InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by KeithB on 2009/04/13 11:21

Reference an old post, about having a bunch of grids, and finding them difficult to manage: http://www.donationcoder.com/Forums/bb/index.php?topic=10432.350   (reply #351)

I too have 30+ grids I use regularly, and was looking for a better way to choose a grid.

This idea hit me yesterday, after looking at 1.1.6.1.4.2.3 in the sample file (File>New, under Welcome, Links, Hyperlinks in the outliner, Examples)

I came up with an idea of using a bunch of

"This will open the Scratch grid with all <a [Addressbook]>your contacts</a> displayed " lines, and revising them for the nearly 30 grids I regularly use.

I then setup a vertical tab group, and sorted by Item. Results show in the Scratch grid.

I now have a "Grid grid" which so far is working out well:

Perhaps someone else can also experiment and expand on this idea.

Comments

Named filters will solve this grid multiplication issue.

A grid is a combination of 4 things:

A source of items
A set of columns
Optional Filters on these items (filter, alpha, date)
Sorting criteria

Your approach is quite cleaver but addresses only #1 above. Named filters will be a better long term solution.

A similar solution to yours is to create a form, called Grids and show the fields used by your most used grids. Double-click on form item, will open the scratchpad grid. As a bonus, it allows you to quickly add/remove items to anyone of these grids using the checkmarks

Yes, named filters is the way to go. I can't wait to see how this will be implemented as this will become a very important part of my daily routine.

In the mean time, I use a grid where I put all the different filters, organized by grids as parents, and then grouping the filters as subitems, then the "sorting" as sub-subitems. It works but cumbersome, slow, and one needs to be very disciplined.

e.g. :

AdrsBook

Filters
Inbox

MES

-- Source

-- MES or zzMES

-- Filters

-- item like "MES tgsPRoJu 1" and check is null and tgsOPERL is null | check is null and tgsOPERL is null

-- ordre

-- item like "tgsPRoJu" and check is null | check is null

--item like "MES tgsPRoJu 1" and check is null | check is null

etc.

Now, concerning grid management -- and this has to do more with the set of columns and grid source...

Having many grids is not a problem when you can invoke them quickly through a menu, as one would do it with an application launcher like find and run robot (for example). So, for grid management, a better implementation of the "search as you type" functionality using the grid menu which can be invoked by simply pressing ctrl-shift-o (or anything customized by the user) would help. I already proposed that many times. Something like the "search as you type" used in the "assign to..." drop down menu from the add item window, which is more flexible as it doesn't only search for the first letter of a word/term, but also inside words/terms.

Somewhat tangentially but also important, another thing that would make the scratch pad or search grid much more useful than it is now, is the ability (discussed in a previous post and proposed by Jan R.) to apply to apply a set of columns from a form to a grid, instantly. That would allow the user to see items in different context easily. Click on a form, apply the columns set to the scratch grid. Click on another form, apply another set of columns...

Related issues in Mantis :

150

636

and the brand new 683 ;)

Armando, I very much like your idea of applying the "search as you type" to grid selection. I use this form of search right now in my contact list & it works beautifully. It is also quite natural, i.e.one doesn't have to find a form, fill a form, etc, etc. You just type. I think it's a fabulous function. The other function that I like but is not mature yet are wiki-tags. Being able to create a customized grid instantly is pretty amazing. .

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA

HP Blackbird Vista Ultimate SP-1

Hi Jan,

Note that this is already possible in the grid menu (shift-ctrl-o, type, and press enter when focus is on the right grid), just a bit limited since it only matches the beginning of words, as I explained above.

Ah... so. Missed that. Thanx

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA

HP Blackbird Vista Ultimate SP-1

Pierre,

When can we expect to have Named Filters, with the four features you mentioned? This feature is important for me to replicate the important functionality I have setup in Ecco that allows me to manage projects and other people. In Ecco for example, all of "Talbot's" tasks are in the Talbot Notepad, which can be sorted by Priority, Status, etc. as needed. Likewise, tasks for my assistant Judy are in the Judy Notepad, easily accessible by anyone. To delegate a task, I simply set my TodoBy (multivalue) field to "Judy".

