Drag and drop tasks (within the note, into calendar/timeline/other notes)

Rod Christiansen: Good point!

Julien Dimastromatteo: Sorry for the late reply, this should work? It's just a bit more tricky, you need to keep the mouse cursor inside the text area.

Eduard Metzger: this is looking nice. However, what is the thought process where notes are placed when dropped onto a given date in calendar? I am assuming it will always placed the dropped item at the top of the given day and it will be up to the user to move in daily note to appropriate section.

Eduard Metzger: looking good!

Mike Erickson: It will be appended (cut & paste at the end) at the moment if you just drag it.

Eduard Metzger: is it been released? i cannot do it on my noteplan 3

Will Liu: As beta on TestFlight, yes, but not on the AppStore yet and in this version just for macOS, will add it on iOS in the next version after that! I'm in the process of releasing it on the AppStore, should be available by tomorrow.

Eduard Metzger: Is there a plan to offer option of pasting the task somewhere else in the note when you drag, such as at the top or beneath a specific heading?

Kevin H: Good point, how could this look like? We would have to add a context menu upon dropping or so, which adds an extra step. Or some shortcut?

Eduard Metzger: Yeah, not sure. A context menu would have to be the answer if you are going to have option to select a header in a note but maybe it could be optional -- like only if you hold a certain key down while you are dragging, then the context menu will pop up after you drop the line on the new note? Just a thought.

Eduard Metzger: I have been thinking about this and perhaps we could have a way to do this through templates. An additional concept of "replace" would allow us to accumulate tasks onto a day. When we arrive on the day, we can hit the "replace" template which would allow us to dump the "contents" under a particular heading. I haven't thought of a way to handle those who are adding headings to their daily notes in advance or handling the backwards case without adding some metadata (tag or something) to the note or some other setting, which is heading in a fiddly direction.

Eric T: Thanks for sharing! Not quite sure how a template would play a role here during dragging? An easier option might be the macOS way of dragging files. You can hover over a window, it blinks and focuses it. We could do the same with days or notes. Hovering for a few seconds over a day/note would blink and open the note. From there you can drag the task wherever you want to have it. Would also mean we change the view though. Or instead, hover for a few seconds and a dropdown of headings could be shown.., something like this?

Eduard Metzger: Well, it's more that after you dragged, when you arrive on the day, you have just a list of tasks and can invoke a template there, if you supported such an idea. My goal is to have a way to have these tasks go where I want them in my daily note, which is a template. Ideally, I don't have to do anything because they're going to the same place everyday. If you're pre-formatting your daily note, it's different situation to be sure, and that's the case where it seems tricky w/o some more opinionated method. The template parameter idea seemed un-opinionated to workflow to me, but it helps fewer people who don't want to mess with the details. Right now, everyday, I insert my template below the tasks, then select them with standard macOS keyboard nav, and use CMD+Ctrl+Down to drop them below my heading. I would like to not have to do anything. If there's some way my workflow can fit with your roadmap, I'd be delighted. I understand this is a specialization of the more general case here.

Eric T: I think I know what you mean and this could be done with a template. Check out this article, at the end there's an example doing exactly that: https://help.noteplan.co/article/148-run-javascript-code-in-…

Eduard Metzger: Thanks! I swear I looked through the docs before, but I guess I needed fresh eyes.

Eduard Metzger: thank you!

Paul Sydney: This would be the next step!

Eduard Metzger: that’s fantastic, thank you! Do you plan to add this to mobile too?

Eduard Metzger: that's looking really great, looking forward to it! I imagine this works when selecting multiple items/lines, right?

Alison Brack: Yes!

Daniel Danilov: Yes, multiple lines also work. Definitely on Mac, but on iOS I'm not sure.

Eduard Metzger: on mobile, it is more natural to slide your finger along the edge of the screen, to drag. Would you consider swapping the drag-handle and the "+"?

Rob Grace: On iOS there is no + and no drag handle, you mean swapping on Mac? On iOS you can just drag the paragraph without using a drag handle. It works already, I also want to make multiple selected paragraphs draggable though.

Eduard Metzger: That's fantastic! Just one thing to highlight that I noticed: if you drag a task or line from the references into a given daily note, and then click on undo (or CMD+Z), the line or task disappears, BUT IT DOES NOT GO BACK TO THE ORIGINAL NOTE. I think this is a serious downside which can result in loss of information, too. Here's a GIF: https://cln.sh/rucZWQ0fWQ2ubPZPTWFi

Daniel Danilov: Thanks for mentioning this. Yes, I'm aware. Worst case you can use "View Revisions" in the note where the task has been dragged out (using the note menu) at the moment. I'll add undo in the next major release.

Jonathan Clark: agree. I'm thinking it would be better if the UI elements show up only on a tap-and-hold in the right margin on iOS. Sort of like how iOS handles drag-and-drop of selected text nowadays, as a "word bubble" that could be dragged around. But I also like the idea of turning the text into a horizontal line during the drag (TaskPaper might have done this?)

Rob Grace: In NotePlan 1 times we had a press & hold mechanism which activated the drag & drop, but this was written in C++. Will need to experiment a bit. If anyone has references of other apps doing it well, please share!

Jonathan Clark: I agree on keyboard shortcuts. They even work with collapsed headings. That's all I need. Eduard Metzger: I prefer Noteplan's Markdown editor to be light-weight. There's no need to go all Bear or Ulysses. There's no need for yet another outliner. I'd prefer Noteplan to become the best "calendar driven" Markdown app.