DonationCoder.com Software > Clipboard Help+Spell
Feature request: Web clipping, permanent note keeping
IainB:
@mouser:
Ah! Thankyou. I had not realised I could already do in CHS what I was asking for.
Reminds me that CHS is a pretty brilliant invention. :Thmbsup:
Still learning/experimenting with it...
Update: Oops. On my system, double clicking or sending to the last active window (as above) works OK, but, focus immediately transfers to the last active window after each click. Can't see how to stop that.
Update 2011-09-01 1604hrs: Sorry. I belatedly realised that I could use grid View|Stay on top to maintain focus on grid, whilst multiple pasting.
rjbull:
I have been trained to take a rigorous view towards optimising the ergonomics of computer systems, especially where the improved efficiency and effectiveness of data management could be effected.-IainB (August 30, 2011, 11:02 AM)
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I think you're herding cats. Everybody has different data handling needs - well, preferences and perceived needs, but often vehemently held. Have you looked at the immensely long thread on notetaking software? It eventually petered out without a definitive answer. There isn't a one-size-fits-all solution.
I do feel that the UI should simplify things - e.g., like the use of Boolean searches/filters - as long as the facility for people like me to construct SQL statements is retained in the VFs.
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I don't want to have to learn another language. I am/was an experienced Dialog searcher, so am used to constructing Boolean searches, but only using the simpler syntax suggested earlier. So, please, indeed a simple UI.
* A record will go into a VF:
(a) If it gets filtered in there (e.g., with a Boolean search)
(b) If you force it in there (e.g., by dragging/dropping a record into the VF icon.
Look at this:
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I'm amazed at what you've been able to do with this, which I certainly didn't realise was possible! :o One question, though. Virtual folders are "only" a way of tagging/displaying the data, aren't they? A particular way of displaying a subset? In that case, you will presumably lose the data eventually to the automatic purge feature (assuming you have it set). If so, I refer back to my OP where I wanted a separate hotkey to put the current clip into a special folder that isn't automatically cleaned up, so that data you want to keep stays kept.
IainB:
@rjbull:
I think you're herding cats. Everybody has different data handling needs - well, preferences and perceived needs, but often vehemently held. Have you looked at the immensely long thread on notetaking software? It eventually petered out without a definitive answer. There isn't a one-size-fits-all solution.
--- End quote ---
I'm not trying to "herd cats", and I consider that it is generally true that- as you put it - "Everybody has different data handling needs - well, preferences and perceived needs, but often vehemently held."
I reckon that you hit the nail on the head with "...preferences and perceived needs". However, what we think we need is often not what we actually need to resolve a problem, but we are too ignorant of our own needs and/or the possibilities of the potential solutions to appreciate that. As the saying goes, "Ignorance is bliss."
From long experience of business analysis and systems analysis looking at users' business requirements:
* The first step out of the morass is to guide the user to realising that he actually does not properly know what he needs, or that probably "He's doing it wrong" or "There's a better way" anyway.
* Unfortunately, that is usually the first hurdle for our egos to overcome and a very big one it is too, because of an internal dialogue - "I do not make mistakes in my thinking, so I cannot be mistaken". But of course the ego can't accept it (what De Bono calls "intellectual deadlock"), so we fall on that hurdle and don't get up again to discover anything new. Highly intelligent people are apparently more prone to this than others. (De Bono.)
* The trouble is that, "What I need" is an ego-driven statement that all too often can equate to "I want to do it this way - the way I have always done it". This is an egotistically safe approach to avoiding change and especially to avoiding changing one's thinking. So I might (say) irrationally expect to be able to use a new-fangled hammer to perform the same function of my broken old screwdriver.
* The more our ego-bound statements of "needs" are challenged, the more vehemently we feel obliged to defend them with subsequent rationalisation.
* All this is safe-seeking ego-driven behaviour, irrational, and very human. We do it all the time. (De Bono et al).
* If there is any thinking that we should probably not trust without testing and that we could control, it is our own thinking.
Yes, I have read - and contributed to - interminably long and wandering threads on notetaking software - in this and other discussion forums.
