Feature Request: Landscape Mode

[infotexture]

Add an option to the preferences to toggle the display of note list and note contents from the default vertical arrangement to a horizontal setup with the note list on the left and the note contents on the right.

This would take better advantage of the landscape orientation of most PC monitors and correspond to Simplenote's Landscape Mode and a similar option in JustNotes.

[scrod]

People should know about some important points concerning horizontal layouts in NV:

1. The "list" of notes is more appropriately considered a list of results; you're not intended to see an all-inclusive list (and by implication pick items out from that all-inclusive list directly). Instead, the intention is to find notes by searching, which involves narrowing-down the results until they're not more than about 5 items. Remember that with the keyboard, notes are selected using the up/down shortcuts, so the fewer notes that appear in the list, the faster users can get to their notes. So presenting more notes on the screen will only encourage a less-efficient use of NV.
2. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of note-taking apps for the Mac, and almost all of them place the notes list and editor side-by-side. NV didn't do this because it's not intended to be used the same way as those other apps; the workflow is very deliberately top-to-bottom, with the IE autocompleting-location-bar as a model (the results list could just as well be contained in a pop-down menu). For the record, JustNotes and the Simplenote website do not have the same interaction model as NV, so they also should not be used as examples in justifying feature-parity.
3. A horizontal layout actually creates less usable space on a wide-screen display! With a 1440x900 or 1680x1050 resolution, your largest main-application window area is cut in half:

[leshnik]

The interaction model of NV makes it attractive for usage which might differ from what is strictly intended. In addition to using it "normally" for notes, and appreciating the vertical disposition, I am also using it full screen for creative writing. In that case, the argument of usable space doesn't apply. The quick search is so good for instantly calling up paragraph lists, chapter lists, structural ideas, comments and thoughts, characters... etc. The results list is often long and seeing the whole list at once would be a good support for the state of thinking/dreaming which goes with creative writing.

[arliber]

I actually must agree with "leshnik" and "infotexture" but at the end of the day, NV is still the best solution for note taking and I will support and appreciate any thing that is done and decided by the NV team :)

[ashcroft]

@leshnik:

How about a combination of NV and WriteRoom for creative writing? With QuickCursor installed, you can hit some combo like Cmd-Enter whenever writing in NV and - Boom! - continue your work in a distraction-free WR!

Read more:
http://dougist.com/2010/01/notational-velocity-show-in-finder/ (end of article)
http://dougist.com/2010/01/writeroom-and-notational-velocity/

[jerclarke]

I think that Notational Velocity would profit from a landscape mode. Visually it could be similar to CSSEdit, which shows live search results for CSS classes in the sidebar. As others have stated if you do have lots of related files you identify with the same search term then the horizontal layout is more efficient. If you have 20 files identified with the same string then the vertical layout forces you to have a more detailed search which could be distruptive to your work with the related documents.

I can accept if you just don't want to maintain two seperate interfaces, but I think conceptually you don't have to violate NV's principles to deliver a horizontal view.

[m6k]

Scrod, please take a look at http://imgur.com/le23p
I'd trade any time that useless blank space for vertical column list. Some people really need it. The titles in my notes never exceed 25 characters and I don't want to pollute the list with previews or other columns. Pretty please, consider side-by-side layout as an (non-default) option.

[mpj]

I'd like this too - the reason is that I use Notational as a todo list in some situations. A shortcut to make maximize and restore the size of the search results area would also suffice for me.

[infotexture]

Anyone interested in this feature should check out the forks by elasticthreads, which include this and many other useful enhancements.

The original post is here:
http://elasticthreads.tumblr.com/post/1283428380/notational-velocity-forked-fullscreen-mode-menubar

and the latest version is here http://elasticthreads.tumblr.com/nv.

[scrod]

The newly-released version 2.0B4 has a horizontal view option. See the blog post for details.