5067
« Last post by superboyac on October 19, 2008, 02:10 AM »
Paul, all the issues you raise are very important and I believe they are typical of most casual users out there. A lot of us here are very technical software powerusers so we sometimes take for granted the things that seem simple to us.
Let me talk about calculations and stuff in SN. If you're not familiar with using spreadsheets or doing calculations on the computer in some form or another, then this will be confusing to you. That's not to say it's prohibitively difficult, but you will have to put some time into it. I only use calculations in one application in SN, my college transcript data, and it was quite an exercise for me...which, in turn, taught me a lot about the internal workings of the program. However, I'll admit that it wasn't something that I would call easy. But I love the fact that SN has the ability to do it because what I did was very customized and quite sophisticated compared to any other program I've tried. So Paul, unless you really need to do calculations right now, I wouldn't worry about it. When the time comes, learn it then.
You can ignore those numbers on the left if you don't need them. I never use them. In fact, i wouldn't mind being able to hide them so the program will "look" more like a typical tree-based notetaker. Those numbers just keep track of the hierarchy in a numerical manner.
Tree based hierarchies. Paul, you may not like them, so don't use them. If you like them, use it. Either way, it doesn't matter. The great thing about SN is that it can do it both ways. For myself, there is some information that lends itself naturally to a hierarchy (like my transcript) and other information that doesn't. If it doesn't, then I just leave the items in one long list, with no parents or children, no indenting, etc. Most programs will force you to use one or the other, but not SN. There are pros and cons to both, so be thankful that you can use both. In fact, in SN, you can use a hybrid of them to any degree you like (I won't go into details here).
Filters and stuff...this can be difficult to grasp, but you should definitely try to understand it because it is fundamental to the program. I will definitely write about this later. The filtering in SN is very powerful and once again, I can't say it is the easiest thing in the world to understand. I don't really do anything complicated with the filters, I barely touch them. The only time I use them (so far) is when something wrong happens because it usually gets fixed by doing something with the filters. You can read about several instances of this in this thread. But you can use the program very effectively without worrying much about filters.
My advice is this: don't try to understand everything about the program before using it. It does too much and to try to understand it beforehand is a waste of time. Just do specifically what task you are trying to use it for and learn the aspects of the program that apply only to your task. Like my transcript...I only learned about the calculations and formulas to make my transcript work. After that, I haven't done anything more with formulas and calcs, and I don't care. I'll only learn it if I need to use it. It's Pierre's job to know everything, not yours. There are tons of things in the program you might never use, so just forget about them. As long as you get the program configured to do exactly what you want it to, then that's the ultimate goal, right?
Recent Posts
Anyone else interested?