InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by Tom on 2018/11/02 18:40

This was prompted by the new tags -- I'm looking from input from people on how they use tags in IQ -- or how they *imagine* tags could be used in IQ.

For our information management in IQ we have:

hierarchy (including multiple locations)

yes/no fields

fields for text

fields with fixed lists from which we can select one or more relevant entries (and variations on that idea)

etc. etc.

and now we have tags.

I was already feeling unsure how to organise stuff -- and while I find the whole tag thing wonderful, I'm wondering when to use each of the above -- tag or field, hierarchy or tag, etc. etc. Sometimes it's hard to know when to put things in separate grids. Of course there will be learning en route and dead ends (e.g. grids or fields created that get abandoned).

But I was hoping people might contribute suggestions or advice related to how they are using tags etc and how they are structuring things.

FWIW, let me give a bit of background of my IQ use:

I've used IQ for years, but with projects that were mostly fairly easy to manage (in IQ I mean) e.g. preparing hundreds of semi-technical illustrations, with links to files, fields covering status and some tagging. Hierarchical organisation was usually very clear, I tried to manage time and cost using IQ -- that got a bit chaotic, but in general it worked and I managed.

Now, I'm trying to use IQ more for ideas, thoughts, information on many and varied topics. This is a lot more difficult to manage -- partly due to me -- to a certain extent the management needs to evolve as I figure out more how I want to use this info etc. etc. So I am interested in any thoughts on management -- be it management of any type of info or project. But I would see this thread as simply people sharing how they use and manage info in IQ. (I did write a blog post years ago about how I used IQ for one particular project -- I can dig that out and add the link.)

Comments

My notes consist of a very eclectic collection of text articles many of which I have written but also many others which are copied from various sources and also reading notes on books I have read and other miscellaneous junk which I have collected over many years.

The current notebase was mostly copied from ConnectedText so it started out all in the same grid but it is slowly being split up into several grids.

Since transferring the notes to IQ there have been several other grids started up for other purposes and they have different metadata but none of them is on the scale of the main 'Topics' grid.

Related articles get placed in a hierarchy so they are easy to find by navigation.

Also some of the articles have a list of links at the end of the article for 'see also' or references to relevant articles in the notebase or external websites.

If they are currently of interest they are placed in the favourites list (which is now a grid). This is a small and volatile list of articles I want to find quickly. Putting them into a grid is a bit of a sledgehammer to crack a nut but it is useful to organise them into a hierarchy.

Tags denote the salient features of the article like the subject matter and what it relates to. But I try to find distinguishing features which can be used to narrow down a search. The tags are also in a hierarchy which is quite useful. Tags are useful for searching by category.

I have a non exclusive list field for authors, this list can be added to. It is non exclusive because many papers are co-authored.

There is also a text field for 'source' as in where did this information originally come from.

The new tag system has supplanted 'WikiTags' which will possibly get re-purposed if I find a good use for them and if I can clear them out from all the articles they are attached to. For now they are unused in my notebase.

It all sounds terribly well organised doesn't it, in reality it is a little more disorganised that I have portrayed it here but I continue to work on getting it sorted out.

It is basically an electronic version of the Zettelkasten method of note taking but with tags. An interesting article about the emergent structure which can evolve from an extensive Zettelkasten can be found in Niklas Luhmann's text about Communicating with Slip Boxes (Zettelkasten is the German for Slip Box).

IQ is a very flexible program, you can organise your notes in many different ways so there is no 'right' way of doing it. It can become messy and disorganised if you don't have a clear idea of what you want before hand. Think of it like designing a database schema.

The first question to ask is 'What information do I want it to hold ?' then 'What do I want to do with that information ?'

When you have a clear idea of what you want then you can plan for how to achieve it and what fields you need to define to get what you want.

Usually with a personal notebase like the one I have the person storing the information is also the person who will retrieve the information and they are usually looking for an article which they already know is in the notebase. This can be used to their advantage by using schemes for organisation which are obvious to them but may not be obvious to others.

Think of it like having a coversation with your future self.

I'm using tags frequently to aggregate stuff that is spread among many grids.

Recent example one: voting research for an upcoming election: I live searched for "voting", then selected several items from the "V" grid entitled "voting", read through them, and tagged them "voting" if relevant. Quite a few diary entries contained "voting", so I read through them also; if they involved useful information such as how long it took, I also tagged them "voting". I then reasoned that diary files might have said "voted" or "voting" so I live-search'd for those and tagged the relevant items. Then via the tag pane, and clicking on "voting" produced a nice compilation in a scratch grid of (presently) relevant "voting" stuff.

Recent example two: a doorbell repair I need to work on. Again live-search of "doorbell" showed stuff in doorbell_repair grids, diary entries, todo and inbox grids, and well as electrical circuit grids. Again, tagging the relevant items "doorbell" then double clicking on that tag in the tag pane, produced what I currently needed in the scratch pane.

A tip: To help distinguish tags, I use a green background on tags, so I don't confuse them with "regular" items in live searches.

