PaperTrail: my TaskPaper iOS client (out now!)

Awesome @matt!

A few small things -

  • tapping the :artist_palette: and then swiping that sheet down is essentially a “cancel”; I expected it to commit the changes I had made.
  • Swiping L→R on the outline focuses into that node; how do I undo that?
  • I can’t seem to swipe to dismiss the keyboard
  • I wish I could “swipe down to open a filter typeahead”, like how Bear or Things allow you to do.
  • I only have a single taskpaper file… any way to permanently bypass the file picker?

The time picker is squished for me (surprised, as that looks like a native component)

  • tapping the :artist_palette: and then swiping that sheet down is essentially a “cancel”; I expected it to commit the changes I had made.

Good point. I’ll look make those changes live soon.

  • Swiping L→R on the outline focuses into that node; how do I undo that?

Swipe left from near the edge to the edge, ie. the opposite way. Let me know how it works for you, I can control the widths of the edges swipe areas. I only added this today so it’s quite fresh and not seriously tested.

  • I can’t seem to swipe to dismiss the keyboard

Will look into it.

  • I wish I could “swipe down to open a filter typeahead”, like how Bear or Things allow you to do.

Will need more info, as I don’t use either. Please open an issue on the github. See top of thread.

  • I only have a single taskpaper file… any way to permanently bypass the file picker?

You can use a widget to jump back into the most recent file. There are also some long press actions on the icon but tbh I think the need redoing. I’ll see if I can make this better.

Sadly not since DocumentGroup app type prevents such thing. I can only recommend using “Recent” tab in picker, which means one tap on cold launch. Doc saves automatically with every edit, so you don’t need to close it. If the app isn’t flushed from memory (it’s so small it should stay around) then you shouldn’t have to open the doc very often. @connor

time picker

Odd! One of the first things I added so definitely not very well implemented :sweat_smile:

Please add as many of these as you can as github issues @connor I’ll get to them tomorrow or at the weekend

2 Likes

PaperTrail (260320.1224)

I should have left well enough alone as I’m now fixing my own stupidity. :melting_face:

  • add: Pull down from top of editor to reveal search bar
  • add: Extra keyboard shortcuts for Focus In/Out (arrow keys, Home/End)
  • change: Date/time pickers now use proper sheet presentation instead of alert controllers
  • change: Style settings apply live while the sheet is open
  • change: Sidebar project tree always shows disclosure column for consistent alignment
  • change: Search bar buttons reordered (Help before Save)
  • change: Search help Display section uses icon rows layout
  • change: Toolbar buttons use centralised ToolItem metadata for icons and labels
  • fix: Edge swipe gestures moved to native screen-edge recognizers for better reliability
  • fix: Fold indicator dots no longer trigger toggle-done when tapped
  • fix: Duplicate project names at different indent levels now resolve to correct subtree
  • fix: Toolbar reorder no longer allows dragging the Style button out of position
  • remove: Cold launch reopens last opened document, will rework soon

A Quick Note About Next Build:

  • remove: widgets, quick actions, url deep links, resume open in some situations

Their implementation and functionality (mostly because I’m using SwiftUI/iOS documentGroup architecture) did not meet my high standards. They only worked on a warm launch (not on cold launch). Hopefully I can reintroduce some or all of them in a more considered way in a future version. But no promises.

could you be a little bit clearer, what remains and what not yet?
thanks

I’ve edited above. If you don’t recognise or didn’t use any of the items in the “remove” line, then there’s no need to worry and your use of the app will be unchanged :slight_smile:

1 Like

PaperTrail (260321.2156)

  • add: free-scroll mode lets you browse the document while the keyboard is open
  • add: cursor position is now remembered per-document
  • add: Guide.taskpaper reference document
  • change: cursor defaults to top of file when opening a document
  • change: filter panel layout
  • fix: folding whilst filtering
  • fix: cursor position restored correctly after editing operations
  • fix: reduced text jumping when typing at the bottom of a document
  • remove: URL scheme support
  • remove: widget extension
  • remove: quick actions
  • remove: other things related to the above

PaperTrail (260322.1454)

  • add: top edge swipe gesture to trigger search (replaces pull-to-search overscroll)
  • add: tapping @search tags now executes the search query directly
  • add: standalone @done tag detection to avoid false matches inside other tags
  • change: leading edge swipe now does focus in or dismiss filter panel
  • change: trailing edge swipe now does focus out or open filter panel
  • change: blank lines now break fold hierarchy, so unrelated items are no longer grouped
  • change: search text normalisation strips tags for better matching
  • fix: fold indicators connect to the last visible non-blank descendant line
  • fix: breadcrumb path correctly walks through blank lines and project parents
  • fix: line deletion handles edge cases at start and end of document
  • remove: pull-to-search overscroll mechanism
1 Like

