I am currently following the active development of tldraw. It is an amazing open source project for a modern whiteboard with great performance, features and very polished UX and UI.
I know that BigBlueButton and Logseq just recently integrated it to their software and I was wondering if it might be an option to collaborate with tldraw to implement the whiteboard feature in Anytype…
I so wish for a “milanote” replacement. All the applications I see in Knowledge Management area are data centric as create your notes, images, links and more which is fine. But my mind is Canvas first.
I want to drag and drop images, to link them, to add a color card, put a list next to it with items to do. And a link to “another” part of a canvas, etc…
The canvas itself should be usable as a whiteboard to drag and drop “types” and experiment (like in milanote). If it make sense. Not just reflect the currently relations that currently exists.
(will work on a some design later this week to better illustrate my idea).
So basically what Obsidian added in the last update: Obsidian Canvas.
This feature makes me tempted to get back into Obsidian because Canvas is great and works exactly like you describe! You can drag and drop files, notes and cards, then link them with arrows, create groups, add colors, etc.
It’s a really great and powerful tool to visualize workflows, notes and information.
I have made a few canvas for workflow of my productivity apps (including backup), a family tree, even made a floorplan of my house for smart home automations and I saw some made a canvas their home note.
In a way, yes. But I tried using it as Canvas First and the “design” just doesn’t suit me.
I prefer Milanote as it is a canvas app through and through.
But just having Whiteboard/Canvas could change the app entirely.
I think that making the graph view more customizable, giving it the ability to show or hide info, including images, as needed by the user, would turn the graph view into what a canvas is. I also hope block to block, block to object and object to block links are introduced and can be seen in the graph somehow.
However, I usually learn things by drawing pics and connecting those pics with arrows. I have been using sketching apps with infinite canvas, like Concepts, for this. But a drawing can only be so big. Sooner or later I have to make a new drawing. The graph view, I think, has an advantage over this, as all the knowledge can be seen at once here and connections can emerge naturally.
Maybe we can make it that, clicking on a object on graph view opens a live preview with an option for opening the object.
So , I am in favor of making the graph view more powerful, with the ability to view images and pdfs etc. I would also like to add drawings and images and annotate and link them them inside an object.
Going by this suggested route, there could be a setting in Graph View that includes:
design customization — what objects look like in hover or when clicked, display size of objects (like larger icons for more relations), display type (icons or cards), what relations show up below the object name, arrow designs/flow, etc.
a toggle that enables the Graph to be static, so that the objects aren’t constantly moving when you rearrange
Making the Graph immovable will enable/unlock editing features similar to that of a Whiteboard. This could be called Graph Elements or something. Basically object types/relations/stickers that exist only to aid in visuals or presentation in the Graph. (and in handwritten notes…?)
Then you can choose among the save options:
save last view — Whiteboard look can stay the same next time you open that object in Graph View
restart when closed — Graph View goes back to the default appearance that we know now.
download/share
EDIT: This doesn’t change the look/function of the entire Graph. If you open it from another object, none of these saved views/edits will be visible.
My guess is this isn’t going to be an easy task, but it’ll make the Graph more than just a cool brain view. (I might’ve gotten carried away with the ideas.)
Tl dr: Combine Whiteboard and Graph customization requests.
Adding customization to the Graph will make it good enough for some Whiteboard use cases.
While I approve of the idea to improve the graph view I don’t think it should be the canvas/whiteboard view. Those are two different things with different purpose in my opinion.
In Obsidian I have multiple totally different Canvas boards, that are in no way connected to eachother and then I have the graph view as an overview of all my notes/connections (and obsidian has a local graph which is even more useful imo).
For example, I have a family tree, the marvel cinematic universe, a dashboard canvas, a couple of specific workflow charts and a few more. If we have just have one graph view how am I gonna use it?
The graph view is the graph view, which can use improvements but should not be combined with the whiteboard/canvas suggestion.
I understand what you mean, I was just expanding on the idea that the Graph could be improved by having a few Whiteboard features, since it was mentioned in an earlier comment that a Whiteboard/Canvas isn’t a priority. Also, I’ve read requests that want customization options for the Graph, so I thought of how it would make sense to include it.
Ultimately, Anytype would benefit from having a separate, fully functional Whiteboard, but until they decide to compete in that area, I thought a few Graph improvements would make it special and good enough to present objects that are related to each other.
This is why I included save view options in my previous comment. The Graph is one big view, but you can zoom it to, say, your family tree to only show that topic. If you choose to customize the presentation for that tree (such as showing more info and redesigning the arrows), then you can save that and it will revert to that view whenever you open your family tree set in the Graph. If you open the Graph from your Marvel objects, none of those edits will show up and you can still use the Graph the same way you do now. (I think there’s a misunderstanding. I wasn’t suggesting one fixed view for the entire Graph, it wouldn’t make sense.)
Also why I suggested the Graph elements object. Should they decide to create an actual Whiteboard or, say, include it in handwritten notes canvas, it wouldn’t be like a repetition of features because you can reuse the same objects in a more feature-rich ‘canvas’. Hope that makes sense.
Maybe “combining” is the wrong word to use, but it could definitely benefit from having features similar to a Whiteboard. I share your opinion that they have different purposes and shouldn’t be fixed to a single view. The suggestion was only for creating a presentation out of objects that already exist in the Graph.
A graph representation has to be selective to be useful. I found this, by the Metacademy guys, tobe a great balance between showing and hiding. It makes judicious use of onhover events to reveal what is needed only on request:
While I approve of the idea to improve the graph view I don’t think it should be the canvas/whiteboard view. Those are two different things with different purpose in my opinion.
For the record, totally agree. I understood the idea to be an extension of the graph in its present form, extended to include links to canvas/whiteboard objects. That is where I would focus the FR if with all these comments we are refining a potential request.
Thanks both for replying. I thought you guys mend it as a single graph view that you can lock/edit but I was wrong in that understanding.
I believe what Kerstie is talking about, a “zoomed in” graph view, only showing a few links is what is called a local graph. Which only shows the direct links in and out of the object you have selected (or opened). With a slider (as Obsidian does it) you can extend the amount of steps/objects to see. So the linked of the linked objects, etc.
Also, a filtered and saved graph view would be awesome (again Obsidian does this very well). Where you could filted to show only family members and thus making a family tree more or less. Then save it as a filtered graph that you can “store” or link too would be awesome.
On top of that, extra (whiteboard like) options to edit upon the graph view would be great as well.
And then ofcourse their would be a real whiteboard/canvas type page, also awesome and very useful to have!
If I may make a summary we have 4 different suggestions that overlap a bit:
A local graph view
Filtered and save-able graph views
Extra features to make notes, arrows, shapes and more on the graph view
Yes. The “space” will be availavle in the near future. Maybe there we can do these kinds of customizations
Thanks for the reply and the later discussions.