Yes, they do all seem to peter out without a definitive answer. But to say from that that "There isn't a one-size-fits-all solution" is a non-sequitur, and probably makes an implicit assumption that these dreary threads are seeking such a solution. They are not. They are not seeking anything. The minds of the people (including me) involved in such discussions generally seem to go to sleep as far as critical thinking goes - otherwise the discussions would not be allowed to develop in the way that they do. They are generally directionless and undisciplined rambling discussions where terminology is so ill-defined that you might as well be comparing apples with eggs but imagining them to be one and the same thing. Classic logical flaws. That is irrational discussion (uncritical thinking). For that reason, I generally try to save my cognitive surplus for something where I mighr be able to make a difference. I thus try not to become too involved and otherwise steer clear of them, unless I think I might be able to elicit something useful for myself from the discussion - even parts of a bad apple can be edible, if you are selective. For a good example of what I am talking about here, look at the otherwise unrelated discussion in the DC forum regarding the "fourth Reich" newspaper comment.
One's opinions, once stated, must be substantiated by the ego at all costs. This can be described as the interplay of a very real-seeming but illusory state called "ahamkara"
I'm amazed at what you've been able to do with this, which I certainly didn't realise was possible! :o
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I only played with what was there. What is amazing (and impressive) to me is that @mouser had the foresight to design/build CHS with all the embedded functionality that he has - and including the VF/SQL functionality. When he enabled the latter, I was able to play with it, and the potential of it literally blew me away. It also helped to explain (and @mouser has further clarified this) the background as to why CHS is the way it is.
All kudos to @mouser! :Thmbsup:
Virtual folders are "only" a way of tagging/displaying the data, aren't they? A particular way of displaying a subset? In that case, you will presumably lose the data eventually to the automatic purge feature (assuming you have it set). If so, I refer back to my OP where I wanted a separate hotkey to put the current clip into a special folder that isn't automatically cleaned up, so that data you want to keep stays kept.
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VFs (Virtual Folders) are filtered views of those records in the d/base that match the criteria of the Boolean search you define in the SQL statement.
They can be "Tags" ("smart tags" I would call them), so you may no longer need, for example, to have the now arguably redundant separate static "Flag" or "Keywords" meta-data fields (i.e., some of the "column names" in CHS).
The simplest approach I can think of to avoid data loss from auto-purging of the d/base would be to set a specially-reserved VF to flag all records as "permanent" by default, or under certain conditions. For example (say), you might not want to retain clips (records) captured from your document editing in MS Word, so you could unset the "permanent" tag as the records are created. This is why I asked for the Condition-->Action function of the VF/SQL.
Having VFs + SQL that enable that could provide an incredibly powerful and flexible tool for automating information management tasks. You could make your RDBMS (CHS) stand on its head and probably not need any extensive coding to do it either, since the coding for that functionality may already be mostly in there. (I'm just supposing, here.)
IainB:
@rjbull: re Requirements/Needs
Have you looked at the immensely long thread on notetaking software? It eventually petered out without a definitive answer.
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Interesting. In another discussion on this forum on Re: InfoQube & TreeSheets: Information managers of the future we have:
"Currently, I am most impressed by RightNote. I can't put my finger on it, but it just seems to be awesome in every nook and cranny that I look."
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It often seems that when we try to articulate our more cogent thoughts to others, we fail to do so because we tend to lapse into what seems to be for us the more normal/natural state of self-actualisation. The trouble with that is that whilst we are self-actualising all over the carpet, we are not in a state of mind where we can get anything useful done in the critical thinking department.
In an effort to avoid this thread degenerating into the same sort of thing, I have taken the liberty of drafting a provisional summary analysis of User Requirements for CHS
This might help: I have made a stab at it by adding in the things we have been discussing here and elsewhere on the forum relating to CHS and PIMs.
If we are interested in helping @mouser by cataloguing our user requirements and requested features in a systematic form, then all we need to do is add them in to the above summary. The document is enabled for public view/edit if you click on the link above. So view/edit the requirements as you see fit. Please try not to wreck the spreadsheet (it's a Google docs spreadsheet) - if you do, I will be able to rebuild it, but it will be tedious to do.
IainB:
I have updated the draft of the provisional summary analysis of User Requirements for CHS
It now includes columns showing:
* Functionality required
* Why this is required.
* Priority (A/B/C for Mandatory/Highly desirable/Nice-to-have)
This is according to a recommended tried-and-tested methodology for requirements-gathering, as per the blog post:
Tip - Defining your Information Management requirements
If users would like to edit the thing to make sure that it reflects their requirements, then go right ahead. @mouser will then have a pretty well-developed list of well-defined and categorical user requirements to work from.
Hope this helps or is of use.
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