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Maciej Smoła

Maciej Smoła

Joined Mar 3, 2023 Last seen May 16, 2025
Posts 42 Comments 52

⁨Maciej Smoła⁩'s Posts

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Maciej Smoła Maciej Smoła Apr 14, 2025

Custom CSS for Tana Mobile App

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Explain the problem as you see it

There is no way to inject CSS to Tana Mobile app (iOS tested, I don't know about Android). It is possible to add some CSS injections in webpage or desktop app.

Why is this a problem for you?

I would like to add some tweaks like font improvements with custom emojis (TossFaceFont), custom line spacing and checkbox styles, to make it on par with desktop/webpage app.

Suggest a solution

Some form of CSS injection:

  • custom text field for CSS adjustments;
  • URL field for injecting CSS from online code hosting.
0 ⁨0⁩ ⁨comments⁩
Maciej Smoła Maciej Smoła Mar 17, 2025

Press or hover over a button to show content of a specified field

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Explain the problem as you see it

I can't quickly check values of specific fields.

Why is this a problem for you?

It slows down my work.

Suggest a solution

Press or hover over a button (or use specific keyboard shortcuts assigned to these actions) to show the content of a field specified during command setup.

Examples:

1/
To be or not to be #quote [BUTTON]
– Source:: Hamlet #book
– – Author:: William Shakespeare #author

2/
November Rain – Guns N' Roses #song
– Album:: Use Your Illusion I #album
– – Album artwork:: [artwork image]

3/ What is atrial fibrillation and how is it different from atrial flutter? #question
– Related topics:
– – Atrial fibrillation #topic
– – Atrial flutter #topic
– Search node for other questions with all of this question's related topics

Button setup:
A. Show on press: contents of "Source" field
B. Show on hover: contents of "Author" field of nodes in Source::

Action A
After pressing [BUTTON], pop-up appears, showing
1/ node: Hamlet #book
2/ image: [artwork image]
3/ results of search node for other questions with all of "What is atrial fibrillation and how is it different from atrial flutter?" question's related topics

Action B
After hovering over [BUTTON], pop-up appears, showing:
1/ node: William Shakespeare #author
2/ node: Use Your Illusion I #album
3/ nodes from Related topics: Atrial fibrillation #topic, Atrial flutter #topic

0 ⁨0⁩ ⁨comments⁩
Maciej Smoła Maciej Smoła Feb 7, 2024

"DESCENDANTS OF" search operator

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Explain the problem as you see it

There are only "CHILD OF", "LINKS TO" and "OWNED BY" search operators that somewhat relates to parent/child/descendant relationship. There is no way however to search through all descendants of a given node, i.e. through deeper levels than "CHILD OF" can search.

Why is this a problem for you?

I am not able to create powerful searches like extracting all sources from text based on multiple quotes, each with its own source.

Suggest a solution

"DESCENDANTS OF" search operator.

1 ⁨1⁩ ⁨comment⁩
Maciej Smoła Maciej Smoła Jan 24, 2024

Field hiding settings per supertag, not per field

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Explain the problem as you see it

I need to create new field with the same name if I want to make it behave differently in different supertag templates in terms of being hidden or not.

Why is this a problem for you?

Cannot use one field universally under different supertags.

Suggest a solution

Field’s hiding settings per supertag, not per field

0 ⁨0⁩ ⁨comments⁩
Maciej Smoła Maciej Smoła Jan 7, 2024

Peek (side or center)

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Explain the problem as you see it

Side panels are painful to use if used often to peek at a node's content. They are not smooth in opening (often with the width different than expected) and hard to close (aiming for small "x" at the right top, least used corner), making the work with them slow.

Why is this a problem for you?

Panels are slow to use and require a lot of fiddling even if needed to be used for one action, like changing supertag settings.

Suggest a solution

Side peek like in Notion, examples:

  • https://youtu.be/yUgdTsExyCQ?si=WqFKYlG-wyrNnlmc&t=169
  • https://medium.com/keep-productive/notion-introduces-peek-mode-af4175dbfd5
    image.png

Most important features:

  • easy close by clicking away of the side peek
  • opened in wide enough with customizable width
  • customizable popup location (side or center)
0 ⁨0⁩ ⁨comments⁩
Maciej Smoła Maciej Smoła Nov 26, 2023

Side Dock width should be constant until changed by user

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Explain the problem as you see it

Every time I close the dock and open it again it gets reset to default width (too narrow for being useful in my case). I usually work with a dock being closer to 50% of window size.

Why is this a problem for you?

Every time I open the node in the dock on the right side of the screen I need to readjust its width.

Suggest a solution

Make Side Dock width constant until changed by user, remember the last used width and don't revert to default narrow dock.

0 ⁨0⁩ ⁨comments⁩
Maciej Smoła Maciej Smoła Oct 29, 2023

Universal ID for “Today” Day Node (or other relative dates) to post there via API

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Explain the problem as you see it

There is no way to post to Trans Today node using external apps with API.

Why is this a problem for you?

I need to go through Inbox to move them to Today and remember about that it’s there.

