. I think it would be great if someone from the Anytype team could share the vision of how tags should work so we can all submit bugs towards that vision. Secondly, I will list several tag-related bugs in different categories. Tag storage and retrieval The most important category is “Tag storage and retrieval”, meaning: creating new tags (name and color) and seeing those created tags back as suggestions in the right place with t…

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@Missionary

No empty space to breathe at the bottom page

Is this request similar enough?

Page scrolling (probably nitpicking )

I think that the page should be infinitely scrollable so that i can ajust where the text is relative to other windows. For example: [image] The paragraph I’m resumming is on top of the screen but the area where I type my notes is always on the bottom of the page. After some time of takinkg notes this can get tiring. Heck I didn’t notice it until a few hours of use haha. It’s a minor thing and I don’t think it is urgent, but I wanted to point it out anyways.

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@Missionary

Single window: no multiple panes like Obsidian

Hold tight! This is coming (very) soon! See also Sprint Review (40) - News & Announcements / Road Map - Anytype Community.

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@Missionary

Keyboard shortcuts modification

Not possible yet, but requested here:

Customizable keyboard shortcuts

These are interesting ideas and, depending on feasibility, I certainly support them. I just want to make note that I believe there is a distinction between a true “hotkey” (pressing some specific combination of keys to invoke some action) and what I’ll call an “in-line context-dependent command”, e.g. slash menu, @ linking, etc. The latter may or may not use a different mechanism than e.g. pressing Ctrl-S to Search. If it’s possible to allow customization of both with ease, that would be incredi…

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@Missionary

What is the hotkey for underline

You are in for a treat. Version 0.28.0 is about to drop and this is listed in the release notes:

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@Missionary

Support Calendar view

As your expectation is quite generic, I’ll share a search query that could help you narrow down your wishes . Feel free to submit feature requests for anything you think is missing in the existing requests.

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@Missionary

Tag supports Apple emoji

This is definitely a new one, but hey, why not support emoji in tags? I think it is a great idea! I invite you to submit a feature request for that. Feel free to DM me if you need some help with that .

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@Missionary

Change relation type

I think it is due to the nature of how data is stored in the Anytype database (and most database systems) that changing the low-level type of an Object is challenging. For example, going from a Relation of Type “Tag” to “Text” should be quite easy (just treat the content of the tag as text, done!). Going from Text to, let’s say, a number is a lot harder! Maybe I didn’t get your point, so let me know if that is the case!

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@Missionary

Outline to navigate within a long page

You mean something like a table of contents, or more something like the little overview apps like VS Code offer when scrolling to indicate where you are on the page?

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@Missionary

Popover when hover a cursor over a link / object

Tooltip/preview of linked objects

Describe the solution you’d like I’d like to propose a feature that I can only describe as a tooltip of some sort. When writing a document consisting of several technical terms or anything really, I’d like to know if it would be a possibility to change a specific word to contain a tooltip holding information regarding that specific word/sentence, like a definition. When you click the specified word containing data, a popup/tooltip would show, showing you the data that the word contains. I hav…

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Looking forward to your thougts on my follow-up!

[Missionary]

Thank you for your reply to my points.

@Missionary

Color options have to be clicked twice. E.g.When I select a group of text, it pops up a format list. I have to click one of the color options twice

@sambouwer

Could you make a screen recording of this, with the mouse clicks visualized if possible, and file that in a bug report? I haven’t seen anything similar on the forum, so you might have found a new bug.

Here is the video:

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@Missionary

No empty space to breathe at the bottom page

@sambouwer

Is this request similar enough?
Page scrolling (probably nitpicking )

What I mean was that I would like to scroll down and way pass the bottom page so the last content would be in the middle section of the page. That way I can have some space to breathe at the bottom page.

E.g.

The note I took in Obsidian. There are plenty of space to breathe at the bottom.

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@Missionary

Outline to navigate within a long page

@sambouwer

You mean something like a table of contents, or more something like the little overview apps like VS Code offer when scrolling to indicate where you are on the page?

Yeah like table of contents. I can navigate headings within an object, especially long object.

