Notepad dashboard widget issues and feedback

Hi team,

I was so thrilled to see today's weekly release notes for the Notepad widget in dashboards - this is definitely something I (and others) have posted about in this forum, so it's great to see it come to life!

In testing it today, I don't think it was quite ready for release. Here are some issues I encountered and general feedback.

[added 11/14] [Issue] Cannot edit!!!

Once you publish a Notepad widget, you cannot easily edit it. Sure, you can update the icon/background color/text, but the Discard and Save changes button don't appear!!! I can't add screen recordings, so bear with me with screenshots!

I did some testing and noticed you have to do one of the following to be able to save changes:

Edit the text box and then click Enter (which again, as you will see below, doesn't add a line break)
Edit the text box and then click anywhere outside of the text box, but within the widget settings

Ideally, the Discard and Save changes buttons should always be visible, similar to how they behave on other widgets.

[added 11/14] [Feedback] Preview doesn't update as you write or edit content

The preview box doesn't update as you write content in a fresh new widget or if you go back in one to edit. With a newly created widget, the preview will be completely blank as you add text; when editing the text, it will just show the original text and not the changes until you click out of the text box or click Enter (which again, doesn't add a line break as users would expect).

Note: The only aspect that updates automatically is when you add/remove/change the icon and when you add/remove/change the background color.

Ideally, this widget would behave like other widgets where the preview updates as you update the content/filtering.

[Issue] The link option doesn't work

Other Wrike users mentioned that it doesn't work for them either on the original post that I wrote on.

The Replace note with linked content button never un-grays for us
If we click Save and go back into the widget to edit it, the link we put disappears
Adding a link to the Note box itself doesn't hyperlink it either

[Issue/Feedback] Formatting options could be more apparent

In the release notes post, it said that this new widget can be formatted.

There are no formatting options that in the UI by default - i.e. there is no formatting ribbon
I realized only after that if you hover over some text, you'll see the formatting options - this should be pinned as a ribbon regardless, similar to how it appears in a description box of any work item in Wrike
Clicking Enter doesn't skip a line - in fact, nothing happens (that's an issue)
You can only add a line break if you hit SHIFT+Enter - not apparent that that's the case

[Feedback] Icon causes confusion

While I think it's neat that you can customize the widget with a background, I don't think the icon brings much value. In fact, I personally feel like it brings a bit of confusion as I am automatically thinking of work items. We normally associate icons with different work items from default (task, project, folder) to custom (custom item types), so seeing this randomly on a notepad - while it is optional - can cause confusion if enabled. I'm not sure what others think about the ability to add an icon, but I think the border of the widget itself and the optional color background help us identify it from the other widgets.

[Feedback] Love the background color option!

Again though, love the fact that you can change the background color of the widget - I think this will help set these note widgets apart from the other widgets that pull data!

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Comments

Anna Giacobbe

Note that I added two more important callouts as I have been testing it further. They are at the top of the post.

You cannot easily edit the widget; at first glance, the Discard and Save changes buttons do not appear and you have to do some sneaky stuff to get them to show up (hit Enter or click anywhere outside of the content box)
Preview box doesn't edit as you change the content

Rohan V

Hi @Anna Giacobbe 👋

Thank you for testing the Notepad widget and taking the time to provide such detailed feedback! We really appreciate it. We will now forward your comments to the relevant Product Team 👍

Anna Giacobbe

Hey @Rohan V, thanks as always to you! I had some additional feedback after testing it some more:

After last week's deminar where they showed the Notepad widget, they mentioned that the Link (Replace note with linked content) feature works with Wrike task and project links. Is it meant to just be for Wrike permalinks for Wrike items?
If so, just a piece of feedback that it’s not very clear just by writing “Link” as it reads as though it’s any web link (i.e. we tried to link to our Wiki pages, SharePoint, etc.) and I would recommend either an info bubble that states it’s just for Wrike items or I would recommend changing the word to something that is more indicative of the type of link it can take.
Note that the info bubble reads "Add an optional link to turn your Notepad widget into a clickable shortcut to documents, tasks, websites or other info". I can't remember if I noticed this before, but in this case it makes me believe that we can link to anything, not just a Wrike permalink. So basically this feedback that I have is just that the info button description should match the actual functionality of the feature; if it's just Wrike items, it should read that, but if it's anything, then we should be able to include any link and have it work.

Moreover, I encountered several issues where, when linking to a Wrike item and replacing the note with the linked content, the notepad would just say No description. I can't remember exactly what triggered this as I fell upon it last week, but I think it was when I linked to a Wrike Project (again, if we can only link to tasks, it would be helpful to mention that information either in an info bubble or change the wording of the button). I tried it this morning and it seems to work so if I encounter the issue again, I'll add it here.

One other piece of feedback: Once you replace note with linked content, there's no way to remove it. Perhaps it should be a checkbox option instead of a button, or that "Replace note with linked content" can change to something that indicates that it unlinks the content.

