Free Form Elements and Shapes

Feature Requests
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1

WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND

Free form text, shapes, icons, etc.

HOW COULD IT BE DONE

Anytype currently has a block style editor with slash commands for the formatting of the block.

This feature could be done by adding a floating button (similar to how most chat support bubbles are at the bottom of websites).

So having a button like this that changes your editing structure to free Form. This would give you free form tools such as shapes, elements, stickers, etc. and allow you to separate free form and AnyType’s default block structure. Similar to an image layer in a graphic software.

AnyType remains the default layer.
Free form elements are done on a free form canvas that overlays the AnyType default canvas. Welcome flexibility and functionality.

REAL WORLD USE CASES

OneNote currently has an entire free form note app. It is used by many. They can add text areas and move them around. Add free form shapes and adjust sizing. Overlay elements and chose how they are viewed in the stack (similar to image layering).

Example
User wants to dump data inside AnyType. The purpose is to comb through data then directly break down and/or visually notate with free form objects to make better sense of the data.

Another way to think about this would be this free form idea would be used based on user preference. But also a method to take unorganized data or dumps, process it and visually make sense of the data in free form, and finally officialize the data by putting it in AnyType in the normal ways.

RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVES

Adding the feature to the current editing menu or slash commands.

ADDITIONAL CONTEXT

Free form Journaling offers such flexibility and has been useful for many people. The idea here is to keep AnyType structured by default, but flexible enough to handle free form. Additionally it could be used as a way to organize brain dumps for official organization/cataloging using AnyTypes default block based editing.

AnyType does a great job with organizing, relating, tagging, categorizing, etc. This is great default functionality. But there are times it may get in the way with the way the mind spits ideas or peoples preference on “writing” their ideas out. That is the reasoning for this feature request.

2

Hi
This is an awesome idea. There have been other requests along the lines of implementing handwriting and drawing features (one of the requests is by me :blush: ). Maybe you would like to check out and interact those posts as well. Because I personally think this is an ingenious way to implement handwriting and drawing.
Here are some links…

Have a great day.

3

Very nice! I looked around a bit and found ideas that hit on free form bit not these. Thanks for sharing! I will link and respond to those threads as well.

By the way, thank you for the compliments. I tried to think of a way that would keep Anytype elements and integrate this feature in an easy way. I think to get the free form ability quickly without to much trouble, this implementation would be best from my thoughts. The free form page will be it’s own object (singular) regardless of what additional drawings, edits, or free Form Elements are present. This would get it in our hands the quickest without to much on the implementation.

A future feature request would be evaluated on allowing each free form element to be potential objects or the revisions to the free form overlay would be objects. Really not sure about that part or if it would be necessary. At the very least ocr ability on handwritten elements and/or a hashtag feature for the ability to reference locations within free form. Just thought dumping here.

4

I like the idea of an accessible button that would immediately enable freeform, but I’m not sure about making it a separate layer. I think it would be much more useful if it can interact with objects. I’m no developer, though, so I don’t know about implementation.

As for handwritten notes, it’s already on the roadmap! :slightly_smiling_face:

5

Of course! Interacting with other objects would be great! But I do feel that would be a more complex task on the development side and would likely be and additive feature.

This way a new feature could be implemented in a basic form that would appeal to about 85% of people in that space. Then at a later time introducing that feature of interacting with other objects and such would make sense and be a highlight to the feature. A Simplicity first approach.