[sambouwer]

@Missionary

Here is the video

Thanks! That indeed seems to be a bug. Unfortunately, I cannot reproduce this on my version. I’m running a pre-release version so that might be the reason. Could you share your version?

Menu > Anytype > About Anytype

If you are running anything older than 0.27.0, please update and then check again. If you already are on 0.27.0, we should file a bug report for this.

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@Missionary

What I mean was that I would like to scroll down and way pass the bottom page so the last content would be in the middle section of the page

That seems to be exactly what the OP from the linked topic would like to see . Someone made two suggestions on how this can be achieved/implemented. Feel free to add your own ideas in that topic

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@Missionary

Yeah like table of contents

You should already be able to add a TOC using “/toc”. I can imagine taht you actually want to see this for every Object and maybe in the sidebar instead of a TOC you have to add somewhere in your Object yourself? I could not find an existing feature request for that specifically, but there are some topics about improvements for the sidebar.

[Missionary]

@Missionary

Here is the video

@sambouwer

Thanks! That indeed seems to be a bug. Unfortunately, I cannot reproduce this on my version. I’m running a pre-release version so that might be the reason. Could you share your version?

Menu > Anytype > About Anytype

If you are running anything older than 0.27.0, please update and then check again. If you already are on 0.27.0, we should file a bug report for this.

It’s up-to-date but the error of clicking color twice still persists.

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@Missionary

Yeah like table of contents

@sambouwer

You should already be able to add a TOC using “/toc”. I can imagine taht you actually want to see this for every Object and maybe in the sidebar instead of a TOC you have to add somewhere in your Object yourself? I could not find an existing feature request for that specifically, but there are some topics about improvements for the sidebar.

Exactly, I wanna see it in the sidebar where I can navigate headings, especially in a long object.

[sambouwer]

@Missionary I can reproduce this issue with clicking the color twice, now! It only happens in Objects of Type “Note”. I tested it before with a Page. The issue is no longer present if you change the Object Type to something else and then back to a Note.

Do you want to file a bug report, or shall I create one for you?

For the TOC in the sidebar, this seems to be a relevant and nice feature request:

A Tree-object for hierarchical navigation

As referenced in Layout as a Type with templates I would like a Tree-object. Although the graph is amazing, a hierarchy or tree might come in handy as well. An object could be linked to or used in multiple tree-objects. You would also have to state which object is the parent (the tree or some other object within the tree). You could use a tree-object as a table of contents on a page. This could be created automatically based upon the headings. You could use a tree-object in navigation. I don’t…

Is that similar enough?

[Missionary]

I see. Yeah sure, it would be great if you could file the bug report. Thanks for your help.

[dzlg]

@sambouwer

This is definitely a new one, but hey, why not support emoji in tags? I think it is a great idea! I invite you to submit a feature request for that. Feel free to DM me if you need some help with that .

I’m a little confused… do you mean support of emoji in tags as a relation? because we can already do that…

[sambouwer]

Ah, I learned something new today, thanks for sharing! Maybe support for specific kind of emoji?

@Missionary

Tag supports Apple emoji

Otherwise I don’t know what the request is…

[dzlg]

@sambouwer

Ah, I learned something new today, thanks for sharing!

That’s always nice to hear .

@sambouwer

Maybe support for specific kind of emoji?

hmm, he said Apple emoiji which is the one I used… so I don’t know

[sambouwer]

@Missionary could you shed some (more) light on your request for “Tag supports Apple emoji”?

[Missionary]

I just gave it a try and it did work with emoji, but here’s the thing. If I use third-party Rocket app to generate emoji, it won’t work. And the emoji still works glitchy. What I mean is when I create a new emoji tag, it suggested and popped up the different already-created emoji tag.

[ignatovv]

Our command cmd + e for emoji screen do not work in relations fields and somewhere else. It is a known issue, it will be fixed. For now you can copy paste emojis or use system emoji providers - it will work

[sambouwer]

@Missionary

it would be great if you could file the bug report

@Missionary in a pre-release version I’m running this issue ("need to click the color twice) is already fixed, so this should be fixed in the next release (0.29.0).