Add setting to create new files with markdown file extension (.md)

[eppfel]

I don't know, if this was discussed before, but new files are created with the .txt extension. If you want to edit the files directly in the Notes folder with another editor (e.g. icewind1991/files_markdown or on Desktop), the file format is not recognized.

[Henni]

Should we introduce a setting for this? I think defaulting it to .md might irritate some users which are unable to open it on their system because they have never seen this extension. But I could be overthinking this.
@jancborchardt your opinion on this?

[korelstar]

I vote definitely for a setting for this. .md is too nerdy to be the default. 😎

[phsc84]

Another idea:
Instead of adding a setting, I would suggest to do it similar to the Files app, which adds .txt by default to the end of a new file.

1. Add .md by default to the end of a new note. If someone overwrites .md with .txt for whatever reason, accept it. Save the note with the according file extension. If someone adds another file extension, display an error like "File extension unsupported. Please use '.md' or '.txt'!".
2. Add an info box, explaining .md (for all the non-nerds): "The Notes app uses Markdown to save notes. The default file extension for Markdown is '.md'. If you prefer, you can also use '.txt' alternatively."

[jancborchardt]

Sooo first off, @icewind1991’s Markdown editor should simply also recognize txt files. ;)

About the rest I need to think more, but .md should not be a default for sure. It’s only used and known by a tiny percentage of people.

[eppfel]

So, I really would like to have the setting. Otherwise I will have to write a service that checks the Notes folder and replaces the extension.

And I am curios: Would users that don't know about .md really manually edit their notes with a text editor or would they have another notes app for mobile/desktop?

[jancborchardt]

The problem with a setting is (as I also told @Henni) that it can’t be a global setting really. Because sometimes you might write markdown, sometimes just text.

Isn’t there a way we can detect as soon as markdown is used and rename? I mean, the title can also change at any point. And Markdown can be detected by ## (single hash could be used for other things) or [link](url) or **bolding** or more.

[korelstar]

Auto detection will not work always correctly, so there would be still the need for a manual setting.

I still think that a global setting would be fine (it would be definitely better than auto detection without manual correction per note), since people who are familiar with markdown and activate .md globally are still able to fill the files with text only.

Btw., do you would deactivate markdown parsing/preview if the file type is not .md?

[jancborchardt]

I guess I’m fine with a setting if you really really think there’s no automatic way to handle this @nextcloud/notes. Of course the default should be .txt (like now)

Btw., do you would deactivate markdown parsing/preview if the file type is not .md?

@korelstar when you use Markdown syntax then it should be properly rendered regardless of the file extension. That’s the whole point of the seamlessness of it. ;) Especially if we introduce that setting with txt by default.

[claell]

@jancborchardt Why do you think this cannot be a global setting? If someone just writes text in a Markdown document this would work as well, or am I wrong?

[jancborchardt]

@claell yes, it works when writing text in a Markdown document, but not the other way around. If you for some reason decide to set the default to txt then typing markdown would not render it. And that behavior makes little sense, especially as txt is the better default.