Suggest a solution

Universal ID for “Today” (maybe also + and -X relative number of days) or other way to allow integration with the final gessler of posting content into specific relative Day Node.

0 ⁨0⁩ ⁨comments⁩
Maciej Smoła Maciej Smoła Oct 22, 2023

Move view between siblings with one of the siblings in fullscreen

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Explain the problem as you see it

Let's have these nodes:

  • The Book
    • Chapter 1
    • Chapter 2
    • Chapter 3

If I zoom into Chapter 2, I cannot easily switch to Chapter 1 or 3, I need to go back to the The Book to be able to choose Chapter 1 or 3 and leave Chapter 2 context.

Why is this a problem for you?

I would like a faster way of navigating notes structured mostly as siblings.

Suggest a solution

Add a shortcut to move between siblings.
In Workflowy it is CMD + SHIFT + 9/0 (9 for previous and 0 for next sibling).

1 ⁨1⁩ ⁨comment⁩
Maciej Smoła Maciej Smoła Oct 14, 2023

Paste nodes as inline references

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Explain the problem as you see it

I have a list of chapters of my online course. I would like to add a task which would have all of them as subtasks. To do this, I create a specific task like "check the illustrations" and put all of the chapters as this task children (as subtasks). This way I know, that to complete the main task, I need to make that specific activity included in the task title through all of the chapters.

Sometimes I even go deeper and put not only chapters, but all of their lessons as subtasks.

Part of my chapters/lessons tree:
image.png

Task with subtasks being inline references to chapters and lessons from the tree:
image.png

Why is this a problem for you?

It's very time consuming to do this kind of stuff. Currently I do it the other way because of this – I created "an universal list" of chapters and lessons, added a supertag to all of the lessons and each new task got added to the supertag template:
image.png

Sadly, it's not optimal, because often there is no need to add a task to every single supertag instance.

Suggest a solution

Add a shortcut to paste copied visible structure as the same structure, but each node is an inline reference.

0 ⁨0⁩ ⁨comments⁩
Maciej Smoła Maciej Smoła Jul 4, 2023

Exclude content of specified workspaces from showing up in searches

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Explain the problem as you see it

Searches (both sidebar and "@") get flooded with nodes from other workspaces.

Why is this a problem for you?

I don't use almost any of other workspaces besides my main one.

Suggest a solution

Option to exclude content of specified workspaces from showing up in searches.

1 ⁨1⁩ ⁨comment⁩
Maciej Smoła Maciej Smoła Jul 2, 2023

Fields settings based on a supertag, not global

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Explain the problem as you see it

Fields' settings like initialization or hiding rules are global. However, we can often use one field in under multiple supertags and in each case our initialization/hiding rules would be different.

Why is this a problem for you?

Creating separate fields for all supertags looks ugly and creates mess.

Suggest a solution

Fields settings based on a supertag, not global

2 ⁨2⁩ ⁨comments⁩
Maciej Smoła Maciej Smoła Jul 2, 2023

Search for all node's parents (including where the node is referenced)

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Explain the problem as you see it

There are very limited ways of extracting content relations based on simple outline position – most of existing features are based on fields' values.

Why is this a problem for you?

I have a tree like this:
– Note A
–– Note B
– Note C
–– [[Note B]] (a reference)

I would like to have a search for all Note B parents, so that it will have results:
– Note A
– Note C

Currently, to have information of node's hierarchy, I always need to have fields on every node and when the node is a reference, I need to fill them in manually (like creating #synthesis note based on several nodes moved from other locations).

Suggest a solution

Add two search operators:

1/ PARENT_OF
In the previous example it would look like [>PARENT_OF: Note B], result: Note A.

2/ PARENT_OF_WITH_REFS
In the previous example it would look like [>PARENT_OF_WITH_REFS: Note B], result: Note A, Note C.

0 ⁨0⁩ ⁨comments⁩
Maciej Smoła Maciej Smoła Jul 2, 2023

Option to show sidebar on the right or hide it

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Explain the problem as you see it

Sidebar located on the left has few drawbacks:

  • when using Tana as on the right side of the screen, with other apps filling the left side, left sidebar makes a less than optional viewing experience (stands in the way between window edge and nodes' contents);
  • may cause problems with left sidebars from other apps, browsers (Arc with hidden sidebar) and system (MacOS dock on the left).

Why is this a problem for you?

As above.

Suggest a solution

Ability to:

  • change sidebar location to the right.
  • hide sidebar completely.
0 ⁨0⁩ ⁨comments⁩
Maciej Smoła Maciej Smoła Jun 2, 2023

Map unchecked checkbox state to >previous field value<

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Explain the problem as you see it

When using "Map checkbox state to field value" in a setup where there is several statuses for Not-done and one for Done having

"Map checked to" → "Done"

"Map unchecked to" seems not so useful – there is a specific status I would like to go back to and it is most often the same as before setting it to "Done".

Why is this a problem for you?

I have a field for priorities:

  • p1
  • p2
  • p3
  • done

And let's say I have a field and it has a priority set to "p1". I set the tag with that field to "Map checked to" → "done".
I checked that node off, field changes status to "done". But wait, I sometimes find out that I checked it by mistake and want to go back. I uncheck it. Status doesnt't change or changes to whatever I have it set in "Map unchecked to". But ideal way would be to have an additional option there to set it to "previous field value (before checked)".

