My impressions after a couple weeks: Input and ToDo structure

[jmcbade]

I like Agenda and I am a fully paid customer because I want to see this project move forward. I have put my money where my mouth is so I will now speak on some things. This is meant to be constructive criticism and not in any way personal.

I like how Agenda is really at it’s core, the underpinnings of a project management model, without the “literal timeline”. I like the concept very much and how it’s the “same app” in both the iOS and Desktop versions.

Where I feel the application is really struggling is in my experience of text imputing and ToDo structures.

First, there is a bug (which I have submitted in the support topic) with multiple configured keyboards on the iOS version that until addressed, makes Agenda non functional for me on my iPad. I am confident this will get the appropriate attention and resolved quickly once the issue is identified and a solution is created. - No worries there!

On the desktop version, input of the different types of entries ie Title, List types etc. are cumbersome to invoke. The “little circle” on the left of a line is not always present and is “fickle” in its invocation. The right button fly-out menu is cumbersome to use in a normal typist’s flow. We really need keyboard shortcuts! I know this has been mentioned and hopefully the appropriate priority will come into the development cycle. A more MD markup approach to entering lines and assigning them attributes for those who prefer that (like me) would be really nice. (Noteplan has this approach and it’s nice.) Yeah, mentioned in the roadmap and that’s great!

Also discussed on the forums and on the “ToDo” list of future development roadmap are other suggestions about “ToDo” lists. Ironic isn’t it? Project oriented models associated with dates is logically associated with the tasks needed to be completed as we drive to completion.

One such ToDo structure I use in my planning is a Topic of an item (as a note?) associated with the greater project scope. It feels like Agenda is “missing a layer” of organizational structure?

It would for example be more helpful to have a checkable ToDo item that had children of other ToDo items that much be checked off or neutralized before the parent ToDo could be cleared. A parent ToDo contingent upon the status of its children. Associating all these with dates and reminders of course.

This is what is kinda’ missing in the big picture that Agenda so wonderfully seeks to address.

Thank you for all your hard work and listening ear.

Edit: The multiple keyboards issue seems to be a problem with the iOS code across many applications - not just Agenda

[mekentosj]

Thank you for the constructive feedback, much appreciated. Regarding the keyboard bug, we’ll respond to that one in the other topic you created (thanks for that!).

On the desktop version, input of the different types of entries ie Title, List types etc. are cumbersome to invoke. The “little circle” on the left of a line is not always present and is “fickle” in its invocation. The right button fly-out menu is cumbersome to use in a normal typist’s flow. We really need keyboard shortcuts!

Perhaps you hadn’t seen them yet, but we have a full set of keyboard shortcuts, I’ve copied the ones regarding editing below:

Shortcut		Command
⌃⌘ 0		Body Text
⌃⌘ 1		Heading
⌃⌘ 2		Sub-Heading
⌃⌘ 3		Minor Heading
⌃⌘ 4		Minor Sub-Heading
⌃⌘ 5		Preformatted
⌃⌘ 0		Body Text
⌃⌘ 0		Body Text
⇧⌘ -		Bullet List
⇧⌘ I		Numbered List
⇧⌘ C		Checklist
⌃⌘ C		Mark as Checked / Unchecked
⌘ ]		Increase Indentation
⌘ [		Decrease Indentation
⌘ B		Bold
⌘ I		Italic
⌘ U		Underline
⌘ L		Fixed Width
⇧⌘ X		Strikethrough
⌃⌘+		Superscript
⌃⌘-		Subscript

A more MD markup approach to entering lines and assigning them attributes for those who prefer that (like me) would be really nice.

That too is already there, see this How to topic:

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Markdown Cheatsheet A powerful way to edit text in Agenda is to use markdown shortcuts to quickly insert or format text. Although Agenda is not a markdown editor pur sang, it does recognize some markdown syntax for applying styles and inserting things like reminders, checklists, and dates. [image] You’ll find a complete overview of the supported markdown shortcuts here: Markdown Cheat Sheet

One such ToDo structure I use in my planning is a Topic of an item (as a note?) associated with the greater project scope. It feels like Agenda is “missing a layer” of organizational structure?

