For me one of the most important things when trusting an application to convert all my notes from plaintext (markdown + images) to a databse format is a good export strategy. It should be possible to export all notes in a way which makes it possible to work with them well in case moving away from Inkdrop is necessary.
I just ran a test export of all notes, and noticed that the structure is not optimal (for me):
The export looks like this:
20181017-Markdown Example-example.md
20181017-Testery Test-Pi4apJA4an.md
20181017-Welcome-welcome.md
EXXraJie7-small-kitten-meowing.jpg
To be able to use notes in a file manager like Finder, I often enter the first characters of a file to focus it. Entering «Typo», will focus the note «Typography.md» e.g. So for me having the created-date at the beginning is a problem.
Another problem is the randomly generated string at the beginning of images, which were dropped onto Inkdrop. If there really is a need for a random string as part of the filename, can’t it be at the end? Also having the markdown-files next to the image files is very messy. In other applications (maybe it was bear?), notes can be exported as TextBundle files, which include all images.
Markdown Example.md
Testery_Test.textbundle (includes small-kitten-meowing.jpg)
Welcome.md
Another approch would be to create one asset-directory where all the images of all notes go, e.g. images
or _images
(so it is on top of the file-list).
A third approach I have seen is that one image-directory per markdown file is created, this would look like this:
Markdown Example.md
Testery Test/
small-kitten-meowing.jpg
Testery Test.md
Welcome.md
I like the approach most where all images are thrown into one _images
folder.
The importance of export options and bugfree experience are key to me (and supposedly many others). When Inkdrop was announced on Hackernews, this was one of the concerns posted – to be locked in.
If export formatting was added, internal references to other notes would be needed to be updated as well (not sure if this is possible right now).
e.g. cats.md
has an internal link to mama_cat.md
and kitty.md
(see other topic). But yeah, only mentioning this on the side.