Apologies in advance for the longwinded reply that follows, I invite you to
save yourself some time by skipping it.
For whoever's still here, I want to explore what it means for RTF to be
optional, and also talk about how embedded graphics would allow me to spend
more time getting things done and less time managing my queue of tasks.
RTF: My favorite Android email app, K@mail ("kat-mail") recently
implemented RTF. It adds a row of buttons to the screen: bold, italic,
underline, strikeout, superscript, subscript, font size, font color,
background color. This row of buttons can be optionally hidden, which
allows a slightly larger area on the screen for text composition. Hiding
the buttons is not the same of opting out of the function, it just manages
the limited space on the phone's screen. Even when the buttons are on
display, you don't need to use them if you don't want them. If you don't
use them, your text remains plain. RTF adds a small amount to the size of
the message but if you don't click the buttons the added space isn't used.
So, what does it really mean for it to be optional versus having it
available and not using it?
About spending more time getting things done: Sometimes (frequently) I find
that a picture is worth a thousand words. By snapping a picture of
something that needs to be done I create a precise and complete task
description in a couple of clicks, versus writing out the equivalent text
which could be hundreds of clicks. When I encounter a situation which will
take several tasks to resolve my preferred scenario would be:
- open a new task
- edit the note area of the task
- click on the camera icon (note: this does not yet exist)
- click to take a picture and embed it in the note
- save the task
Note that I would need to be able to see and act upon the picture across my
desktop and mobile platforms.
What's available today is
- open a new note in Evernote
- click on the camera icon
- click to take a picture and embed it in the note.
- save the note.
If I decide to manage this task in Evernote I'm done. If I want to manage
it in MLO I continue with the next steps
- select the saved note and click "menu"
- select the "share public link" option
- Select MLO as the target of the share
- In MLO, save the note
Managing the task in Evernote is faster but leaves me with some tasks in
Evernote and some in MLO, which is undesirable. So I typically go through
the somewhat-complex and timeconsuming extra steps to move it to MLO. This
also leaves me with the responsibility of remembering to remove the note
from Evernote after the task gets completed in MLO. This business of
remembering to do your housekeeping is the opposite of the direct and
efficient task management that we both prefer.
Some of this discussion sounds as though people think the reason for
formatting notes it to have artistic, well-designed, attractive notes.
Maybe somebody wants that but what I want is to get more stuff done and
spend less time writing out descriptions of what needs to be done.
-Dwight
On Sunday, November 23, 2014 5:52:19 PM UTC-5, Stéph wrote:
>
> Thanks for writing what I was thinking, John and Pottster. I agree - I
> would want rtf to be optional. For me, MLO needs to be quick - it's not
> meant to be a replacement word processor and I want to spend the majority
> of my time carrying out my tasks, rather than managing and formatting my
> task management app.
>
> (That's also the reasoning behind all my previous suggestions for
> shortcuts and automation of task properties, by the way.)
>
> Stéphane
>
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