I. Progressive Exploration
Nested tags
Panda is aimed at those who want a folder-based note-taking app and want to work with files on their hard drive rather than with a database. The fact that a file can only appear in one folder is not just a limitation in this respect. This limitation is also a feature. Nevertheless, almost all folder- and file-based apps also offer management via tags. Folders and tags complement each other because they offer different ways of accessing the same notes: folders force you to use a fixed storage structure, while tags allow you to link notes thematically regardless of this. This is precisely why it makes sense to combine the two and why I advocate nested tags as in bear.
It would look like that:
The disadvantage of all note-taking apps I know of, including Obsidian, is that navigation within folders and tags is completely separate. No context is taken into account and only the global tag list is offered. But how can you link navigation within folders and tags WITHOUT having to display both in a separate pane?
Drill down into folders to change the scope
In Mac’s Finder, you can use the list view to ‘zoom in’ on the selected folder or subfolder with ⌘↓, which then becomes the root folder in the display. The same hotkey, a ⌥-click or even the context menu would perform the same function in Panda when navigating folders. And now the crucial point: after drilling down into a folder, the tag list is filtered and limited to only those tags that appear in the notes in that folder.
This would then look like this:
Note the small disclosure triangle pointing to the left. Its position indicates 1) that this folder was the entry point to a deeper level and 2) that clicking on this triangle, which looks like a back arrow, does exactly that: it returns you to the overall view of all folders.
Filtering folders and tag list by selected tags
Whereas earlier the tag list was filtered by restricting it to a specific folder, here we are doing the opposite: the criterion is now a tag, not a folder.
And here is the crux of the matter, which necessitates a different approach:
A folder defines a unique context, whereas a tag does not, because a note can have multiple tags, meaning that other relevant tags remain valid at the same time. Therefore, a ‘tag drilldown’ would be conceptually incorrect.
The solution, however, is to activate a filter field in which the selected tags are visible as tokens. The same hotkey ⌘↓ and the same ⌥-click add a specific tag to the filter field.
Once both the folder list and the tag list have been filtered by a specified tag, it would look like this:
It is a bonus to be able to close the tokens quickly by its close button.
Progressive exploring of the note collection
It’s not just about limiting the tag list based on a folder or the folders based on a tag. It is not a question of „either - or“ but you can freely switch between both levels: you can start by filtering with a tag, then drill down into a folder, only to filter with another tag at the end. The system allows you to combine folders and tags step by step to gradually narrow down your notes. This allows you to work exploratively instead of navigating rigidly. It remains simple and intuitive because you can see where you are and which filters are active at any time. Everything happens within a single panel, so folders, tags and filters work together seamlessly. This allows you to keep track of the entire context without having to jump between multiple windows or panels.
Miscellaneous
The concept is really just a demonstration to describe a special form of navigation that I would call progressive exploring. Does progressive exploring have to look the way I describe it? Of course not. I have simply written down a few ideas that came to mind. And there is still a lot that I didn’t want to mention in detail so as not to make this post even longer: the use of advanced search expressions or entering text to search for note titles in the filter field. The ability to save certain filtered states in the form of presets would also be welcome: this would give you quick access to subsets of your notes. Then I also thought of how you could select OR and AND logic when filtering with tags. But again, these are just details.
One thing that could be viewed critically is that in the concept presented, I have separated filtering and searching within the notes. However, this is not an essential point. As I said, I will discuss searching within files/notes in a second post.
