[SUPPORT] App UI feels bloated

[BarnoTD]

Tried this app 2 days ago after watching a youtube video from 2023 and being impressed with double pane (Editor / Preview) and notes in folder structure. Compared to what I've seen, I felt like the latest version feels bloated. Here are some things that I disliked in my experience (note that I'm using the Windows latest version):

• No Toggle Preview Pane button in the top bar for when I'm in any Layout other than Full, I have to change Layout in the Settings
• Applying changes in settings (e.g: changing theme) takes more than a few seconds to be done, on a High Performance Laptop... (32GB Ram, SSD NVMe, i7 CPU Laptop)
• AI integration and MCP, why would I need AI in a note taking app?
• No button for task lists / Check Lists. I would appreciate it instead of manually typing [] every time since I use a French Keyboard that requires holding shift and square brackets keys are far apart.
• there is a lot going on in the toolbar even for minimal mode, compare the app toolbar on minimal layout with apple notes' toolbar:

My feedback does not underestimate the importance of the features this app provides. Instead, it reflects bad UX for users with limited needs. Taking it into consideration would be much appreciated.

[pbek]

Thank you for the feedback!

No Toggle Preview Pane button in the top bar for when I'm in any Layout other than Full, I have to change Layout in the Settings

I'm not sure yet if I want that in the main toolbar, because it takes a long time to put everything together. But you can of course open a feature request. I note that you asked for more settings. 😉

I already implemented a workspace switcher, you can define whatever you want there. There is no extra button for the preview on purpose.

Applying changes in settings (e.g: changing theme) takes more than a few seconds to be done, on a High Performance Laptop... (32GB Ram, SSD NVMe, i7 CPU Laptop)

I tested on a very old 2014 system, and it takes about a second even with my massive note folder.
But "changing theme" takes a while, because it has to replace every widget in the UI which takes time. Note that that feature didn't even exist 3 years ago.

AI integration and MCP, why would I need AI in a note taking app?

Because people want to use that. Can you imagine? Why you would want that I can't tell, you have to decide that yourself.

No button for task lists / Check Lists. I would appreciate it instead of manually typing [] every time since I use a French Keyboard that requires holding shift and square brackets keys are far apart.

You only need to do that once, in the next line it will be done for you automatically. And you can also convert lines of text to lists. If you like the bloat of having features... 😊 You can also create a script that types those characters and add a shortcut to it.

there is a lot going on in the toolbar even for minimal mode, compare the app toolbar on minimal layout with apple notes' toolbar:

You can turn them off individually or item by item. You can even turn off the whole toolbar. And there is a distraction free mode.

App UI feels bloated
I felt like the latest version feels bloated

What was the bloat now? The toolbar hardly changed in the last years. 🤔

[BarnoTD]

Thank you for your quick response. Just to clarify some points discussed:

No Toggle Preview Pane button in the top bar for when I'm in any Layout other than Full, I have to change Layout in the Settings

I'm not sure yet if I want that in the main toolbar, because it takes a long time to put everything together. But you can of course open a feature request. I note that you asked for more settings. 😉

What I meant is suggesting a "toggle preview" button in the toolbar in Minimal mode, I might want to quickly preview markdown in a click of a a button.

Applying changes in settings (e.g: changing theme) takes more than a few seconds to be done, on a High Performance Laptop... (32GB Ram, SSD NVMe, i7 CPU Laptop)

I tested on a very old 2014 system, and it takes about a second even with my massive note folder. But "changing theme" takes a while, because it has to replace every widget in the UI which takes time. Note that that feature didn't even exist 3 years ago.

The video I previously linked clearly shows the app in dark mode, showcases themes meaning the feature and applies themes quickly. It was uploaded in August 2023 meaning the theme feature definitely existed before but maybe it was only on Linux idk
🤷‍♂️. I'm just pointing out that changing the theme or for example checking/unchecking ui features taking a bit to load mightn be slightly disturbing for some.

AI integration and MCP, why would I need AI in a note taking app?

Because people want to use that. Can you imagine? Why you would want that I can't tell, you have to decide that yourself.

Jokes aside, I prefer not seeing it in the toolbar. I don't use AI frequently so it just fills the toolbar

No button for task lists / Check Lists. I would appreciate it instead of manually typing [] every time since I use a French Keyboard that requires holding shift and square brackets keys are far apart.

You only need to do that once, in the next line it will be done for you automatically. And you can also convert lines of text to lists. If you like the bloat of having features... 😊 You can also create a script that types those characters and add a shortcut to it.

Would be great for advanced users with know-how, for a user wanting a minimalistic FOSS notes app a button that writes [] is handy.

there is a lot going on in the toolbar even for minimal mode, compare the app toolbar on minimal layout with apple notes' toolbar:

You can turn them off individually or item by item. You can even turn off the whole toolbar. And there is a distraction free mode.

This is good, but turning half of the buttons off when theme is minimalistic would be great. maybe 6-7 buttons for essentials and font buttons summarized in one menu button

[pbek]

What I meant is suggesting a "toggle preview" button in the toolbar in Minimal mode, I might want to quickly preview markdown in a click of a a button.

There is no "minimal mode" just a preset what and where panels should be shown. Such a workspace can be added for convenience in the Layout settings. I had all kind of buttons more than 10y ago, but people kept coming up with new layout wishes all the time, after the 4th or 5th wish I implemented I stopped and created the workspaces. But there is a button to switch between the last two workspaces.

Jokes aside, I prefer not seeing it in the toolbar. I don't use AI frequently so it just fills the toolbar

So why don't you turn that toolbar off?

for a user wanting a minimalistic FOSS notes app a button that writes [] is handy.

You are describing a very specialized feature that you want. That's where the scripting engine comes in.

This is good, but turning half of the buttons off when theme is minimalistic would be great. maybe 6-7 buttons for essentials and font buttons summarized in one menu button

Currently, workspaces don't include toolbar settings.

But please open separate feature requests to talk about, I really dislike issues where people just dump all their unrelated wishes, so I'll close this one.

[pbek]

This I will do here already:

26.4.12

• Turned the AI toolbar off by default when no AI backend is configured, so
  fresh installations without AI setup start with a less cluttered interface; if an
  AI backend is configured later while the toolbar is hidden, the application
  now asks whether it should be turned on (for #3561)