I initially deleted my post in this thread on top here:
because I forgot about Dan’s wish that these beta threads not talk about existing bugs. But @brian said here he wants the discussion on those issues discussed in this thread. So I undeleted my post above.
So the issues are:
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The Tab button works when the Notes panel is undocked but does not work when the panel is docked.
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The placement of the icon for the Notes panel is currently at the end of the line of icons after the Export and Jobs panels which in my opinion doesn’t make sense. I suggested in the other thread, “Maybe like after the Recent icon since if someone has Notes for a project that they are opening again then they would probably want to look at their notes before starting again or before the History icon.” Dan agreed, “I can agree to move it to after Recent as it could be perceived as related to (project) Properties or perhaps Recent from a workflow perspective as you pointed out.”
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Changing the placement of the icon of the notes panel would also mean a change for its shortcut key. Dan brought up an additional issue with the current shortcut key (Ctrl+Shift+0) saying, “it is not working for me on Windows for some reason.”
I had thought about the Tab issue and based on Dan saying that his rule is that all panels should dock I suggested here in that Notes thread a change in the shortcut keys and behavior of how Tab in general is treated to accommodate this. But after thinking more about it really the best and simplest solution is to make the Notes panel the sole exception of a panel that does not dock. It solves everything as nothing in the current behaviors would change, the expected Tab function in a notepad like feature is kept intact and it eliminates the inconsistency that Tab works when it is floating but doesn’t when it’s docked.
It’s not like this would go against any expectation. The equivalent feature in Resolve always floats and does not dock. Also having a Notes panel is the equivalent of Windows’ Notepad feature but just for Shotcut. Anyone that uses Windows’ Notepad while working in another program is already used to having Notepad float around. In fact, there is a great example of a use case of how a Notes panel floating would work and come in handy in an actual Shotcut project.
Look at @jonray’s Text tutorial here:
In it he pulls up Window’s Notepad with the text already laid out that he wants to use in the project. He resized the Notepad window and placed it on the right side of the Shotcut window. But the issue is that when he clicks away from Notepad then naturally Notepad goes away from sight so he has to use an additional app to keep it on top while working in Shotcut. Shotcut’s Notes helps the user avoid having to use two apps while working with notes in Shotcut. As you can see from his video, having the Notes panel float while working would not be problem at all and in fact would come naturally especially since the size of Notes is fully customizable and can be moved anywhere. When the user doesn’t need to look at it anymore the panel can just be closed and opened back up when it is needed again.