Explain the problem as you see it
At the moment, it is not possible to write essays, emails, blog posts, or other long-form content in Tana. Although Tana works great for outlining ideas, it would be incredible to have a dedicated mode that allows long-form writing options.
Options such as:
- Headings
- Line breaks
- Quote blocks
- Lists (numbered and bulleted)
Why is this a problem for you?
Because Tana currently lacks support for long-form writing, we are forced to use other tools for writing long-form content. This disrupts the workflow and prevents us from having all research, outlines, and drafts in the same app.
Suggest a solution
The best workaround so far is Jeff Harris' CSS workaround. Which was posted here in the slack community
His idea is to use CSS code to tag a particular node as #longform, which allows for line breaks and paragraphs when zoomed in. However, it currently lacks headings and other rich text elements or markdown syntax.
Integrating something like this into Tana would be next level.
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While Markdown syntax would be incredible, the most important aspect of this feature would be the ability to easily paste long-form text into other apps like Gmail and preserve all formatting.
Similar requests:
As pointed out below in the comments, there's a similar request here: https://ideas.tana.inc/posts/26-line-breaks-inside-a-node
While that's definitely a great idea as well. I would argue that it's important to go beyond "line breaks inside nodes" and also have a dedicated "long-form" writing mode that enables not only line breaks but also headings, lists, blockquotes, and other formatting options for an overall better long-form writing experience outside of enforced bullet point structures.
Thanks 🙏
36 Comments
Similar: https://ideas.tana.inc/posts/26-line-breaks-inside-a-node
Thanks, Maciej. Line-breaks are definitely an element of it. However, I would argue that it's important to go beyond "line breaks inside nodes" and also have a dedicated "long-form" writing mode that enables not only line breaks but also headings, lists, blockquotes, and other formatting options for an overall better long-form writing experience outside of enforced bullet point structures.
But I think that's a good request too. Thanks.
Santi, thank you for making this post. Tana is an excellent way to organize projects, but more technical or conceptual projects often require longer form notes and explanations, in addition to longer form journaling or idea organization.
Clear headings are the only thing that I can say is missing from Tana which would be instrumental in completing Tana's functionality as a project and idea management tool.
LogSeq and Roam as outliners are similarly not intended for long form but their markdown syntax makes organizing longer form notes in outline style a breeze, with the option to use line breaks and clear sectioning of text with headings. That's what makes those apps usable as a one app solution in my opinion, and is the only thing Tana need to be a one app solution for me!
There are certainly ways to organize with nodes and tags, but when it comes to longer form ideas and concepts, we would seriously benefit from being able to enlarge and embolden text to use as headings!
Hey! I'm definitely glad I'm not alone in this. I definitely face times where it makes more sense to keep a long-form text in Tana, but I can't due to the lack of long-form text support. For me it's okay if Tana doesn't turn out to be the best long-form text editor, but its current limitations can break one's workflow unnecessarily. I really hope this feature comes to Tana soon. Thanks for sharing your take on it
This is also the reason why my Content Hub is still currently housed on Notion. But if Tana adds this long-form writing feature, I'm keen to work on all things content via Tana!
Just my two cents.
In this long form node, it need to allow standard markdown, as well as latex equations, code blocks, and an support for mermaid (diagram markdown, https://mermaid.js.org/intro/). Similar to what TiddlyWiki + plugins (https://tiddlywiki.com/) does.
For me, this is important if I am to move to Tana as my electronic journal/workbook
After listening to 2023 June 29's AMA, I've been invited to cast my vote for this feature.
I'm adding my support for this feature request.
Paragraph view with Nodal Sentences
I think it was either Tarjei or Olav who mentioned in Q and A the reason for their resistance to enacting this feature.
They basically felt the data structure of nodes was incompatible with the idea of paragraphs, that nodal data structures made more sense at the level of a sentence.
I think however you should still be able to create a solution that supported both outcomes.
A view/edting mode that parses sentences into nodes and allows them to be viewed in either paragraph or nodal modes.
Paragraph View
This is node one. This is node two. This is node three.
Nodal View
You would have to think about how you would deal with child nodes
i.e.
Nodal View
**Paragraph View **
This is node one. *This is node two. ...
... This is node three.
But these issues are not insurmountable. That way you get the best of both worlds. Node=Sentence and Paragraph view. And maybe it would mean Tana were more likely to implement.
Best N
I like it when service providers get us the results we want.
We help people build relationships with providers who are improbable to resist you when you want a software feature and that feature can be created.
We help people manage content as usefully as they like.
Excellent idea! Similar to your suggestion you can also think of a "Page View" and "Node View" option for each node, but where in "Page View" each child node turns into a "block" similar to what we know from tools like Notion.
Hey Rudolf
Thanks for jumping on board
I'm not familiar with that in Notion.
Could you post some screenshots perhaps.
https://www.notion.so/help/writing-and-editing-basics
This page explains well the concept of blocks in Notion. The tension between blocks and pages seems to be the eternal quest of every tool (see for example this video) and I hope that the Tana team can come up with a suitable solution once and for all. "Everything is a node" is a good start, but we really need a solution for long-form writing, including inserting images and embeds for Tweets, PDFs, Google Maps, etc.
I think the way they solved long form text in the Twos app can also be an elegant choice for Tana. Read more (point 1).
I really need to improve the readability of the tana page, that is, the style.
I hope that tana can support simple markdown syntax and provide users with some preset block usage (just like notion, anytype, capacities). Provide presets such as time, quote, code, separator style, todo, etc.
Wow, that's exactly what I was thinking.
I also hope that, through this way, I can solve the problem of not knowing when to create a new page or continue writing on the current page.
For long-form writing in Tana, I found a suitable adjective "nesting hell".
Maybe taking some idea's from Tiddlywiki (https://tiddlywiki.com/) - the title is the node ID, but all nodes have a text block. Maybe, a keyboard shortcut, cntr + return toggles the initial text as the title and then move the cursor into a markdown block. Key will be allowing on the fly interpretation from a user experience point of view.
I've just been trying to find a work around for diagrams and came to this site to search if anyone had suggested mermaid support - definitely would help with my workflow and project planning (gannt and flow diagrams are a must!)
I just felt the biggest reason why I would like to have an easier way for long form writing, strictly meaning multiline nodes.
It’s because there is no way to tag many nodes at once in a good fashion.
I would love to create taggable content without the “title node” or without tagging each line of the text. I would like to tag whole “block” of that text, like: