Table of Contents: Does it update?

[Steveamherst 0]

I really like the table of contents option for my notebooks. It appears to work well. However, does anyone know if it automatically updates when you make changes to a notebook?  Or, do you have to create a new table of contents any time there is a change?

 

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

I really like the table of contents option for my notebooks. It appears to work well. However, does anyone know if it automatically updates when you make changes to a notebook?  Or, do you have to create a new table of contents any time there is a change?

Hi. You could test this

If you do, you'll find that it doesn't update.

[Steveamherst 0]

That sucks. It sort of defeats the purpose of the option doesn't it ?

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

Not necessarily useless. For example, when booking travel arrangements, they all get put into a notebook and tagged with the tag I designated that trip. Once ALL of my documents (car rental, hotel, flights) have been confirmed, I will make a table of contents note out of them. Usually I'll just make a reminder out of this TOC note or modify its "date updated" to be year 2099 so it stays at the top. 

 

Sometimes I need to re-make this if there is a last minute change, though this isn't often. Even then, just selecting all the notes with that tag and making a new TOC note isn't terribly cumbersome. 

Another case:

Sometimes I put together a series of notes based on academic articles on a specific topic that I use for a talk/lecture/paper. Once I have these notes collected and it comes time to write the talk/lecture/paper, I make a TOC for those notes. Now, chances are I will consult and make notes on additional articles, and indeed these will not necessarily make it in the TOC, but the notes on my CORE articles are neatly accessible ((Or sometimes I just drag those new notes into the TOC at the end creating note links just like the TOC, but without the neat and tidy numbering). 

 

So my point is, I guess, that this is a very useful feature once your data are all in place. It isn't necessarily helpful if you are actively modifying the notes in question.

[Steveamherst 0]

Thanks for the ideas. I get your point. But it sure would be nice if the toc would dynamically update. 

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

Thanks for the ideas. I get your point. But it sure would be nice if the toc would dynamically update. 

That would sure be neat indeed.

[Ataraxius 3]

A Tag-based TOC that dynamically updates would be a very welcome addition.  PLEASE ADD! ;-)

 

 

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

A Tag-based TOC that dynamically updates would be a very welcome addition.  PLEASE ADD! ;-)

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by Tag-based TOC. Could you elaborate?

In my ignorance, I'm not exactly sure how what you suggest here might differ from the Tag screen and good searching. The tag screen can list tags and is dynamically updated. With careful tagging you could set up a series of tags with prefixes that can be listed with wildcards. So for example you might have a project called "CJ Project". You could tag

cj.data.collection

cj.data.metadata

cj.data.analyses

cj.schedule.bob

cj.schedule.lisa

cj.blahblah.dahdah

 

Then, you could enter the tag screen and search for cj. to bring up the entire catalogue of ch-related tags (and their notes) or you could search tag:cj.* 

Or you could drill down and search tag:cj.data.* to get all the data-related tags and associated notes on the CJ project.

These could also be set up as saved searches which you could easily jump to.

 

Is this similar, albeit a bit of a hodge-podgy version, of what a tag-based TOC would look like? Certainly this isn't elegant, so are you envisioning a bit more of an elegant version of this? 

[patnpm 30]

Not necessarily useless. For example, when booking travel arrangements, they all get put into a notebook and tagged with the tag I designated that trip. Once ALL of my documents (car rental, hotel, flights) have been confirmed, I will make a table of contents note out of them. Usually I'll just make a reminder out of this TOC note or modify its "date updated" to be year 2099 so it stays at the top. 

 

 

Why do you change the updated date rather than, for example, changing the title - e.g. so the title is   '1 - finances' or something similar and then sorting on title?

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

If you like to sort by title, then modifying the title to force order makes sense. Your suggestion would work great for a title-sorting individual. 

 

 

I never sort anything by title so I change the date updated. 

[patnpm 30]

I tend to switch between different sorting options. Tend to use title sorting to identify my 'top of tree'notes. Of course if we had some way of nesting notes a la Onenote that wouldn't be necessary

[patnpm 30]

So - I was tempted to try this, but after a while realised I'd lose my 'top of tree' notes position every time I updated them. Back to title sorting.

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

I'm more of a searcher than a browser, myself, so in general, the order of notes isn't terribly important (though having some notes immediately at hand for period of times can be important). This is one reason why I keep them sorted by date updated. Date Updated is a rather arbitrary thing, but it does mean that the stuff I was just working on tends to be closer to the top, and stuff that I no longer work on floats down to the bottom. 

 

99% of my notes are located either because they are near the top, having been recently worked on, or are found through searching. 

The other 1% are pinned either in Shortcuts, through setting the date updated to the future, or through reminders. 

 

But that's just my use case. A lot of people have a lot of different ways of organizing and using Evernote. What works for me wouldn't likely work for you, and I know that what you are doing definitely wouldn't work for me

[patnpm 30]

Yes. I'm more the retentive type who has lots of wiki style links throughout my notes and a few master notes.