A quicker way to convert existing text to alias

Archive Feature Requests
#1

Currently adding Aliases while writing the content for the first time might be fine, but say I want to link a word, teeth somewhere to tooth somewhere else.

For now, there are two ways to do this, that is

  1. Making the Alias at the Rem tooth
  2. referencing tooth at the place I want to link it.

Whatever method, I use one thing that I have to do for sure is erase the word teeth and then retype it again as an alias.

Workflows can be easier if there is a method to do it easily. Let me suggest one way the feature could work

Say, there is a sentence, “The mandible has the lower set of teeth”. So, I highlight the word teeth here, and press shortcut, “Shift+Ctrl+A” then maybe a dialogue box appears or something of that sort where I search for tooth and select the tooth, upon which the teeth in my current text automatically becomes an alias of the already existing tooth

Result: “The mandible has the lower set of teeth → the teeth being referenced to tooth.

This would make the powerful alias feature more complete since at the moment adding an alias only seems to work one-way.

And for me, I normally figure out something is an alias of something else when I come across it in a text, (going from alias to Rem). Not the way it is optimized for now, which seems to be brainstorming and thinking of what could be a possible alias of a Rem and then adding it. (i.e going from Rem to alias)

A big thank you to @Kamran for assisting in suggesting this feature.

The original conversation:

#2

I have been thinking about creating this exact feature request. Thanks for filing this. Maybe everyone is happy that there is ‘Alias’ feature available now and overlooking the pain of converting something to alias. I hope this gets some traction. Maybe change the title to something like ‘A quicker way to convert existing text to alias’ ? That way the title will convey what this is all about and will look more appealing to everyone even without reading the full text.

Immediately after aliases got released, there was another discussion on this topic - some sort of a shortcut to create alias to specific rem

Also, maybe add a new button in the toolbar like below. Just like how we have buttons for ‘Make Tag’, ‘Make reference’ etc. The button will have the same function as the shortcut you suggested (but will be useful for mouse based workflow)
image

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#3

I have changed the title.

I sincerely hope it gains traction too, it would save me hundreds of clicks a day.

The button suggestion is very good too.

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#4

We’ll likely offer this through a feature that also enables Hyperlink handling overhaul for consistency and more intuitive use - #12 by Tim_Webster. For example, you could link the existing text to a Rem (through an alias), or to a URL. Does that sound like it will cover your use-case?

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#5

That sounds even better. Not exactly sure how the flow is going to look like with both alias and URL as possible sources. I mean, URL is just type/paste and enter, whereas alias is going to be type/search, pick one and enter.

#6

Yes, as long as I can link a piece of text to an existing Rem, and then that text is automatically added to the linked-to rem as an alias.

But it would also be nice if the one-way hyperlink suggested by @Tim_Webster is also implemented

A hyperlink could be considered a rem with a “one-way” reference. This would be a handy feature to add to RemNote anyway. For example, I might have an old term that I might like do link to the newer term (but I would not be interested in a bi-directional link, since I am just interested in the updated term). A “one-way” hyperlink could link to another rem or to an external URL.

Because at times you might need to link some text to an existing Rem, without it being an alias of that Rem, just the way you would link to a URL.

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#7

Any updates on this particular feature or similar?

I know the team’s busy with bigger things but asking just in case.

#8

Unfortunately nothing concrete yet, but enhancing the Alias workflow is important for us and we hope to work on it soon.

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#9

That sounds great!

I would love to be part of the conversation if/when the topic comes up for discussing ideas. Can you please let me know? Or perhaps guide me to a thread where ideas are collected.

I feel that it deserves to be its own topic for the community calls.

#10

We will use this thread to gather insights primarily, additionally we will eventually cover Aliasing on one of the Community Calls, you can keep an eye on the Bulletin for Community Call alerts.

#11

Hi,
I’d like to have a proper way to reference another rem while retaining proper form of a word in a sentence. In English that is not much of o problem since declension is non-existent. But consider this example:

In english: They are used in treatment of Glaucoma.

In czech (proper form): Používají se k léčbě glaukomu.
In czech (when using reference): Používají se k léčbě glaukom.

The first is of course the proper way of reading the second is unnatural and obstructs quick understanding.

