Add toc/contents/index view of markdown headers

[robinrosenstock]

When in preview mode, I would like to have the various markdown headers rendered as a table of contents, maybe in some sort of a side view for example. And this should be clickable to jump to the coressponding header.

So this is a feature Request.

Here is a picture of my idea. Header2 and Header3 are Level 2 Headers. The blue box can be shown/hidden:

[stefan-niedermann]

Hmm, that's a nice idea, maybe a little oversized for a simple note app?

But maybe, if we put an action into the overflow menu at the top right "Show index", which would open a pop-up where you can select the headline you want and then jump by clicking to that point....?

@jancborchardt

[robinrosenstock]

I just think this is a nice feature for big notes. Well even for middle-sized notes with like 300 number of lines, sometimes it is a burden to scroll to corresponding header... Implemented as a menu/pop-up would be alright.

[stefan-niedermann]

wow - 300 lines for a middle-sized note? :D Maybe a word processor would be a better solution for you?

But i am open about a discussion if this should be done and how it should be done. Let's wait for some designer input.

[jancborchardt]

My notes also often pile up quite an amount of lines. :) We can’t really assume how people use it, and it should scale.

The suggestion of a table of contents is a nice enhancement for when you use markdown, but we need a better and less intrusive design. 2 proposals:

• When you tap on the title (and there are headings in the note) there could be a list dropdown with the headings.
• The headings could somehow be hinted at on the right side at the scrollbar. Kind of like the A→Z scroller, but with heading # or ## symbols? Easier to find but maybe less readable.

To start out, we should limit to only show first-level, or only first- and second-level headings and nothing below.

[dan0xii]

The toc might be a bit clunky on smaller displays.

Could we not use fast scroll to move quickly between headers? Similar to a contacts app. I'm not sure how this would be implemented for different header levels but it means it's not visible until you need it.

[jancborchardt]

@dan0xii see my comment ;)

[wurstmuffin]

Hi all. Using the app for a while now and wanted to join the discussions and new feature requests. Like the app very much, but missing many features still.

Would also very much like to see this feature request implemnted. Using Nextcloud notes for a fairly big notes actually. Maybe as a menu which could be pulled over from left or right, like a sliding sidebar.

@stefan-niedermann Why is the considered as a simple note app? Are there any alternative big/complex apps working with Nextcloud Notes?

[stefan-niedermann]

Actually i like the idea of jan: https://github.com/stefan-niedermann/nextcloud-notes/issues/401#issuecomment-396554511

I recently had a quick look at it, but it seemed to be only possible for scrollable views but not for lines in a TextView. Maybe there is some way to introduce it though.

@wurstmuffin it is by design. There is for example NextNotes which has way more features, but those kind of features need to be maintained. And here is the problem No. 1: We are a little team with very little spare time. We have several other open source projects, we are contributing to and while *implementing" all the features might be possible, maintaining all of the over the time is simply impossible for us at this time. No. 2 of the problem is, that we want to avoid featuritis. While here are some people at github who are contributing, some of them ask for more features. The majority withe a couple thousand of users have enogh features to find this app useful. Adding more and more features is dangerous since it means a more complex entry for new users.

Please understand our reasons. We are open to new features if they do not add more complexity to the user interface (like another sidebar) and if thex are easy to maintain.

Regards

[wurstmuffin]

Hi, thank you for the fast reply. I understand the reasons for sure and also don't mind how the things are implemented in the end, as I just want to use them. Maybe having clear use-cases in mind would be helpful to understand the purpose of the app.

Supporting the Nextcloud notes and the sync is a to big deal to keep the too simple :) Things like toc and images in the notes are some basic features for me for example. Will wait and see how the app will envolve :)

[jpggithub]

Clicking on headers to collapse/expand their content could be enough to alternate between toc/content view?