GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 652222
External links
Last modified: 2017-07-31 12:42:05 UTC
Originally sent to the Tomboy mailing list: "I've been using Tomboy to take notes in class for a long time, and I've always found in an unvaluable resource. I have been using Google Docs for some time, though, and there is one feature that I sure missed back in Tomboy: the ability to select some text and turn it into a link, not to another note, but to an Internet address". Randy Syring proposed something that was especially well received: "FWIW, I wouldn't use colors to distinguish. Links should all be the same color IMO. I would like to see an icon, like Wikipedia uses for their "external" links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Tower_%28series%29#cite_note-superherohype.com-1"
Seems like this might be a little more useful if it can be used for more than just external links. My suggestion from: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=652187 So if I have arbitrary text, highlight it, and click the link button, up pops the "make link" dialog box. Dialog box has a few options (maybe tabs) A) enter external URL B) link to TB Note C) link to filesystem. C would be selected by default and pre-populated with the selected text if selected text matched a regex for file system URLs on that platform and the path exists.
Randy, I've been giving this some thought during the afternoon, and I also came to the same conclusion as you. Later, though, I came to think that a lot of the time I'm using Tomboy I make links to new notes, not online content or files. Therefore, there should be a way to do this without impeding linking to new notes. How would I do it? First, keep the "link" button as it's now. Second, include a "link to" menu item in the right-click menu. Third, after clicking that menu item, open a dialogue where you can enter: -An URL. -A link to the filesystem. -The name of an existing note. This would be a lifesaver for me because it would negate the problem with singulars/plurals, e.g. the fact that if I create a note called "open-source apps" and then I mention "an open-source app" on another note, it won't link to the new one. All three types of content could be typed in the same field, because each type looks different. Ideally, it would be great to have autocomplete for filesystem and existing notes, e.g. if I select "an open-source app", click "link to" and start typing "ope...", Tomboy should remember that a note called "open-source apps" exists and offer it on a drop-down menu. I know it's a lot to ask, I'm just throwing ideas at you. That takes me to another issue: imagine you select the text "Tomboy notes" and turn it into a link to Tomboy's homepage. When you type "Tomboy notes" on a different note... should it also point to the same URL? That is Tomboy's existing behaviour, so I guess it would be coherent to do it that way, wouldn't it?
Take a look at the bugzilla links addin. the preferences allow you to specify icons for specific domain addresses. you can take the idea to implement this for any http:// address.
Created attachment 190662 [details] Mockup I'm attaching a quick mockup. See how in the mockup "examples" doesn't link to the note "example", even though it would make sense to. I'd like to be able to select "examples", hit "Link to..." and get a popup menu where I could especify which note I'd like that text to link to.
Created attachment 190664 [details] Mockup It would also be easy to have a specific text point to sources outside of Tomboy, such as URLs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Example) or file addresses (/home/david/Documents/example.odt).
Created attachment 190665 [details] Mockup Links created that way could be identified using a small icon next to them; different icons (note, globe, file) could be used depending on the type of context they linked to.
Created attachment 190666 [details] Mockup Editing existing links would also be simple: an "Edit link" item could be added to the right-click menu which would, when clicked, open a popup similar to the one used to create the link.
Maybe we should use the same dialogue to create and edit links. This popup would have three buttons: - Delete link. This button would only be active when you're editing an existing link, not creating a new one. - Cancel. This would close the dialogue without any changes. - Accept. This would save changes and close the dialogue. When editing a link, it would always be active. When creating one, it wouldn't be active until some text is entered. If the same dialogue is used to create and edit links and we place a "Link to..." item on the right-click menu, we don't need to change the toolbar. That way the current Link button can stay as it is now, and "Link to..." can be used an as advanced option.
The Tomboy team has moved from GNOME Bugzilla to GitHub for bug reports and feature requests: https://github.com/tomboy-notes/tomboy/issues/ Closing this report as NOTGNOME as part of Bugzilla Housekeeping (bug 781054) to keep tasks in one place. Please feel free to transfer this task to GitHub if this task is still valid in a recent Tomboy version. We are sorry for the inconvenience.