In the above example one possible solution would be to make rem of the stem but that is not always possible since there are many words where the “stem” changes with declension.

Rem aliases are also not a solution since their intended purpose is different and each word can have up to 7 forms in singular and 7 in plural.

It would be nice to have a global setting which controls creation of references. If checked, than upon creation of a reference the original underlying text is kept.

Thank you for your consideration.

NT

PS: I am also a decent programmer. If there is a source base I could submit pull request to I’d happily do so. I feel this feature should be implemented in the upstream rather than hacked in some way as a pllugin.

Aliases shouldn't be a "PRO Feature"
#12

That’s a really nice suggestion. Do you think something like a markdown link would help solve this problem ?

#13

I think not. To clarify, my current workflow.

  1. Import paragraphs from study textx.
  2. Separate ideas into rems.
  3. Create clozes (mostly) or restructure into hierarchy.

While it woks there is no graph being created. The fourth step would be to select (double-click) a word and create a reference to it. Current mechanism expect the selected word to be an exact match to another rem. I’d like a search input where I input the word in nominative and select the referenced rem. The reference would behave as it behaves now but the text in sentence would retain it’s proper form.

This is of course major UI BC break, so I suggest an option for that in settings. Because such feature in English would bring confusion and unnecessary steps into linking process.

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#14

Can you not achieve this by just adding an alias to the rem that you are referencing and changing the reference to use that alias? It’s a bit of a bother to type the alias in, but it looks like you want it to look. See image.

image
image797×117 3.35 KB

#15

Not helpful since it would be time consuming in the amount of data to process & learn. As I mention in the first post I’ve already dismissed this option since aliases are IMHO intended for another purpose.

#16

Perhaps it may be helpful to point out the relationship between a rem (whether it is being referenced or not) and a piece of text. Every rem has a unique id by which it is referenced, tagged, moved etc. It may contain a piece of text that is being searched whenever you search via reference search bar or ctrl+p. That rem can be aliased. That piece of text can only be searched on. You may create a gorillion rem all containing the same text, and all can have their own aliases. You may not do anything to the piece of text beyond searching by it (and bolding, highlighting etc.).

So when you open a search to reference a word, it must have an exact text match (rem or alias) to get an exact id.

Ideally there would be a way to open a separate search bar, find what you want to reference, manually copy that reference and paste that in on top of anything, like you suggest. Perhaps it could even automatically add the alias to the referenced rem.

For now, are you certain you cannot make do with the functionality that is there (aliases first, references after)? The update video even has an example that is not (to my eyes) dissimilar to your intended usage:
image

Also, would you mind editing the topic title to include aliases, since that will likely be a part of the solution, whatever form it takes?

#17

Hm. Than perhaps all that is really needed is some sort of a shortcut to create alias to specific rem.

  1. Select a piece of text.
  2. From floating menu there would be besides “make refference button” another button “create alias from selected text and make reference”. Click that.
  3. Search appears. You enter the rem in nominativ and the app creates an alias to the selected rem and creates a reference.

That could also be fairly simple to implement since all underlying mechanisms are in place already. Or am I mistaken?

Thanks for reply.

PS: I’ll change the title to something more appropriate based on an approved solution. OK?

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A quicker way to convert existing text to alias
#18

No idea about the implementation, @hannesfrank tried to extend the functionality by injecting userscripts, as documented here. Hopefully, it’s possible to add aliases from reference rather than the other way around, and all that is needed is a separate button.

#19

I think aliases should be the way to go here (as tense etc. is a suggested use case). It would be technically easy for the devs to add another field for the text to display to the reference data structure but I would advice against another implementation for almost the same thing. Aliases are more flexible and explicit and RemNote already has enough confusing features for new users :smiley:

But you are right that there is something missing to make your described workflow easy.

This method sounds great to me!

I would also like to have something to do that without a mouse. Maybe somehow after highlighting a search result from the [ suggestions you press Alt + A and the originally selected text is added as alias?

#20

I am voting for a separate shortcut. Having to push [ an then alt+A is 2 steps. Better to just select text and push opposite bracket “]”. Also want to mention that in my suggested approach the app should ensure aliases of one rem are unique which does not appear to be the case today.

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