Feature Request: add capability to mask/hide parts of text

[TerDale 7]

Hi,

A feature I miss in Evernote for Windows is the capability to hide some, less important, parts of a note. The idea would be to have the possibility to set a block of text as collapsible, thanks to a little - in front of the block, that would turn to + when collapsed, thus allowing to expand it if needed. Of course, the current state of these blocks (collapsed vs. expanded) should be saved with the note, and restored when the note is displayed next time.

What do you think?

TIA

[dlu 628]

Hmm, I feel a bit ho-hum about the idea. I can see instances where it is really useful, but I'm unsure about wider adoption. I also can see handing this confusing a bunch of my friends/family members who shall remain unnamed

[TerDale 7]

Hi dlu,

I understand your arguments, but as you say it can be very useful in some cases, and is clearly addressed to "power users". So, why not propose it as an option? I mean, like checkboxes, anyone who doesn't want to use them is not forced to, but if one needs it, she can.

TIA

[butternut 0]

I'd find this feature very useful. I find myself stuck in two worlds when capturing knowledge, one is evernote, the other is TiddlyWiki. TiddlyWiki has plug-in's that impliment

• collapse headings
  
• collapse blocks of text
  

This kind of feature can make the note much easier to read and edit when creating larger notes.

As TerDale's comment, it can be an enhanced optional/feature, possibly a good feature to entice power users to get a premium verision:

So, why not propose it as an option? I mean, like checkboxes, anyone who doesn't want to use them is not forced to, but if one needs it, she can.

And the feature could be rolled into various clients in a staged way.

• The complexity of doing this depends on the underlying format that NeverNote uses (it could be RTF, XML, HTML with CSS, etc). From my experience with evernote, I'd guess it's a fairly flat static structure, possibly only RTF?
  
• If clients that don't yet support the new feature simply igonore the format display 'collapse' elements and display the note fully expanded. If format features/syntax were encoded with versioning, clients that supported various format versions could then choose to ignore or impliment various elements. So it might require a change to every client initially to ignore the new feature.
  
• If the current format structure is a constraint, another way to deal this is to define a new format that can handle more dynamic features and build converter over that can upgrade/convert old notes to the new note format and the evernote server can, depending on the client, on-the-fly convert new notes back to the old version if the client doens't support the new version.
  
• Assuming it was some sort of XML format/structure, an element/tag could be used to block / mark any user selected section of text and add an expand or colapse button/control.
  
• If evernote could support proper format styles for headings, etc, it would be really cool to add this collapse/expand feature to that.
  
• Also, it could be added to images in the form of thumbnail, in-note size, fullscreen. Might mess with dynamic note layout a bit...
  

P.S. another pain point for me is how I wish I could apply formatting styles to make my notes look consistant...

Anyhow, I hope the above input is contructive (even if a wild guess at how it could be done).

[jbenson2 2,147]

I use Workflowy.com for collapsible outline information and can save exported portions of it to an Evernote note.

My preference is that Evernote stay slim and focused.

Let 3rd party entities address the more esoteric requirements.

[TerDale 7]

I use Workflowy.com for collapsible outline information and can save exported portions of it to an Evernote note.

My preference is that Evernote stay slim and focused.

Let 3rd party entities address the more esoteric requirements.

Didn't know Workflowy, checked it, and I must say that it is exactly what I was thinking of. Moreover, it is implemented in a very intuitive and natural way.

Don't think it would really make EN more complicated or "fat" if implemented as done by Workflowy (WF), or even slightly differently as in WF it is by default. Also, FMPOV EN and WF serve very similar purposes: notes taking, so can't get why such a feature wouldn't be adapted to EN while it is for WF...

[Oliver33 1]

This is exactly a functionality I'm missing in Evernote. I'd really like to be able to collapse notes!

[mcmullan0 2]

This feature would be really useful for those using evernote as a scientific lab book.  In a lab book chronology is important, so many will use a single note with lots of notes following on: method, result, method, result etc.  However, all these methods get in the way when you want to just see results.

 

A feature in which you can hide text to reduce detail would allow me to present only the findings (or figures) in the lab book.  This would be really useful.

 

Those people that don't want to use it don't have to.

[jefito 5,589]

This feature would be really useful for those using evernote as a scientific lab book.  In a lab book chronology is important, so many will use a single note with lots of notes following on: method, result, method, result etc.  However, all these methods get in the way when you want to just see results.

 

A feature in which you can hide text to reduce detail would allow me to present only the findings (or figures) in the lab book.  This would be really useful.

One option that exists today that you might want to explore: use note links to link a master note linking to its subordinate notes that contain methods/results, figures, findings, etc.

[mcmullan0 2]

The Links feature described above seems to work very well to address this issue.

 

Thanks

[montasser 0]

I also think this feature would be a great option to get one's notes more organized and easy to read.

 

(A mac user)

[Dyon 3]

I would like to have such a feature.

I use evernote for everything I do. Some of my notes are knowledgebases. After a while this gets messy.

I like the way WorkFlowy works, but for me another implementation would be better:

Be able to label parts of the content as headers. Have an option to 'show only headers/hide content', and an option to create an index with clickable links based on those headers.

[Cinamaker 0]

I am a long time premium subscriber and I would love for a collapsable outline system in Evernote.

 

lets work it out guys... enough posts here to justify across your site.

[DTLow 5,736]

13 hours ago, Cinamaker said:

I would love for a collapsable outline system in Evernote.

As mentioned by @jefito above, in the absence of this, I'm using sub-documents and the linking feature

[tomedwards4695 0]

Is this something that's been implemented yet? I too would love to have it as a feature! Especially for when I've saved screenshots as a reference in a note and don't want them to take up the whole page. 

[DTLow 5,736]

On 2018-03-13 at 11:06 AM, tomedwards4695 said:

Especially for when I've saved screenshots as a reference in a note and don't want them to take up the whole page. 

If you use a table, your screenshots will  be restricted to the width of each cell.

[BuzzKirill 0]

I would also like this. It would make longer notes with paragraphs much more manageable. Weird that this feature still hasn't been implemented in 10 years since it was first requested. 

[PinkElephant 8,117]

Just take a look - last posting in this thread was 2018 …

I assume it is not the hottest topic around here. If you want to hide a text, you can encrypt it.

Probably more in the direction you are thinking is an outlining capability, possibly including collapsing and expanding sub-levels. 

Outlining is one of the top voted threads - you can search for it and add your vote. I already voted for it, quite a while ago.

[Mike P 2,642]

On 3/20/2022 at 1:46 PM, BuzzKirill said:

I would also like this. It would make longer notes with paragraphs much more manageable. Weird that this feature still hasn't been implemented in 10 years since it was first requested. 

Either intentionally or accidentally you have posted in the 6.25 (AKA legacy) version forum. No development is going to happen on this version.