Docear's Feature Wishlist
Please post any ideas you have for new features here in this forum (and vote on those ideas you like). For bug reports and general inquiries please use our message board.
Please note, you DO NOT need to register for submitting ideas. Just enter your email address, and a name and that’s it (it can be a fake email and name, we don’t care).
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Mobile version (iPhone/Android)
would you be interested in a mobile version of Docear for iPhone and Android? How could it look like?
62 votes
AdminJoeran
(Admin, Docear)
responded
for now we don’t have the resources to implement a mobile version. for workarounds have a look here http://www.docear.org/support/user-manual/#mobile
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MS Word plugin (similar to BibTeX4Word or Zotero's MS Word Add-On)
For SciPlore MindMapping you recommended BibTeX4Word but that tool is not very comfortable to use. A DocearWord plugin would be great to insert formatted references in the same way Zotero, Endnote and all other major reference managers can do.
54 votesstarted ·
AdminJoeran
(Admin, Docear)
responded
we gave this job to a freelancer and i really hope he finishes the work soon :-)
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when exporting to latex, references should be bibtex keys with \cite so that citations can be produced.
when exporting to latex, references should be bibtex keys with \cite so that citations can be produced. And add a bilbliography.
this way you could write whole articles and reports in docear.39 votesplanned ·
AdminJoeran
(Admin, Docear)
responded
this feature is planned but the date is not yet set.
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Integrate a PDF viewer
Foxit reader & co are nice but it would be great to have a free and simple PDF viewer directly integrated into Docear that can directly jump to the right pages etc.
34 votesstarted ·
AdminJoeran
(Admin, Docear)
responded
we hired a freelancer to integrate a pdf editor in docear. i hope he will finish the job soon :-)
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Maintain file association after pdf is moved or parent folder renamed
This would be especially useful for those who don't have an established folder structure. At a minimum there should be a way to re-associate a file to a node.
I've changed my folder structure and now I have to figure out how to fix this without having to entirely re-type my notes in the mindmap nodes :(
33 votesplanned ·
AdminJoeran
(Admin, Docear)
responded
in docear we have the “workspace” which shows all your folders and files. in a future version we want to implement a function that you can move and rename files and folders and all your mind maps are automatically adjusted. however, i don’t know yet when exactly we will implement this feature
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Access Mendeley library via Mendeley's API
This would make it easier for Mendeley users to also use Docear
Mendeley API is here http://dev.mendeley.com/25 votesunder review ·
AdminJoeran
(Admin, Docear)
responded
you are right, at least for the beginning you could just use the Mendeley BibTeX file to add references to Docear. Please, if you have more ideas on how to use Mendeleys API let us know and we will see what other users think.
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rename PDFs according to metadata
rename PDF files on the hard drive automatically based on metadata. e.g. [author][title]_[year].pdf
24 votesplanned ·
AdminJoeran
(Admin, Docear)
responded
this feature will come some day but i cannot tell when exactly
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Support Zotero database format (auto sync)
A feature, similar to Mendeley's, that permanently synchronizes with Zotero
23 votes -
Develop extended support for PDF highlights/comments/notes for applications other than PDFX.
While pen and paper approach perhaps is the easiest, it can be problematic to refer to relevant articles while travelling and accessing large folders when at home/work or travelling. Thus, the decision to move to electronic PDF annotating and software package like Docear.
The current setup is inconvenient as it only allows importing PDF highlights from a Windows based editing software. Personally, I am experimenting with annotating PDFs and inking on an Android based tabled with a digitizer stylus. It is so far the best alternative to pen and paper. The problem however is that the highlights that I made… more
19 votesunder review ·
AdminJoeran
(Admin, Docear)
responded
we use some external libraries to extract annotations (bookmarks, comments, highlighted text) from PDFs. Bookmarks and comments can be properly extracted from any PDF that was edited with a standard compliant PDF editor on any operating system. However, highlighted text is a problem indeed. Read here for more information http://www.docear.org/support/user-manual/#compatible_pdf_readers
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Integration with Zotero RDF files.
