Context based formatting

[maenujem]

I'm using nextcloud-notes on android together with nextcloud notes on the server and qownnotes on the desktop to manage the notes using markdown. Sync working fine for me. A feature I'm missing is some better support for editing markdown in the android app eg. some buttons for easily inserting markdown characters, similar as it is in Markor (which I couldn't get to sync with nextcloud android client so far).

[stefan-niedermann]

I think this is out of scope for this app. IMHO this fits better to e. g. NextNotes (i don't know if they have an companion android client) because the focus of this app is writing and not formatting.

cc @jancborchardt

[maenujem]

I'm happy with the Nextcloud serverside Notes service.

I'd only like to have easier support on Android side to edit/write markdown: have the Markdown commands/characters always directly accessible on the onscreen-keyboard (as in Markor) without need to switch keyboard between signs and characters all the time.
Everything else works better than in the other mentioned app.

[jancborchardt]

A permanent toolbar isn’t something that we would want, as it blocks a lot of the screen.

Instead, we could do it like iOS or Medium do it: When you select text, show small bar above with formatting options:

So tapping "B" would then replace the selected words with **selected words**, and so on.

[stefan-niedermann]

This might help with the implementation: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12995439/custom-cut-copy-action-bar-for-edittext-that-shows-text-selection-handles/13004720#13004720

[stefan-niedermann]

Next version will contain basic support:

• select some text
• pop-up includes "italic" and "bold"
• pressing adds * and ** automatically

Possible enhancements are:

• Remove signs, when already bold/italic
• Enable links

[stefan-niedermann]

Okay, this is already in master. I will soon release a new version containing those improvements. We should keep tracking further features regarding Context based formatting in new issues - otherwise we will have a never ending issue here :)

[jancborchardt]

@stefan-niedermann so cool! Great work there. :)