We have released an update that introduces Soft-lock Object Editing.
We are looking for feedback and first impressions. Please add any feedback on in the thread below.
This feedback will be considered by the product team for our first round of updates in the coming weeks.
Please note, this is not a place for submitting bugs. If you are encountering a bug, please file a report in app via 'submit a bug' in the bottom left settings menu in your Tana workspace.
12 Comments
I think this is a very exciting update! One thing I'm not fully convinced with, however, is the way dates are now formatted. It seems to me it stands out unnecessarily. I liked the previous, more discrete light grey colour without the highlighting. Now it becomes what attracts the attention most and the first thing that I look at when I see those nodes.
Another thing that seems like a feature regression for me is the fact that I relied heavily on looking at whether the node bullet has a continuous or discontinous line to know whether it's a reference or not. Now if I set an icon, I need to click on the node to find out. So I don't know if I'll be able to make much use of them. But I understand it is difficult to have it both ways.
It also looks quite unpleasant on the calendar view:
I would love a quick and easy way to ”unfold” the inline node reference with the keyboard — no matter where the cursor is in the sentence — so that can be done more on the fly when writing. It’s tedious to go back (or forward) to the reference every time to add or look up stuff to it. (I apologize if this is already possible).
I'm hoping this means that we will be able to edit title expression type objects as well. Filling in fields without opening the node would be a huge workflow increase. They could even be drop downs. I see the start of this with the date picker.
Request for the ability to disable soft lock. I don't like it.
The changes to editing references has interfered with opening links by click on the name of a URL node. Before, a reference to a node like the following:
Could be clicked on directly to open the link. This is no longer the case and it's very unintuitive. If something is marked on a link, it should be directly clickable to open.
Still I miss the old supertag color on supertag reference.
It's now just the same grey all over
The alignment and spacing for inline references seems off now. As seen below, there is a perceivable difference in spacing between "hello" and the inline reference to the node "world" in the first bullet and the spacing between "hello" and just plain string "world"
It would be great to fix this, I find it very disconcerting
The styling, especially the subtle flash, behind the references is
(chef's kiss). Looks fantastic.
That said, I've noticed a slight dip in the ease of editing. Previously, it took just a single click to modify a specific part of a reference. Now, it requires 3 clicks since the input field only appears after either double-clicking or expanding the node. Admittedly, it's only 2 clicks if you expand the node instead of double clicking but I find myself doing that much less often.
Transclusions everywhere, as a first class feature, along with supertags, initially drew me to Tana. While I understand and appreciate the value of these new 'soft locks', they add a bit more resistance to my workflow than I'd prefer.
I'm sure there is some balance that can be achieved as the UX decisions y'all have made have been consistently strong. In the interim, having an option to disable the soft lock feature, perhaps accompanied by a playful warning similar to the one in Obsidian when switching to Vim mode indicating that it's destructive, would be fantastic.
I absolutely agree that it adds resistance. I don't quite understand the rationale behind it (for me at least it's solving a problem that didn't exist).
PS: What's that font?
You're absolutely right, seamless transclusions were the thing that differentiate Tana, the experience feels so effortless yet powerful.
To me, the combination of that simplicity and the uniform feel between UI elements was the best, now it feels like there's too many visual indicators on the screen to parse, ngl.