[Feature] Make Note Worskspace a central note manager

[tranhungnghiep]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Environment

• OS: macOS 12.6.3
• Zotero Version: 6.0.27
• Plugin Version: 1.0.4

Describe the feature request

If I understand correctly, Better Notes could be viewed as a "note manager" for existing Zotero notes. To provide values for more potential users, the Note Workspace should have "note managing features". In addition, a note manager UI would provide better user experience than opening a single note or asking to create a new note when first opening.

Describe the solution you'd like

The solution you'd like
The Note Workspace tab would be very useful as a Zotero note manager and center for all note editing if it has:

• List of all Zotero notes to choose from
• List of recently edited notes to choose from
• A button for creating new notes if needed
• Note search, moving/adding note to Zotero folders
• Integrating links with Zotero "Tags" and "Related" links

Alternatives you've considered

• Currently the Note Workspace tab asks to create a new note when first opening, but this is rather confusing.
• Another alternative is to use a separate markdown editor (such as Obsidian) to manage/edit Zotero notes. This would require exporting--syncing all Zotero notes to external markdown files. However, syncing may cause conflicts, and currently finding all Zotero notes to export--sync is difficult. So this feature should probably only added after Note Workspace has worked as a note manager.

Anything else?

No response

[windingwind]

List of all Zotero notes to choose from

see 1 below

List of recently edited notes to choose from

see 2 below

A button for creating new notes if needed

That's the popup when no workspace note is set.

Note search, moving/adding note to Zotero folders

That's what Zotero already provides you.

Integrating links with Zotero "Tags" and "Related" links

Good suggestion.

[tranhungnghiep]

Thanks for the response and your great work.

About 1 and 2:
I cannot see the menu that you showed on Mac version. Is that only on Windows?
Moreover, what I mean is the UI. It would be great to have the list of notes directly shown in the Note Workspace, that makes it a center for note managing.

About the popup:
I understand that it is a popup, but it is a bit confusing (or even overwhelming) for new users as a Welcoming UI of the Note Workspace tab.

About note searching/moving:
I agree that Zotero did that and this is more a wish list feature than a critical feature. This suggestion is for when we have the list of notes, we can search/manage notes only instead of all items.

[windingwind]

About 1 and 2:

It's the latest prerelease (which is for Zotero 7 only).

About the popup:

Right. But actually, that's just a null-fallback when no workspace note is set, not a welcoming UI. We used to have a setup wizard, I'll consider having it back.

About note searching/moving:

That's a little bit too much for this plugin. I don't have much time for that currently. Thanks for the suggestions anyway.

[windingwind]

Currently the Note Workspace tab asks to create a new note when first opening, but this is rather confusing.

This is updated in the latest prerelease.