I have a large grid with 416 items, called Quicknotes, which was a onenote section of stuff to be filed, basically a "dump" that I migrated over into this IQ grid.

So now I'm going through these, and quickly assigning a tag to an item, and then removing the item from the Quicknotes grid.

That way at least I have some information about, say for instance the item "potting soil" that I tagged as "garden."

And when I get in a tidying up mood, I then go to live search, click the box by "garden" over in the tags section in the left, and it shows me "potting soil" is tagged as "garden" , but doesn't have anything in the "Shown in" column. So then I can see I might want to assign it to the garden grid.

Hi all !

Interesting discussion...

Tags and Y/N fields are indeed quite similar

Tags Pros are:

Quicker to create, search, sort, view count
Integrated in Live-Search
Support Inheritance and multiple parents
Shown as a single column

Y/N fields Pros are:

Support Equations and Auto-assigns
Conditional Formats
Visible to other apps, such as Excel

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

[quote=Tom]

(I did write a blog post years ago about how I used IQ for one particular project -- I can dig that out and add the link.)

[/quote]

Are you referring to this post ?

My Workflow - SAMPLE file

Wow, over the years, UI has changed quite a bit hasn't it !

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

That's the one Pierre!

I see that's from early 2009. The particular job that related to was only fully completed a couple of years ago (and I had started it in 1999!)

Yes, the UI has changed a lot :-)

Also, I think there's still a few IQ screenshots in the manual with the theme used there -- was a modified OS classic theme, was probably even XP when I think about it...

Thanks all for input -- Paul, Kieth, Pierre.

Discussion could be helpful towards considering modifying the new/sample file and adding some info organised in various ways including using tags.

I haven't really gotten into Tags yet. Another question that frequently arises for me can be illustrated by an example I've given in another thread.

I use IQ to inventory as much stuff as possible, for example, all my computer and electronics hardware.

1. Hierarchy of Y/N Fields approach.

To do so, I created a hierarchy of Y/N fields, a portion of which is as follows -

Computers and Electronics > Hardware Items > Storage Devices > Flash Memory Cards > MicroSD (and other fields CF, MS, and SD)

Each MicroSD card is listed as TLI and each field in this hierarchy of fields is checked.

2. Field Values approach.

Now I'm thinking the better way is to have a FlashMemoryCardType field with the possible values CF, MS, SD, MicroSD. This enables me to have a Flash Memory Card grid that I can filter on the FlashMemoryCardType field.

My thinking is trending toward "If it's really a field value, make it a field value - don't try to make it into a Y/N field."

One advantage of Hierarchy of Fields approach is that I can quickly get to a grid through the Fields list in the properties pane. For example, having defined "MicroSD" as a child field of the "Flash Memory Cards" field, I can navigate in the Properties Pane Field hierarchy, double click on the MicroSD field, and bring up my grid of my MicroSD cards, either in a Scratch grid or a MicroSD grid I have created. In a way I've been using the Fields Hierarchy like a Windows Explorer folder hierarchy. That is a very familiar and comfortable model for organizing items. Access to such a grid is always there, right there in the Properties Pane Fields hierarchy, I can always find it.

In contrast, if I use the Field Values approach - I can't browse through my types of items in the the Fields Hierarchy. Values don't appear in the hierarchy, only fields. To browse my values or to bring up a grid showing items matching a specific value, I have to (1) put the Field containing the Values in the grid as a column; (2) click the down arrow in the column header for that field to bring up the Pop-Up list, (3) browse through the Filter Popup List and press Enter on the value I want to select. This method does not have the "ready visibility" of the Hierarchy of Fields method. Nor can I use this method to view the desired items in a Scratch or Field-Defined Grid.

But - what if the Fields Hierarchy section of the Properties Pane were reimagined as a "Fields AND Values". Values for each field would appear like a "child field" under each field. (Perhaps in a different color to distinguish the values from the fields.) For example - the values "CF", "MS", "SD", and "MicroSD" could appear in the "Fields and Values" hierarchy under the "FlashMemoryCardType" field. (which itself could be a child field under the Flash Memory Cards field). Then I would have both the advantages of defining the values as a Y/N field, and the advantages of defining them as Field Values. I could always readily find and browse through the possible values for the FlashMemoryCardType field; I could assign the value for the "FlashMemoryCardType" field to an item just by checking that value in the hierarchy; I could activate a Scratch or Defined grid showing my MicroSD cards, all from the "Field and Values" section in the Properties Pane. I would have my cake and eat it too. I think it could be great.

[quote=jimspoon]

[/quote]

There is a quicker way... When you double-click on a field, the Scratch grid will open and the field will be added to this grid. Click in any cell that has the value you want and hit Ctrl + G to turn on Filter by Selection. Voilà ! (see 2. Filtering)
I like the idea...

HTH !

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

Thanks Pierre! For me Ctrl+G always brings up the Filter This Grid dialog box. I reset Ctrl+Shift+G to "Filter By Selection" and it works.

Is there by any chance a keystroke that would drop down the column header dropdown button menu? Would be nice to keyboard to a column and then activate that menu without needing to mouse.