Rohan V

Hey @Anna Giacobbe 👋

Yes, the "Link" feature (replace note with linked content) is specifically designed for Wrike permalinks to Wrike items. Thank you for your suggestions on improving the wording; we'll ensure your feedback reaches the relevant Product Team and keep you updated on any future developments 👍

Regarding the second part of your question, please let us know if you encounter the issue again, and I'll arrange for our Support Team to get in touch with you.

As always, thank you for taking the time to provide such detailed feedback. We truly appreciate it! 🙂

Ron Grover

I second all of what Anna is saying. I just discovered the Note widget and was also confused by the choice of wording and the lack of clear UI direction. I eventually figured it out, but I would suggest making things more straightforward.

Basudha Sakshyarika

Thank you for your feedback, @Ron Grover! 👍🏽

On a different note, welcome to the Wrike Community. 🌟 Please feel free to explore all our available resources here.

Daisy Hibbard

I was going to report a bug with this new widget because the hyperlink doesn't work, but I searched the community first, read this post and discovered the link option only works with WRIKE links.

This important bit of information should be added to the widget's description to prevent further confusion.

Feedback from my end is that we would utilize external links more than within Wrike to make this widget useful. A notepad with a rich text editor would be amazing! What I wouldn't give to have a single "quick links" widget with bullet points of hyperlinks! I submitted this idea two years ago in the "bonus" section of my request.

Kathy Thomas

"You can only add a line break if you hit SHIFT+Enter - not apparent that that's the case". This is exactly what I came here to find out - I tried everything else - thanks!!

Rohan V

Hi @Daisy Hibbard 👋

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. As you correctly mentioned, it only works with WRIKE-specific links, and our team is aware as this was brought by other users as well. We'll make sure to pass your additional feedback on to the Product Team.

Hi @Kathy Thomas, thanks for sharing your comment 🙂

Colin Hall

I share a lot of the same thoughts as other posts here. I wanted to add some additional ideas.

First, a bit of background. I have a weekly meeting with my manager to go over the status of each project I'm working on. We discuss the phase a project is in (the task we're on in our workflow), the hours spent on a project, due dates, and notes on the project. I've been using a Google Doc to do this, but naturally that involves a lot of manual translation of data from Wrike.

When I saw the Notes Dashboard, I got excited because I could leverage the data from Wrike directly and hopefully save a lot of manual work for myself. However, Notes is currently quite limited, as others have said.

I'd love to see the following features:

Link data directly from projects so they update automatically as the project shifts: This would function similarly to Task or Project links that already exist in Wrike, but would be related to data within a project or task. Things like the current non-completed task and its associated due date, the final task due date, and # of hours spent on a project. If a due date shifted, this data would automatically push to the Note and keep it up-to-date. When I try to imagine how this could be implemented, maybe it would be like a small widget that would be generated via a project link? Like, you could generate a "Project Overview Widget", check what data you want to be included, and then paste it into a note and that data would link to the project and stay up to date as things change.
Text formatting options: Other users have noted this as well, but being able to format headlines, color highlights, bullet lists, horizontal lines to indicate sections, and things like that would help keep the notes organized.
Scrap the Note sidebar and make the whole UI a live text field: Right now, you have a very small text box on the right to make updates, and then those appear in a much larger text area on the left that you can't update. If you just make the Note interface one large live text field, it would remove the duplicative aspect of the current interface, and provide more space for things like a text formatting menu bar, etc. I also think the widget itself could just be a live text box that you can edit without even opening up a separate window. If there is concern that someone would make changes they don't want to save, you could have undo options or prompt the user to save changes when they edit the note.
Support for multiple links: Like others, the Link function is a bit confusing. When I actually linked to a task, hoping to see the information from that task replicated in the Note, I instead just saw a single link that I clicked on to go to that task. While I guess I could see a use-case for links like these if someone was using Dashboards to split up different kinds of work or things like that, this seems like a less useful version of Pins on the left sidebar. However, if you could add multiple links, it would probably increase its utility. This would require adjusting the interface, but I think it would probably also clear up what Links actually do in this context.

Anna Giacobbe

Adding another point:

Sub-bullet points don't retain formatting as they do in the edit screen.

I tried adding a sub-bullet point to an existing notepad widget's bullet point list and while I can see the proper formatting in the text box, once saving, any sub-points don't retain.

Edit window:

Once saved:

Rohan V

Hello 👋 @Anna Giacobbe & @Colin Hall, sorry for the delay in reply!
Thanks for taking the time to share you valuable in-detail feedback. I’ve made sure to forward them to our Product Team. If there are any further updates, I’ll be sure to post them here.

Colin Hall

@Rohan V Any update on this?

Rohan V

Hi @Colin Hall, thanks for reaching out! A new Text Widget has been released, replacing the Notepad Widget. It allows you to:

Customize fonts, colors, and formatting
Create and edit text directly from the Dashboard
Add helpful links

Please see this Weekly Release Notes post and Help Center Article for more details. If there are any further improvements or changes, we will share an update 👍