Multivalue fields. What is the best way to handle fields that need to hold multiple values? For example, I assign TodoBy values of both "Talbot" and "Judy" for tasks that I want to both delegate and keep an eye on, so the task shows in both the Talbot and Judy Notepads.

Thanks.

Talbot Stevens

[quote=Talbot Stevens]

[snip] Multivalue fields. What is the best way to handle fields that need to hold multiple values? For example, I assign TodoBy values of both "Talbot" and "Judy" for tasks that I want to both delegate and keep an eye on, so the task shows in both the Talbot and Judy Notepads. [/snip]

[/quote]

Talbot, I'm sure Pierre will get back to you but I thought I'd point out that you can handle the above two ways that occur to me (I'm not really an accomplished IQ user)

(1) in a task grid add Boolean columns for Talbot and Judy. Checking off one or both for any task item should do what you want

(2) <CTRL>+drag any task to another parent copies the item to a new parent, i.e. any item can have multiple parents. Any change / update to that task will be seen by both

Perhaps someone will come along to give you better suggestions later on.

HTH

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA

HP Blackbird Vista Ultimate SP-1

[quote=jan_rifkinson]

...

you can handle the above two ways that occur to me (I'm not really an accomplished IQ user)

(1) in a task grid add Boolean columns for Talbot and Judy. Checking off one or both for any task item should do what you want

(2) <CTRL>+drag any task to another parent copies the item to a new parent, i.e. any item can have multiple parents. Any change / update to that task will be seen by both

...

[/quote]

sounds good to me

By Boolean I presume you mean having Yes/No tickbox fields - one for Talbot & one for Judy (?)

In case #2 - be careful to remember that you're not creating a new item (nor technically even a "copy") but simply showing the item in another place - giving it another parent as Jan says - just thought I'd emphasise that in case!

I see how having distinct boolean fields for each person works, and have setup a TodoBy form that contains the names of each person who could be responsible for tasks. This technically isn't the same as a multivalue field, but having any number of fields in a user-defined form gets the job done, with at least as much flexibility as Ecco. If I was involved several projects with different people (with some overlap), I could have all contacts grouped into meaningful forms, as follows: TodoByProjectA, TodoByProjectB, TodoByAll. The Properties pane allows me to flexibly expose the forms (groups of fields) that are relevant to the project I'm dealing with. Awesome!

While accessing these PersonA, PersonB, ... fields in columns would not work well with larger groups (because it would take up too much of the screen for the columns), the ability to access Person[x] field values in defined forms, where several forms can be open at once, is great. The only way to improve from here would be the ability to define exactly the Forms to be exposed for each grid, (without even the Item Info and other form names visible in the Properties pane). This would improve things because there would be no screen space wasted and there would be no distracting/confusing options that are not relevant. For example, when dealing with Contacts (Phonebook in Ecco), the screen is customized for dealing with Contacts and is not a generic grid (Notepad in Ecco).

This is working for me!

Talbot Stevens

Have you used the GridForm? If you add each person's field in the grid, but schrink the column to min, it is ignored as a grid column, but still shows in the GridForm in the properties pane. Not as elegant as the multi-value column, but workable.

BTW, the grid does support multi-value checkboxes, it is just that I haven't had the time to code it (it is possible, but not trivial to code and depends on the field hierarchy, which is very very poorly implemented as of now.

[quote=Talbot Stevens][snip]

[/quote]

Talbot, my contact list is exactly that, i.e. items are the names. The only columns I have in the grid for each item are pending or foloup or apptdate. Pending marks the row w color 'A', foloup marks row w color 'B' and automatically places these items in a GTD grid. If I have an appt w the person I enter the apptdate & it appears in an appt grid I've set up. If I want the tel # etc to contact a person, I look in the contact form which contains more info than what's in the grid. This way I have a clean contact list with all activity under each name w the ability to foloup, know something is pending or that I have an appt. This might be similar to your Ecco notepad.

The only hitch is -- and I believe Pierre will be addressing this in the future -- is that user will be able to tie grid 'A' with form "A" &/or "B" via a properties dialog TBD. And maybe there will be an option to close other forms, i.e.open only forms connected w active grid. This should facilitate using different parts of the desktop w/o the clutter you so right point to a nuisance, eye sore & confusing.

HTH

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA

HP Blackbird Vista Ultimate SP-1