Suggest a solution

Option for "previous field value (before checked)" in "Map unchecked to".

0 ⁨0⁩ ⁨comments⁩
Maciej Smoła Maciej Smoła May 19, 2023

New field hide option: Hide if all tasks in the field are completed

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Explain the problem as you see it

We are unable to make hiding fields more dependable on fields content.

Why is this a problem for you?

I don't need to see a field if it has only tasks in it and all of them are done. I would like to hide it to avoid cluttering up my view.

Suggest a solution

Add new field hide option "Hide if all tasks in this field are completed"

0 ⁨0⁩ ⁨comments⁩
Maciej Smoła Maciej Smoła May 18, 2023

Buttons to show multiple other buttons in a popup

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Explain the problem as you see it

With many buttons interface quickly becomes cluttered.

Why is this a problem for you?

I often use command buttons which could be condensed into one button, like:

  • Change priority to 1, 2, 3, 4.
  • Change due date to today, one day further, earlier etc.

Having them side by side can result in >10 buttons, which could be really condensed into 2 "show more" buttons.

Suggest a solution

Command to make a button show multiple buttons as a popup with options formated as:

  • drop-down list;
  • horizontal list (like below):
    image.png
  • grid with their specified location in space (like below):
    image.png
0 ⁨0⁩ ⁨comments⁩
Maciej Smoła Maciej Smoła May 10, 2023

Exclude empty nodes from being visible in Trash

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Explain the problem as you see it

When going through Trash, there is a lot of empty nodes making the process of reviewing what is in there much harder.

Why is this a problem for you?

I tried to find some stuff in Trash but have loads of empty nodes.

Suggest a solution

Exclude empty nodes (nodes without text and children) from being visible in Trash.

1 ⁨1⁩ ⁨comment⁩
Maciej Smoła Maciej Smoła May 8, 2023

Build title from fields conditional text

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Explain the problem as you see it

When using "Build title from fields" function with a formula hiding it if the field is empty i.e. using "|?"

${fieldname|?}

there is no way to add anything more there besides field content itself. There is no way to create simple visual structure of the title with multiple fields.

For example a node with fields:

Name
Surname
Maiden name
and formula of

${Name}${Surname}(${Maiden name|?})

will always show "()" at the end if the >Maiden name field is empty.

Why is this a problem for you?

I don't have an ability to make a proper node title build based on fields because some of them are often empty, but if filled, need to have some kind of a separator. It will also remove the problem with muliple spaces.

Suggest a solution

Allow conditional syntaxes for "Build title from fields" like:

IF(condition;if true;if false)
IF(${Maiden name}=NOT EMPTY;" (${Maiden name})";"")
2 ⁨2⁩ ⁨comments⁩
Maciej Smoła Maciej Smoła May 7, 2023

Build title from fields of multiple children and other descendants

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Explain the problem as you see it

Let's have a classic example:

  • there is a #paraphrase node with children being several #quote nodes and few other #paraphrase nodes' references from other places,
  • each #quote has >Source field with nodes tagged #source,
  • each #source node has >Icon, >Full name and >Abbreviation fields.

It is possible to use "build title from fields" to append >Icon + >Abbreviation of #source nodes to the title of #quote node.

However, there is no way to pass that info further to the #paraphrase node to see at a glance which sources is the paraphrase based on. - It is possible to do it with single #quote, but gets broken with multiple nodes in the field.

Build title from fields formula for #~ (used as a paraphrase tag in my use case) used in examples below:

${name}${Bazuje na cytatach:.Źródła wykorzystane|?}${Bazuje na cytatach:.Numer rozdziału|?}${Numer strony|?}

Untitled.png
Zrzut ekranu 2023-05-7 o 12.22.34.png

Why is this a problem for you?

I would like to see information about sources of quotes (or literature notes in zettelkasten) used to create a paraphrase (or permament note in zettelkasten) without diving into node's descendants. Also, I would like to gather information from additional fields like Section number ("Numer rozdziału" in above example).

Sometimes, I would make a paraphrase as a basis to create another paraphrase, as a sibling of #quotes. Then, I would like to have that paraphrase sources information be also used to build title from fields of the parent.

So perfectly, I could have a setup of build title from fields looking like:

"Node name/text" 📕 bookABC-page10 📗 articleX-section79

Suggest a solution

Allow build title from fields function to gather infromation from fields of many children and other descendants.

0 ⁨0⁩ ⁨comments⁩
Maciej Smoła Maciej Smoła Apr 16, 2023

Dependent tasks (task B due X days after task A)

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Explain the problem as you see it

There is no way to connect multiple tasks' dates together if they are to be completed one after another.

Why is this a problem for you?

I would like to have an option for more automated rescheduling tasks priorities and due dates. Currenty the only way to do it is via listing them one above the other and completing them from the top to the bottom of the list which is error-prone nad not so flexible.

Suggest a solution

Dependent tasks. Ability to set Task B to be due X days after Task A.

0 ⁨0⁩ ⁨comments⁩
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