quick window to edit the tags of a note > no easy way to delete existing tags + cancel key doesn't close it [Evernote 10.54.4, Windows 10 pro]

[Anonyme For Liberty 13]

Context : I’m a heavy keyboard user and kinda annoyed when I’m forced to use my mouse because the UI doesn't respond to keyboard input as it should. I know everything can be done with the mouse but that's not how I work (developer).

Here I am, in this specific context of having open this quick window that allow you to edit or add tags of your current note.
(I know you can also edit tags in the bottom bar of the notes. It works perfectly fine. Just want to contribute by giving my feedback where there are issues)
 

If I want to suppress some selected tags, with the keyboard, there is no easy solution. If I press shift + tab, or top arrow key, or anything else, I can't select the active tags (on the screenshot those are the little button with the X cross). If I could select them with my keyboard, I would probably be able, with space or enter key, to active them and remove them.

Right now the only solution is to type the tag name to update the list below, and from the list below to unchecked the tag.

It would be much faster if I could go up and select directly the tags to remove them (technically add the selected tags button in the "window tab list items") 

 

An other issue is that when the focus is inside the input field, which is there by default when you open the window, I can't close the window by pressing the Escape key.

The only solution is either to give focus to the cross bar top-right with shift + tab and press enter, or easier just to go down in the tag list and then press Escape.

This is a typicall issue that we encounter in numerous software that the Escape key is ignored when we are inside an input field...

But I feel like as it is a quick window, quick to open, it should be also quick to close. (with keyboard)

 

Thank you Evernote developers to make the software better

[Mike P 2,642]

10 minutes ago, Anonyme For Liberty said:

(I know you can also edit tags in the bottom bar of the notes. It works perfectly fine. Just want to contribute by giving my feedback where there are issues)

It's just so easy to do this from the tag area at the bottom of the note, without using the mouse at all, that personally I can't really get that worked up by the tags window.

[Anonyme For Liberty 13]

41 minutes ago, Mike P said:

It's just so easy to do this from the tag area at the bottom of the note, without using the mouse at all, that personally I can't really get that worked up by the tags window.

I kinda agree with you...

There is this use case where it is still usefull : when you want to edit tags of a selection of notes. In that case, you can't do it from within the bottom bar as there is not just one note. But I agree that in this a special case of mass edition, so its rare and as a consequence the keyboard-only approach speed is not required anymore and surely you need to be more cautius.

[agsteele 2,950]

I may have misunderstood something here...  Wouldn't it work to select the notes you wish to change the tags for.  Press Ctrl+Alt+T and then select the desired tags in the list.  You should be able to add and remove tags from the checklist.

[Anonyme For Liberty 13]

Hi,

Well when you select multiple notes, the window you get by pressing (ctrl + alt + T : default shorcut) doesn't behave the same way as when you use it on a single note. On a single note, the active tags are displayed as shown in my screenshot of the first post of this thread. When you have multiple notes, Evernote developers chose to not show the list of all active tags combined of all selected notes (for performance reason or lack of space). So indeed, in this situation, the only solution is to enable/disable tags from within the checklist below. 

This is not efficient as you need to search for tag names first if you want to uncheck them from the list, but I understand why the limitations.

 

As a conclusion, opening the ctrl + alt + t on a single note led me to think this was a good way to edit tags of a note. It's not. Better to use it only when you need to edit multiple notes at once. And as Mike said, when you are on a single note, just go to bottom bar of the note (there is a keyboard shortcut to do just that), it's faster and you can remove tags with keyboard only.

[agsteele 2,950]

Seems OK for me... I have a group of notes that hold travel timetables.  All are tagged bus and travel and some are tagged bus and some car.   I select them all and tap Ctrl+Alt+T.

I can click the various check boxes and cycle through the options. When I click Save all the notes are appropriately tagged.

 

[Mike P 2,642]

19 minutes ago, agsteele said:

I can click the various check boxes and cycle through the options. When I click Save all the notes are appropriately tagged.

This works, and I certainly think the way that the Edit Tags window works when you have selected multiple notes is logical and consistent with the behaviour for a single note.

However,  if you have nested tags you only see the blue ticks and dashes for top level tags - this is the same for single notes. I'm not sure it was always like this and I seem to remember, in earlier versions of V10, the window opening with the hierarchy expanded to show all the selected tags. There is no indication which of the top level tags you need to open to find the ticked lower level tags. Of course if you can remember where the tag lives that will help but otherwise you need to search or if you just want to delete tags use the mouse and the cross on the grey tag lozenges.