Coming in the next version:

  • Improved launch experience
  • Prettier document picker
  • Optional template picker

2 Likes

Excellent work, Matt! The calculation tags open up entirely new possibilities. That’s something Jesse should consider for TaskPaper. By the way, isn’t this year the 20th anniversary of TaskPaper? At this point, a big thank you to Jesse for this brilliant minimalist concept. I’ve been using TaskPaper every single day for so many years, and I’m still fascinated like a little kid (56 years old). How many times have I procrastinated and briefly cheated with other apps, only to come back full of regret? :slight_smile: oli

2 Likes

Great to see you here Oli

I’m a relative TaskPaper newbie of only 3 years. But it works for me and I don’t see the point in changing. I use it only for simple groups of lists, and archive done. That’s all! :sweat_smile:

I thought with my app I would add some extra features like cost/progress from old apps like Bonsai, BrainForest, and certain other Palm apps. If those features were possible on such a limited CPU then they should be easy on an iPhone.


PaperTrail (260324.1134)

  • add: Document launch scene with animated sticky note background
  • add: “From Template” button with template picker sheet
  • add: Bundled various built-in templates covering common use cases
  • add: Custom user templates from Documents/Templates folder
  • add: @flagged tag toggle in toolbar
  • change: Blank lines no longer break parent-child hierarchy in folding and tree traversal
  • change: @progress and @cost now aggregate from direct children only, respecting hierarchy
  • fix: @cost tag now handles negative numbers

I used Shadow on Palm…

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Shadow Plan was great!

I know the author, Jeff “Skeezix” Mitchell

I might! I’m going to wait until PaperTrail is released, but will then consider adopting. Too busy with Bike 2 at the moment to think of much else.

And yes, 2006 is believe it was, so 20 years! Yipes!

Ha ha :slight_smile:

2 Likes

would it be possible to have two documents open in PaperTrail at the same time?

@matt I’ve been mostly ignoring this project as I work in Bike, but I want to see what all the fun is about!!! Can you open up another few test flight slots?

3 Likes

Thank you, Jesse!

…but I want to see what all the fun is about!!!

Hi Jesse,

The “cost tag” is really a practical way for me to track, for example, the income and expenses of a specific project. In TP I usually link to an external Excel file, even though I know that Excel is completely overkill for such a simple plus/minus task.

Can´t wait for an iOS version of bike!

Best regards,

Oli

@jessegrosjean a few more places opened up on TestFlight! Go go go!

@amelchi “maybe” …I’ll look into it. What’s your use case?

Edit: ipad=yes, iphone=not currently

I am bound to the capabilities of DocumentGroup app architecture. it allows the app to be very small because it gives me many features “for free” but at the same time it does not do everything. To move away from it at this point, would mean a huge delay and a lot more code, and bugs.


PaperTrail (260325.2311)

  • add: Export as HTML Presentation, example: Guide.html.zip (5.0 KB)
  • add: Note insertion action (Shift+Cmd+Return) that preserves indentation without adding a bullet
  • add: Collapse/expand current item shortcuts (Cmd+9/Cmd+0) with recursive variants (Option+Cmd+9/0)
  • add: TaskPaper-compatible keyboard shortcuts for move, indent, @today, and remove tags
  • add: Focus reveal — focusing a subtree temporarily reveals it even when ancestors are folded
  • add: Feature interaction policy to centralise focus/search/filter navigation rules
  • add: Differential edit replay harness to compare editing behaviour between TaskPaper and PaperTrail
  • add: FeatureInteractionTests covering focus/search scope, selection projection, and filtered writeback
  • change: Remap Return shortcuts to match TaskPaper (Cmd+Return = task, Option+Cmd+Return = project)
  • change: Edits targeting hidden folded lines now redirect to the next visible line
  • change: Return after a collapsed section inserts a sibling after the fold block
  • change: Selection inside a hidden folded region jumps to the next visible line instead of the fold parent
  • change: Launch decorative note colours are now different in Dark mode
  • fix: Fold child detection no longer claims same-indent non-project lines as children of projects
  • remove: Same-indent project ownership logic from text processing and folding manager
1 Like