Provide the ability to present the individual records in a zotero RDF file as you would a collection of PDF files with bookmarks - here the "bookmarks" are nested nodes for "Info", "Notes", "Tags", "Related" records. In this way, a Docere/Zotero user can scan their records for missing data, holes in their literature search, visualize new links between tags and papers that they might have overlooked in sequentially wading through their collections, etc.
19 votes
AdminJoeran
(Admin, Docear)
responded
if more users want this feature, we might look into it after the release of docear 1.0
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multiple bibtex files
Right now only one bibtex file can be used with sciplore mindmapping. I 'd like to use multiple files.
18 votesplanned ·
AdminJoeran
(Admin, Docear)
responded
this will definitely come some day ( i cannot yet tell when)
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Push to MS Word and OpenOffice
Feature that sends the currently selected reference from Docear to e.g. MS Word and insert the citation.
15 votes -
15 votesunder review ·
AdminJoeran
(Admin, Docear)
responded
on first glance, i believe it should be easy to implement drag&drop from Docear to other applications such as Mendeley. For the other way around you would have to contact the software developers of Mendeley, Zotero, etc.
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Support Skim as a PDF viewer/annotator on Mac OS
Skim is popular among Mac OS users for viewing and annotating PDF files. It supports a large range of annotation tools. It provides forward and backward synchronization mechanism for external programs (currently LaTeX editors). It can export annotations from PDF files to stand-alone note files. So supporting Skim should not be too hard.
13 votes -
Hide reference keys on PDF bookmarks
Currently MindMapping displays imported BibTeX reference keys for PDFs, and also displays the keys on the bookmarks imported for each PDF. This creates an unnecessary duplication of information and takes up a lot of space on the screen. Please could you stop MindMapping from displaying keys on PDF bookmarks?
12 votes
AdminJoeran
(Admin, Docear)
responded
Hello John, thank you for your suggestion. Showing reference information for bookmarks is important for some users because you can move a pdf bookmark in the mind map to another place, so you don’t see directly which main PDF file it belongs to. In Docear you can select “View | Attributes | Hide All Attributes” to hide all attributes.
As of now we have no plans of implementing a function such as “Hide reference keys on PDF bookmarks”. But if more users vote for it we might change our mind. If you really want this feature, please have a look here http://www.docear.org/support/buy-a-feature/
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online access of mind maps
a web interface similar to mindmeister allowing to access and edit mind maps (and pdfs) online
11 votesunder review ·
AdminJoeran
(Admin, Docear)
responded
an online version of docear would mean an immense amount of work. we won’t have time for this soon but if many users request it, we might consider implementing it.
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copy and paste attributes of a node from one map to another map with the associated node
Attributes have the potential to be amazingly powerful. I started using them to categorise characteristics within scientific papers, e.g. geographical location or sample size, but stopped using the feature as I could not copy the attribute from one mind map to another.
10 votes -
improve the import of highlighted text in pdf files
the import of highlighted text does not work with most PDF readers
9 votes -
While Docear is still young, how about generalized graph support? Many of our research problems don't fit into a hierarchical model.
A simple tree is useful, but before locking ourselves into simple hierarchy, it would be great to support graph structures where any node could be a "root" node. It could even serve as a spreadsheet in a pinch. Freeplane may not support it now, but I suspect that Docear will give you a good voice to request enhancements.
8 votes
AdminJoeran
(Admin, Docear)
responded
i like the idea in general but it would require a massive change on the data model. i am afraid this is nothing that will come anytime soon (we talked with the Freeplane team).
as a work around you can create visual links between nodes and internal hyperlinks (in the menu see “Edit – Connect” and “Edit – Link” while having two nodes selected at the same time)
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Integration with evernote
I like use Sciplore mindmapping to do my research, even I have give up my mindmanager, but I write some note using evernote.The mindmanager can add a evernote link to the note in the evernote ,but the sciplore can not add such a link created by evernote!
8 votes
AdminJoeran
(Admin, Docear)
responded
I am afraid this wish will not be our top priority in the next couple of month. maybe later, we will see.