CintaNotes Forum

Hi,
CN is mostly hot-key oriented which is fair enough, but I have some problems with viewing notes, especially long ones in the main window, it's a kind of mix between the mouse and the keyboard (and I'm mainly a mouse user) :

as things are with a long note :

1) to choose the note = click on a tag (mouse)
2) to scroll a long text = left & right arrows (KB)
3) to open and edit a note = either press Enter (KB) or double click to open (mouse) or F2 (KB) or more ?

What I'd like is :
1) click on a tag to choose the note (mouse)
2) middle button to scroll a long text (mouse)
3) one click to open and edit a note (mouse)

I realize that this will add more code to CN but it would greatly improve things for me !!!

Thanks for the app that I use the most and like the best.

Hello mhf,

thanks a lot for your suggestions!

I have a number of questions which will inevitably arise during implementation:

>middle button to scroll a long text (mouse)
Middle button alone or using the mouse wheel? Or both middle button and the wheel?
What about holding left button down and scrolling with the wheel?
Mouse wheel used alone should scroll the note list.

>one click to open and edit a note (mouse)
How to avoid accidental clicks (=edits)?
How to select (multiple) notes?

Thanks again,

Hi Alex,
thanks for replying.

First an apology : when I said middle button I meant mouse wheel - sorry about that !

So it would be thus :
1) click on the CN icon in the tray
2) click on a tag
3) scroll the window with the mouse wheel to read a long text (instead of using the arrow keys, or as an alternative to the arrow keys)
4) one click to open then edit

What I'm trying to say is that it seems better for a mouse-user for there to be as few gestures as possible between opening CN and getting to edit a text, and to not have to swap between the KB and the mouse - so one set of gestures for KB users and one set for mouse users...?

Anyway, thanks again for a fantastic application.

Sorry Alex, forgot to add my username above !

Hmm, but you don't have to use the KB to get to edit text. Click on a tag, scroll to the needed note, double-click et voila)
And I still don't get how can we use one mouse wheel to both scroll the notes list and the note text.. could you elaborate? Thanks!

Sorry for the confusion.

What I meant was this (I'll try to be clearer) :
When in the notes list, once a note is focused then the mouse wheel should scroll THAT note if it is longer than the window size, however as you say that makes a problem for scrolling the notes list. So maybe your idea of left-button + wheel to scroll a note in the note list would be best which leaves the wheel free to scroll the list itself.

Thanks anyway !

Ok, I suggest we record the suggestion as follows:

- Holding the left mouse button and turning the mouse wheel should scroll long notes.

and have a vote for it. I personally like this idea very much.

I have an observation to make on this...

I think it would be most desirable for CintaNotes if it could accomodate both keyboard centric and mouse centric operating modes -- since some operations become very difficult for certain users when one mode is favoured over the other (disabled/screen readers, for example).

A while back I tried to create an ordered index of all the keyboard shortcuts, in order to check for possible alternatives/improvements -- but gave up shortly because they kept accumulating/changing. Maybe I should return to this...

To tell the truth I don't like a lot this feature as outlined but I guess it depends on how each person uses the mouse, some observations:

a. I use the "index finger" to click the left mouse button but I use the same finger to scroll the wheel when needed, I really don't know if it's common or not , but if people like me exists out there, they would need to learn an entirely new way to use the mouse. I also fear for people who for various reasons may not have a perfect control of the hand/fingers, it seems to me too "difficult".
b. It's maybe a bit uncommon, I never saw this in other software, I think a more standard way (which by the way I personally don't like and never use ) is where the wheel is clickable, a single click on the wheel changes the pointer to an up-down pointer and then the scrolling happens with just the mouse movement, another click brings back normal operations, so the click is a kind of toggle mechanism.
c. One way I would find easier is pressing and keeping pressed a key on the keyboard and then scrolling with the wheel would scroll the note instead of the list. A solution like this needs both hands however...

Ale you are not alone!! That too is my issue with this feature. I have tried over the last two days too teach myself this gesture and it is just too unnatural for those of us that use a mouse in this way.

I agree with both of you ale and kranor - this is not what I wished for either, I was just hoping for the mouse-wheel scroll but apparently it's not a perfect solution.

My gripe is that if, for example, you want to copy some text from a note you have to go through so many gestures to get there, I haven't counted them but it must be at least 4 or 5 clicks etc.

Anyway, I would go for ale's (b) and/or (c) options.

Are we changing the voting question, or does it remain as per the subject?
Nod

I couldn't find any other way to scroll note contents using the mouse wheel which would not interfere with normal notes list scrolling. (Well, maybe except for providing an extra scrollbar inside of a note, which is the option I don't really dig right now.)

I suggest to use spacebar to "pin" note to its place and then mouse wheel or up/down keys to scroll. Of course the disadvantage is that both hands are required, but thank God spacebar is a key which is difficult to miss)) What do you say?

Alex - definitely NO for the extra scrollbar !
Whereas Space + wheel sounds good - however (on this PC anyway) Space already scrolls the notes in the All view, would that be a problem ?

+1 for Space+MouseWheel -- and definitely nom, nom, nom to yet another scroll bar, who mostly eat away our precious screen real estate, in this era of shrinking screens. (Netbook anyone?)

On second thought, won't that cause erroneous space insertions? CTRL+MW (usually used for zooming) would be a good alternative if that's the case, since the modifier key resides on the corner of the keyboard, and although not as big as the space bar, it's almost as accessible.

No, I guess erroneous space insertions can be avoided. Now spacebar in the notes list doubles the "down" key - I wonder how many people actually use this..
Ctrl is a viable alternative, but I find spacebar to be "cooler"

Yes spacebar is cooler - you don't have to look for it !