Defaults and required fields

Set a default value

Click a field’s name on the supertag’s page to open Field Settings. The Default row reads No default, or the value. Click the value to change it. The editor is the one for the field’s type, with Apply to save and Clear to remove the default.

The editor says “Affects N notes; existing values stay.” The count is the notes that have the supertag. Their values do not move. The new default is used only by notes that get the supertag from now on.

What a default does when the supertag is applied

When you apply a supertag to a note, each of its fields the note does not have yet gets the default, once, and the note keeps that value afterwards. A field the note already has is left alone, including a field that was cleared on that note, so a cleared field stays empty.

If Checkbox follows maps a field, and a default gives that field the value Checked when, applying the supertag also checks the note’s box, provided the note has one. This happens only when the supertag is applied, and never later.

Other starting values

The Initial value submenu in a field’s menu on the supertag page sets a starting value that is worked out when the supertag is applied. Choose one of these:

• No initial value: nothing is set on new notes.
• Fixed value…: the same value as the default, edited in the field’s value editor.
• Current date (Date fields): the day the supertag is applied.
• Date of the ancestor day (Date fields): the day of the nearest day page above the note.
• Nearest ancestor with #Name (Note fields): the nearest note above the new note that carries that supertag. The choices are limited to the supertags the field allows, and to thirty of them.

The menu’s last line says the rule runs when the supertag is applied and is not retroactive: notes that already have the supertag keep their values. An inherited field’s starting value is changed on the supertag that gives it.

Make a field required

Tick Required in Field Settings, or choose Required from the field’s menu on the supertag page. A confirmation asks “Make “Owner” required?” and says how many notes have the supertag. Apply makes the change. To make it optional again, untick Required. The confirmation asks “Make “Owner” optional?” Required is a setting separate from placement.

A required field that is empty on a note shows a warning on the note’s page: “Owner is required and still empty. The note saves without it.” It never stops you from editing or saving. A note with several supertags treats a field as required when any of them requires it.

Show as checkbox and Checkbox follows

Show as checkbox, in the Configure group of a supertag’s page, makes notes that get the supertag start with a checkbox. Notes that already have it keep their checkbox as it is.

Checkbox follows, in the Behavior section, ties the checkbox to a field. Pick an option field or a Yes/No field, then choose the value Checked when and the value Unchecked when. Checking the box sets the field to its checked value. Setting the field to either value moves the box. Each change is one undo step, and existing notes keep what they have.

Combine it

• A default status for tasksA #task with Status defaulted to Open starts each task Open. The Task tracker recipe builds this from an empty workspace.
• Required fields not yet filledA saved search with Not and Field has a value finds the notes still missing a required field.
• A date that starts on todayA Date field with Current date starts each new note with the day it was applied.
• A done column from a checkboxWith Checkbox follows set, the Table view’s checkbox column and an option field stay in step.

Limits

• Defaults and starting values apply only when a supertag is applied. A change to them never reaches a note that already has the supertag.
• Required is a warning in this version. Nothing blocks saving.
• A supertag in Trash gives no defaults, starting values or checkbox until it is restored.