You can build these structures yourself using Agenda links (and optionally pinned notes) if you want, in the Talk section I have given a few examples. Tags in combination with smart overviews are another way to create these kind of top level overviews.

Have a look to some of the techniques used in the examples here:

Copy-and-Paste 2.0 – How Templates Make a World of Difference

If you use Agenda for things like weekly catchup meetings, daily standups, prospective client meetings, and onboarding protocols, chances are you often find yourself using copy-and-paste of notes from other occasions, because the “agenda” is usually fixed. Here I’ll show you how to create note templates in a few simple steps using text replacement utilities. This makes Agenda even more powerful, and can save you a ton of time. nmcp → No more copy and paste! In this article I’m using TextExpa…

Or this suggestion:

Link one note to multiple calendar events

This indeed has been requested more often, for now we’d like to stick to a 1:1 relationship though. One solution is to create a “summary note” and use Agenda links to create a kind of “index card” to the individual notes for each event. Or alternatively, you could add a specific tag to all notes that related to the same series of events, e.g. #teammeeting, which you could then create a smart overview for that ties them all together in one overview.

Finally, indeed more powerful checklist options as well as the ability to create smart overviews of unchecked list items for example is indeed on our roadmap

[jmcbade]

@mekentosj

Perhaps you hadn’t seen them yet, but we have a full set of keyboard shortcuts , I’ve copied the ones regarding editing below:

Ah! Yes, these are very helpful and streamline the text entering/formatting significantly. The reason it wasn’t immediately obvious, was that they are not included in the menus as in so many other Apple apps. Have you considered doing that with Agenda? I think it would be very useful. Maybe down the road, not a high priority but ultimately useful one, would be to make the hot keys remap-able?

I was curious if the same shortcuts were available in the iOS app. I often use my Apple cover with the Apple keyboard if I am going to do any extended text entry on my iPAD Pro. As soon as I used the Ctrl or the CMD key, there was the help screen with the codes in a swipe-able three page help sheet, Pretty cool indeed. That might be a useful feature in the desktop version IF IT WAS something you could toggle on and off

EDIT: I guess it would have helped if I had looked at the “Help Menu” I still am of the opinion that including the command keys in menus is a somewhat standard Apple practice as you tend to learn and remember the command key in context (at least that is helpful for me), but this is alternatively good for now. Thanks

I have a lot on my “Agenda” today but I do intend to explore your other suggestions and if I feel it is helpful, my input.

Thanks for your comments and suggestions.

-John

[jmcbade]

@mekentosj

Markdown Cheatsheet Agenda is not a markdown editor, but it does recognize some markdown syntax for applying styles. Here are markdown shortcuts that can be used. [image] Separate Notes If you are importing a markdown file, you can have it split into individual notes in Agenda. Splitting notes does not work in the Agenda text editor: it’s only for importing files. Note Separator To have a file split into multiple notes, type three hyphens alone on a line. E.g. First note — Second not…

Mekentos, the image is missing above. For anyone else possibly interested, here is a link to where the bits of Marldown are supported: Link:

[mekentosj]

@jmcbade

The reason it wasn’t immediately obvious, was that they are not included in the menus as in so many other Apple apps. Have you considered doing that with Agenda?

I’m not following, they’re here:

Perhaps you were looking for them in the contextual right-click menu’s? Apple’s guidelines doesn’t recommend showing them there.

@jmcbade

I have a lot on my “Agenda” today but I do intend to explore your other suggestions and if I feel it is helpful, my input.

[jmcbade]

Oh my. I guess I was talking about the little “circle” menu trigger / popup and the “Right Click” menus.

I humbly stand (sit?) corrected. Yes the shortcuts are in the more traditional Apple Menu locations.

I also am going back and forth between my desktop and my iPad a lot and so things get “blurred” in my mind at times.

Sorry I missed those. I need to be more careful and diligent before I post.

[mekentosj]

No worries, was just wondering whether we had missed something