Use case or problem
I think that if Graph View had an option to be organized with time as the X axis it would suddenly become 100x more useful.
Why?
Well firstly let me ask: When I’m working out of a particular file, and then I open Graph View, how do I find the file I’m working out of? There’s no relationship currently between these two ways of navigating. Of course you could add an “Open Graph View Centered On this Node” option to the file, and that’s not a bad idea. Or a Search function in the graph view, that would center on the node I select. Both of those would be helpful and complimentary.
But I was thinking more broadly, what are the set of files that I’m most likely to want to interact with? They’re the most recent files. And time in general forms a kind of orientation that doesn’t change - once yesterday happened, it’s done, and if the graph is organized in that way, I can begin to have an accurate memory of where things are located, which isn’t possible in the current dynamically generated graph.
Also, consider that the 2nd dimension is largely useless in the present view. You only need 1 dimension to display adjacency, the 2nd dimension could be put to another use.
Proposed solution
Add a setting on the Graph View to sort by time. The force vectors would still organize the nodes by relationships, but a stronger force would hold them in their place on the X axis (time).
Offer settings for what time value is used:
- Creation Time
- Modification Time
- Custom Field (frontmatter)
I hope this is seen as low hanging fruit that would really make the Graph View more of a go-to tool for navigation.
Current workaround (optional)
I can use filters to color the current node I’m working on red. This is pretty awkward, but is one of the only ways I’ve found to easily locate a specific node in the graph view.