Edit notes into an external text editor

ngirard

As title says...
it would be *much* useful to me to be able to edit notes into an external text editor...

scot

I agree. Is this possible? That would be a nice way to "add" support for a helpful note editing features to Zotero (auto indent, ASCII bullets). And it would make it possible to set my system up so that a keypress would bring the editor to the front--activate the window (to note something) and another would send it to the back again, so I can keep reading my PDF...

There is a Firefox extension which will let you use an external editor for text fields in *web* forms, but I don't know if this would work in Z without some modification of one extension or the other.

CB

I'd like this too.

Something analogous to the It's All Text! firefox extension, along with an 'official' endorsement of a temporary markup syntax (see this thread) would keep me, and perhaps some others, much happier until Zotero notes are beefed up.

This isn't so much new-feature-impatience as concern that I'm unable to put as much structure as I'd like into the many notes that I'm creating now.

dstillman

I don't know when we'll get to this, but it's a good suggestion. Ticket created.

CB

I don't know anything about how firefox extensions work and interact, but I'm wondering if an extension like It's All Text could be extended to work in other extensions' text inputs (at the moment it works on TEXTAREAs). If so, I could ask the developer if he'd consider extending it to do this (it works very nicely in html forms).

dstillman

I'm wondering if an extension like It's All Text could be extended to work in other extensions' text inputs (at the moment it works on TEXTAREAs)

I haven't looked at how It's All Text works, but it should be possible to do the same thing on XUL textboxes, though it might take a little extra work...

CB

OK, I've asked the same question of the It's All Text developer. You never know.

CB

I followed a link from It's All Text developer's site, and noticed that there's an API available to help make use of IAT from within other extensions. I imagine this would make the task easier?

goathens

I should point out that It's All Text works in the annotation "sticky note" editor, but does not work in the note editor itself.

filipeamoreira

I'm sorry about resurrecting an old thread but I'm still looking for a solution for this. I need an way to open notes on an external editor (e.g. Emacs).

Has anyone found a solution for this? Thanks

Maslen

It's a poor solution, as notes are saved in the sqllite db, but if you either link or attach an text file to a record, and have the external editor as the default for that file type it will open.

So for example if I create a org file, called test.org, then attach it via a link to a case, then when I double click the linked file, emacs will open. Changes I make will be saved.

Unfortunately the zotero text editor doesn't show the contents of the text file.

Maslen

I think the best solution would be for the "Edit in a separate window" button at the bottom of the notes pane, to edit in the system defined editor.