 

[Anonyme For Liberty 13]

35 minutes ago, agsteele said:

Seems OK for me... I have a group of notes that hold travel timetables.  All are tagged bus and travel and some are tagged bus and some car.   I select them all and tap Ctrl+Alt+T.

I can click the various check boxes and cycle through the options. When I click Save all the notes are appropriately tagged.

 

Yeah that's because you selected only notes that have same tags. That's why. Try to select let's say 1 notes with multiple tags and one without any tags. You will see, in this case, that NO Tags are displayed above the search field. This is because for a tag to be displayed above, in needs to be defined on every single note of your selection. If not, he isn't displayed and if I want to remove it from a subset of notes selection, I need to look for it in the checkbox list and uncheck the line. 
But as I said I understand why they make that choice and this is ok to take times when you do mass editing.

[Mike P 2,642]

14 minutes ago, Mike P said:

Of course if you can remember where the tag lives that will help but otherwise you need to search or if you just want to delete tags use the mouse and the cross on the grey tag lozenges.

And as @Anonyme For Libertypoints out if one of the notes has no tags, no tags are dispayed as lozenges so you don't know which tags to search for.

[AlbertR 531]

2 hours ago, Anonyme For Liberty said:

Well when you select multiple notes, the window you get by pressing (ctrl + alt + T : default shorcut) doesn't behave the same way as when you use it on a single note. ...

Nope - behaviour of this dialog is completely compliant to common UI rules: If you selection covers multiple values of a checkbox or radio button values, these must not show a valid "Set" or "Unset" state. They have to show anything in between.
EN decided to show either

[x] for "Set" (in all selected notes)
[--] for "Maybe" (multipe values in selected notes)
[  ] for "UnSet" (in all selected notes)

If only one note is selected, [x] or [  ] are used.

Just to be honest: This dialog is really better than in Legacy (where ALT-CTR-T is available also 😉)

 

[Anonyme For Liberty 13]

6 minutes ago, AlbertR said:

Nope - behaviour of this dialog is completely compliant to common UI rules: If you selection covers multiple values of a checkbox or radio button values, these must not show a valid "Set" or "Unset" state. They have to show anything in between.
EN decided to show either

[x] for "Set" (in all selected notes)
[--] for "Maybe" (multipe values in selected notes)
[  ] for "UnSet" (in all selected notes)

If only one note is selected, [x] or [  ] are used.

Just to be honest: This dialog is really better than in Legacy (where ALT-CTR-T is available also 😉)

 

Yeah we are not talking about the checkbox list  , which is great by the way. But the list of tags ABOVE the search field. See my last screenshot 15mn ago

But I’m feeling stupid to keep talking about such small details when I have already settle to not use this window on a single note 😆 

[AlbertR 531]

16 hours ago, Anonyme For Liberty said:

Yeah we are not talking about the checkbox list  , which is great by the way.

OK, I didn't see your real need 😉.

And because I'm a keyboard liker as You, I'm highly interrested in a keyboard sequence to enter the tags area below the note without grabbing the mouse. Within this area, you can select desired (already set) tags with the arrow keys, simply delete with DEL, filter by or add it to favourites after typing a BLANK. So i think this is your suggestesd functionality of the tags line within the dialog also...

[Anonyme For Liberty 13]

9 minutes ago, AlbertR said:

OK, I didn't see your real need 😉.

And because I'm a keyboard liker as You, I'm highly interrested in a keyboard sequence to enter the tags area below the note without grabbing the mouse. Within this area, you can select desired (already set) tags with the arrow keys, simply delete with DEL, filter by or add it to favourites after typing a BLANK. So i think this is your suggestesd functionality of the tags line within the dialog also...

Yeah, exactly.

They did a pretty good job in this area in the bottom bar of a note.  I would add that you can also delete with Backspace key in addition  of DEL, you can multi-select/edit with ctrl + left|right arrow, lot of good stuff. The developer that developed this area is a keyboard lover.

The only thing that is missing is again to handle the Escape key. It seems the overall Evernote application need a rework for how the application behaves when you press the Escape key. Today, if you press Escape when you are in the empty slot, it does nothing. This is because they decided to not capture the escape key every time you are inside a field for edition. But I disagree with this choice.

I'm gonna do an other post to talk about that.