I used to use a mindmapping tool, Freeplane, as an outliner before I found Dynalist. I like Dynalist better in almost all respects except one. In Freeplane it was possible to change the view mode such that the note attached to the active node was displayed in a side pane.
As an avid user of notes (sometimes very long ones) in Dynalist, a side pane would be my preferred way of viewing/editing notes. The view modes for notes could be: In Line (formerly Show), 1st Line, Hide, or Split (new).
In the new âSplitâ mode, the document panel could be split in two vertically with the left side showing the list (no notes) and the right side showing the note of the active list item. The two sides would need to be scrollable independently. The split could also be horizontal, which might work better for display on phones or if there is eventually a feature to allow multiple document panels on the same screen. It would be convenient if the list items on the left gave some indication of whether there is a note attached. Could be a different color or icon or something.
The main benefit of showing notes in Split mode instead of in line is the ability to scroll through long notes without scrolling your list off the screen. Currently if I scroll through a note that is more than one screen in length, I lose visibility of the entire rest of my list (which I would prefer not to). Even for short notes Iâd prefer that my list doesnât âjump aroundâ as I expand and collapse different notes. I mostly treat my list like a navigation menu for selecting notes to view. For that use case, itâs much nicer if the menu stays put as different notes are opened/closed/scrolled.
Let me know if a screen shot would be helpful and I can show what this looked like in Freeplane.