Hotkey to save current browser page Title and URL to CintaNotes

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[Startup] - issue related to the program's startup or shutdown process;
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[Import] and [Export] - issue related to bulk notes import/export;
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Thank you!
Novan Leon
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Hotkey to save current browser page Title and URL to CintaNotes

Postby Novan Leon » Thu Aug 18, 2016 6:12 pm

I recently became frustrated with the state of bookmark management in all the modern web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, IE/Edge). The best ones, even with plugins/addons, only allow basic keyword tagging with little-to-no bells and whistles, and Firefox at least becomes very sluggish as you accumulate a large number of bookmarks. Browser-specific bookmark managers also restrict you to a single browser and make it difficult to move seamlessly between browsers, computers and devices.

I was struggling with this dilemma when it dawned on me: CintaNotes would make an excellent bookmark manager!

Reasons

  • Bookmarks generally consist of four fields: "Title", "URL", "Tags" and "Description", all which are supported by CintaNotes already.
  • The typical CintaNotes use case (i.e. using hotkeys to quickly trap snippets of text-based data and store them centrally) aligns perfectly with the bookmark management use case.
  • CintaNotes has a ton of features that make is superior for tagging, organizing and quickly searching small chunks of data like bookmarks (i.e. notebooks and sections, hierarchical tags, autotagging, full text search, etc.).
  • CintaNotes already supports synchronization of notes between different devices via Simplenote.

Requirements

In order to function as an effective bookmark manager (in addition to it's current role as a notes manager), it would only need the following:

  • ADD: A hotkey that "traps" the title and URL of the currently opened browser tab and pastes them into a new note directly in CintaNotes.
  • ADD: Yes/No option for "Silent Mode" where it adds bookmark notes and saves them automatically behind the scenes.
  • [OPTIONAL] ADD: Ability to drag-n-drop URLs from the browser into CintaNotes.
  • [OPTIONAL] ADD: Ability to import bookmarks from other browsers.

Sales Pitch

By adding this relatively simple functionality to CintaNotes, you're expanding the potential audience for CintaNotes beyond mere information management to a whole new market of people who are looking for a decent bookmark management solution and/or are tired of the current inadequacies of current browsers. By drawing users to CintaNotes for bookmark management, you're making it all that much harder for them to go back to the "old way" of organizing bookmarks, further establishing your user base/repeat customers.
date
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Re: Hotkey to save current browser page Title and URL to CintaNotes

Postby date » Fri Aug 19, 2016 5:54 pm

Novan Leon wrote:ADD: A hotkey that "traps" the title and URL of the currently opened browser tab and pastes them into a new note directly in CintaNotes.
It's already there, call this 'clipping'? But you need to select some text.

[*]ADD: Yes/No option for "Silent Mode" where it adds bookmark notes and saves them automatically behind the scenes.
Silent mode is there, you can switch it on and off? Or you meant something diffenent?

ADD: Ability to drag-n-drop URLs from the browser into CintaNotes.
Can already do this as well, from the currently opened page as well as the bookmarks menu. This is because the 'Note' form consists of elements that can receive those embedded properties in the form of a textual link when you drag them to the field. The element is behind the (i), globe, folded paper, lock or anything left from the address bar, depending on the browser, behind the icon in the bookmarks menu as well. But it's probably not an 'official' feature, but it works from any browser that I have. Still clipping is easier than dragging.

ADD: Ability to import bookmarks from other browsers.
Could have used this as well some time ago, but the list from which people would want CN to import things from is probably never going to end ;) But if you need to do this just one time, it's not difficult to devise an AHK script even by means of automatic typing, even easier.

By adding this relatively simple functionality to CintaNotes, you're expanding the potential audience for CintaNotes beyond mere information management to a whole new market of people who are looking for a decent bookmark management solution
I think they can expand their audience by giving examples of what CN can be used for, including bookmark management. (Still think it's not convenient enough for storing bookmarks?) Some year ago I was looking for something entirely different, merely stumbled upon CN. Wish I'd known about CN much earlier.
Novan Leon
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Re: Hotkey to save current browser page Title and URL to CintaNotes

Postby Novan Leon » Sun Aug 21, 2016 3:28 am

date wrote:
Novan Leon wrote:ADD: A hotkey that "traps" the title and URL of the currently opened browser tab and pastes them into a new note directly in CintaNotes.
It's already there, call this 'clipping'? But you need to select some text.


