Oftentimes I need to tag, crosslink, annotate, or otherwise create references within entries, that are also search~filterable upon those entries, but that need (do well) to be kept hidden from the primary content/contextual communication within an entry …and I mean hidden in both Normal (non-filtered) AS WELL AS FILTERED Viewing Modes. This serves to reduce clutter while enhancing search+filterability.
• So say I have this list
• Some important blurb message here that is a few lines long, however, no relevant keywords or tags or links were necessary or directly relevant to include in the bodyOfTheEntryText, so now I need to add those. (hidden stuff here: key1 key2 #tagX link1, link2)
• Many such entries as the above exist. (hidden key2 reference #tagY)
• If you do happen to try hiding stuff inside regular [DList](Links), and you can …you get a huge cluttered mess in your search-filter results -they all expand!! So that doesn’t quite work.
• And I am purposefully not using Dlist “Notes” for this because of using those explicitly for several other needs that Notes naturally serve well, and so that’s not a viable solution either.
• another caveat is that, since links expand when editing an entry, editing is a bit messy. It would be great if links only expanded when you cursored into them (or a feature for toggling this behavior)!
• another caveat, you really don’t want these links triggering navigation. luckily its pseudo-tamable, but still not ideal
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So I was wondering how to sculpt a request for Special “Hidden Text Markup” for embedding hidden tags, keys [keywords], and/or Links within entries for helping maintain uncluttered lists.
I.e., what would a potential best-case “feature-suggestion” look like…
1 - simple markdown addition?
2 - a special markdown link, augmentation to what exists?
3 - other? (had one or two -too messy to consider, etc)
After working on the problem using custom CSS I have concluded that a potentially simple bestcase viable option might resemble #2. And being able to keep the thing from expanding until you cursor into it would be a strong desirable aspect as well.
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Below I present my interim solution using custom CSS, and its working effectively, albeit with a couple compromises …hurray!
But I think this might could (should?) be a built in feature adding substantial benefit to the DList project …but who knows how many really need/want this(?), or how well aligned it may be with the spirit of the project offering and its development (?).
I am hoping others here may find my (very simplistic) work-around solution useful.* Its still a tad messy, but hey, it works.
I wonder what the Devs think about the potential value of this sort of a feature (cleaned up, of course) for DynaList?
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- My Current Interim Solution: Uses custom CSS to
- hide any data in an entry, wholely or partially,
- that is placed within explicit DList Link[s]
- (and classes of links can be created as well),
- these so-called “hidden link” affects are targetted based on the first 2-3 characters of the
[](linkURL). - these special links are hidden in normal display view modes and
- they are also hidden in filtered (post-search) display view modes.
- They are used to embed Tags, Keywords, Notes, Links, (special search~filters can be placed here as well, but I prefer Notes for this since Notes behave differently, being outside the Ancestor/Parent/Child scope of things).
- very customizable
- Helps keep my info display uncluttered,
- however still a bit messy when editing, and, well, they’re pseudo-tamed links.
-
Example CSS is shown below, and can be customized to show from zero to as many characters as one may desire in the
[linkLabel](). Right now I am using either a bullet or a few characters in the[linkLabel](), with a[](linkURL)“indentifier” requirement of a “space” followed by an “underscore” (" _")… -
Example Entries based on
[linkLabel](linkURL)
[customLable](_anything here gets hidden)
[•]( _tags, keys, notes, links)
[tftl]( _tags, keys, notes, links)
[Alt-0160]( _ hidden tags, keys, links here)…utilizes a " null identifier" =hides the link entirely.
Looks like
- Entry blah blah, following bullet has hidden stuff •
- Entry blah blah, another buried nugget tftl
- Entry using a null identifier at the end=
…whee the bullet and the ‘tftl’ are underlined links.
-
In my case I include separator lines above and below tag/key entries inside the linkURLs in order to present more separation between entries while editing (looks pretty ugly while editing, -would be great if they didn’t expand until you actually cursor into them!).
-
Sample CSS
/* hide tags, keys, text, notes inside native DList links */
a[href^=“http:// _”]{ /* First chars of link must be space + underscore for style */
color:darkgreen;
display:inline-block;
max-width: 33px; /*about 4 chars -adjust for linkLabel*/
white-space: nowrap;
overflow: hidden;
text-overflow: ellipsis; /* if you like */
line-height:10pt;
font-size:0.8em; /*reduced size */
text-indent: -1px; /* help hide the opening label-bracket */
}
/* kind of thing. create various versions to create classes if you like */ -
Some related DynaList Posts References
* Search results for 'hidden text' - Dynalist Forum
* Search results for ‘hidden text’ - Dynalist Forum
* Hide tags in the title - #8 by Erica
* Hide tags in the title - Features - Dynalist Forum
* Hidden Tags - #9 by Sam_Radcliffe
* Hidden Tags - Features - Dynalist Forum
* Invisible tags? - #6 by Jamie1
* Invisible tags? - Features - Dynalist Forum
* Possibility to hide some items
* Possibility to hide some items -
Features - Dynalist Forum
Thanks for your consideration.
HTHawks
Although your solution is a bit more complex than what I need.