Tabletop / Whiteboard View

I like the card or index card metaphor that Supernotes draws from. I would like this metaphor to be enhanced further. Specifically, being able to freely spread out the cards on the desktop, shuffle them about and group them. Many writing apps have taken a similar metaphor and transformed it into virtual cork boards. Most of the older index card apps have actually started with this metaphor. More recent apps designed for creatives such as Milanote are taking the metaphor to new heights. At the moment, Supernote is a powerful notetaking app that restricts the view to a downward list of cards. There is none of the freedom to freely shuffle cards around and group them and brainstorm, drawing ideas from one or several cards in writing a new card that a tabletop view would enable. If Supernotes were to broaden development from power features for individual cards to features of a desktop view it would transform the app to enable the user to be far for creative. Being able to visually work with your data is important for creation. In just the same way I have written this message as a long string of sentences, the view makes the message extremely difficult to grasp. Imagine if trying to do this with lots of cards in a list view - the way it currently is. If you want further ideas about other possible views refer to Different Visualisations
that @rawkode posted. It is sad to see no response to his suggestion made in June, 2020. Is this sort of thing on the roadmap? Would you welcome suggestions along this line? Cheers! :slight_smile:

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I too would love to see this as a feature! Cards are an awesome modality for working with ideas as well as knowledge. Sometimes working with the cards in a structured/linear form makes sense, while other times having the freedom to group, shuffle, etc. on a canvas frees the imagination.

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Hi @ozdazza, this is a great idea – thanks for sharing! We’d love to be able to support something like this, and I’ve added it to the list of different views we are planning on adding in the future, which also include:

  • List View (current)
  • Outline View
  • Masonry View
  • Graph View
  • Tabletop View (new)

As you’ve said the card format is very flexible and to give you as much freedom as possible, we are putting a lot of development into our API to make it super easy for you to integrate Supernotes with other services / build your own visualisations. We also integrating with Zapier, to make this even easier and it will be released in the next major version!

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Whiteboard view where each card can be arranged freely on canvas and have arrows to show connections.

If you want an example check out heptabase

The biggest problem I have with supernotes right now it’s not able to rearrange the order of the cards manually and the whiteboard view would be an extension to it

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Hi @supermiemie,

Great idea! This has been mentioned a few times, with varying names (Tabletop / Whiteboard view) and I will merge all the posts together in one topic.

This feature requires quite a lot of development, and it’s not our highest priority at the moment. Although we want to get out our official Zapier / Make integrations sooner so you can connect your notes to all your other tools, which may offer cool visualisations like this.

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+1, this would be a game changer for sure

Hepabase’s whiteboard design is more practical than the beautiful, brain-like design of Knowledge Graph. Because of this good idea, hepabase created a new software, and obtained venture capital and many early users. Currently, hepabase releases new features and software modifications almost every day. It is recommended that Supernotes study Hepabase more and speed up the development progress.

This would be amazing. This could share some functionality with graph view.

I agree. If some sort of tabletop (heptabase/scintal-like) view was available I could make Supernotes my go to do all note taking and PKM app.
I think adding this overview is just the logical next step to the whole “everything is a card”-paradigm.
In fact the one issue I have with Supernotes right now is that I find myself a bit lost sometimes, asking myself “where am I, what’s the context here?”.
For me the visual tabletop/whiteboard approach is of great help when trying to understand complex topics or make new connections. And in the end this is what notetaking and -keeping is all about - at least for me.
So please make this additional view a priority in development - it is in my view the one thing missing in an otherwise exceptionally well working app.

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one issue I have with Supernotes right now is that I find myself a bit lost sometimes, asking myself “where am I, what’s the context here?"

:heavy_plus_sign: 1, I feel the same way! Obsidian’s canvas is implemented really well and helps with this I find

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As a user of both Heptabase and Supernotes, I believe the whiteboard view may not align with Supernotes’ style. It’s crucial to understand that each tool has its unique functionality rather than expecting one to mimic another. As users, we should strike a balance between different tools and clearly define our specific needs for each. Each tool should fulfill its distinct role and responsibilities instead of attempting to meet requirements inherently meant for another tool.

I completely disagree, as a card-style tool, it lends itself extremely well to a whiteboard like view, especially considering bi-directional linking as basis for links on this surface. Possibly it does so even better than block based tools like Heptabase, since encapsulation within a card is much clearer.

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