You can clip the URL of the webpage by selecting the address bar, but it will automatically add the URL to the body of the note instead of the link field. It needs inserted into the link field in order to be used effectively as a bookmark manager. This could be done by auto-detecting when/if the clipped text is a URL and adding automatically adding it to the link field instead of the the body, or even better, if it could detect the browser tab that has your focus and do it automatically without having to highlight the URL, even better. Either would be fine.

date wrote:
[*]ADD: Yes/No option for "Silent Mode" where it adds bookmark notes and saves them automatically behind the scenes.
Silent mode is there, you can switch it on and off? Or you meant something diffenent?


If it automatically placed URLs in the link field, then you're right, this would work fine.

date wrote:
ADD: Ability to drag-n-drop URLs from the browser into CintaNotes.
Can already do this as well, from the currently opened page as well as the bookmarks menu. This is because the 'Note' form consists of elements that can receive those embedded properties in the form of a textual link when you drag them to the field. The element is behind the (i), globe, folded paper, lock or anything left from the address bar, depending on the browser, behind the icon in the bookmarks menu as well. But it's probably not an 'official' feature, but it works from any browser that I have. Still clipping is easier than dragging.


Yes, you can drag and drop any highlighted text from any application, but what I'm referring to here would need to go a little further and let you drag the (i), globe, folded paper, lock, etc. from the browser to the CintaNotes app, without opening a new note first, and automatically place the page title in the note title and the URL in the link field. You can't do this today.

date wrote:
By adding this relatively simple functionality to CintaNotes, you're expanding the potential audience for CintaNotes beyond mere information management to a whole new market of people who are looking for a decent bookmark management solution
I think they can expand their audience by giving examples of what CN can be used for, including bookmark management. (Still think it's not convenient enough for storing bookmarks?) Some year ago I was looking for something entirely different, merely stumbled upon CN. Wish I'd known about CN much earlier.


CintaNotes almost has what it needs to be an effective bookmark manager, there are just a few small features that are needed for speed and convenience. In most browsers it only takes a single action (click star) to add a bookmark. CintaNotes would need to be able to do the same thing in a single action (ctrl-F12 or drag-n-drop) to be an effective bookmark manager. If CintaNotes had these features I would drop my browser bookmarks entirely and use CintaNotes exclusively for all my bookmark management needs.
Novan Leon
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Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2013 2:03 pm
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Re: Hotkey to save current browser page Title and URL to CintaNotes

Postby Novan Leon » Mon Aug 22, 2016 2:36 pm

Some alternative ways to implement this feature:

  • Add the ability to click highlighted URLs in the note body without having to open the note for editing. This would give users an alternative to following links other than the link field.
  • Add the option for F7/Alt+Click to follow the first highlighted URL in the note body if there is no link present.
  • Add the option for a link icon to be shown, representing the first highlighted URL in the note body, if there is no link present.
Novan Leon
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Re: Hotkey to save current browser page Title and URL to CintaNotes

Postby Novan Leon » Mon Aug 22, 2016 5:02 pm

To answer my own question...

Novan Leon wrote:Some alternative ways to implement this feature:

  • Add the ability to click highlighted URLs in the note body without having to open the note for editing. This would give users an alternative to following links other than the link field.
  • Add the option for F7/Alt+Click to follow the first highlighted URL in the note body if there is no link present.
  • Add the option for a link icon to be shown, representing the first highlighted URL in the note body, if there is no link present.


I found this feature (in bold above) listed in the roadmap under "Planned" features (here). I hope this means we'll be seeing it soon.
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Re: Hotkey to save current browser page Title and URL to CintaNotes

Postby CintaNotes Developer » Mon Aug 22, 2016 7:32 pm

Hi Novan,
Thanks a lot for your suggestion!
Indeed, this is a good idea and has been suggested before: http://roadmap.cintanotes.com/topics/48 ... ion-empty/
If this is what you're asking for, please add your vote there.

Some other suggestions which would enhance CN usage as bookmark manager:
http://roadmap.cintanotes.com/topics/76 ... shability/
http://roadmap.cintanotes.com/topics/47 ... -clipping/

Sorry for the short answer, please let me know if I missed something!
Alex
Novan Leon
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Re: Hotkey to save current browser page Title and URL to CintaNotes

Postby Novan Leon » Tue Aug 23, 2016 5:45 pm

Looks great. I look forward to seeing these new features.

Keep up the good work!
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Re: Hotkey to save current browser page Title and URL to CintaNotes

Postby CintaNotes Developer » Thu Aug 25, 2016 7:45 am

Thanks Novan!
Alex

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