Feature request: In Note field, on Save, maintain text cursor position

[multitap]

One thing I use Tap Forms for a lot is tracking ideas as they get developed into projects. I use the Notes field to jot down unstructured thoughts at any time about a potential project, so it’s super convenient to always have Tap Forms at hand whether I’ve got my Mac, iPad, or iPhone.

But there’s one thing that slows me down in Tap Forms. If I’m typing into the Notes field on my Mac and I want to save, I hit Command-S of course, and it saves as expected. But saving removes focus from the Note window, so if I want to continue typing after each Save, I have to switch to mouse or trackpad and manually click where the cursor was in the text before that Save.

However, this is more seamless in other applications, where Save does not alter the current focus. For example, if I’m typing text in Microsoft Word or Adobe Illustrator and press the Save shortcut, the text cursor remains blinking where it is in the text, so I can continue typing the current thought without having to first stop and click back on where I was typing. I don’t have to take my hands off the keyboard; I can simply insert Command-S any time I am typing, and without a break, just keep typing with my flow of thoughts uninterrupted. That’s what I’d like to see in the Note field in Tap Forms.

The Save workflow for the Note field on iOS actually adds another obstacle. If I’m typing a long Note, I regularly tap Save (because there is no iOS shortcut for Save when using a hardware keyboard, that’s another request). But on Save, iOS Tap Forms doesn’t just save the note, it closes the note. So when typing long notes on iOS and wanting to do regular Saves, on each Save there is this inconvenient workflow of having to re-open the note, and then tap Edit (because the Note field is read-only on open in iOS) and then re-tap on the last remembered edit point in the text before typing can continue. It would be great on iOS if the Note could just stay open, in addition to maintaining text cursor position.

I realize you probably have a long list of requests to prioritize, so I understand if it takes a while to implement this, but I just wanted to get it on the list. Thanks for all your work and public tech support, you have already helped me in the past when I’ve read a forum response that solved a problem. I’m no database expert, but Tap Forms is immensely useful.

[Sam Moffatt]

I’ve run into the same issue on iOS where hitting save on a note (or markdown field), closes the note out and is a bit of an annoyance to tap back into it when I clicked “edit” to open up the edit view.

[Brendan]

Oops… Sorry for my delayed response.

Ya, I’ll work on a fix for this. But right now it seems like it may be just that when you press save, the text field loses focus, so the cursor disappears. Although technically, behind the scenes the cursor is still in the same location.

Try pressing the tab key after you save your note field. And then just continue typing. It should continue where you left off. I’ll work on fixing that though.

As for the iOS version, I think it might make sense when in a Markdown field to stay on the current screen, displaying the rendered content. And tapping on Edit should put you into markdown edit mode, not showing rendered text. Essentially toggling between Save and Edit. But then that also means that after you save, you must tap the back button to get back to the record details view.

[Brendan]

I’ve fixed it for the next update. No ETA on that just yet.

[multitap]

Thanks for the update! No problem on the ETA…just nice to hear that it’s being worked on.

[Author]

Posts