Submitted by JJSlote on 2009/08/02 22:30

Greetings

I've been using linked WikiTags, and they're powerful. Instead of tagging an item {XYZ}, I tag it <a {XYZ}>XYZ</a>, which serves not only as an internal WikiTag but also an active link. Click it, and all your {XYZ} tagged items come up in the Scratch grid. This style of tag is also easy on the eyes and amenable to cutting, pasting and abbreviation.

So let's say I've found the item I wanted in Scratch. What's the best way of working with it, not in Scratch but in the grid I started from? And suppose the item is multi-parented, and I'd like to work with it in a particular context, with the parent and siblings connected to the present project? Any obvious way to get there?

There is always the Properties pane. It shows all the item's parents. Click on a Parent, and you've got the context, but you're still in the Scratch grid.

Properties also offers a field called "Shown in [n] grids." Those are live links, and should get us back to the grid we want, centered on the Item.

But that plan doesn't always work. If I'm seeing it correctly, the "Shown in [n] grids" will show the item in our desired grid only if it's presently expanded and displayed. What if it's available to the grid by source, but hidden five levels deep? That's the advantage of the WikiTag, isn't it...to break through hierarchies the better to find commonalities. With a WikiTag, I can group all of the {Stupid Things I've Done} together, irrespective of the contexts in which they are described.

Perhaps Properties could be improved to allow us to reach the item in the grid that generated the Scratch. A context menu on the Parents would do it. Or "Shown in [n] Grids" improved to show the home grid, even when the desired item is collapsed out of view.

Or is there a technique that others use to select an item in Scratch, then work with it in a preferred grid?

Thanks

Jerome


Update: The best way I've found thus far to do this is:

   1. Add the desired item to Tag List
   2. Change the Source of the grid you want to work in to: (All)
   3. Click on the Tagged item in Properties
   4. You've found an instance of the Item, maybe not the instance you want. Click on a Parent in Properties for desired context, and expand it to display your item.
   5. Change the Source of your grid back to its name. Item remains selected, and you're there.

JJS

Comments

Using Tagged items (not to be confused with Wikitags) is certainly one good way to go. Would the following be an improvement:
  • Left-click would do as currently
  • Right-click would list grids that this item is displayed and users can choose which grid to open/display
 

gregory

2009/08/03 11:41

In reply to by Pierre_Admin

Right-click to list grids in which this item is displayed and users can choose which grid to open/display? Oh yes please !
 
Mark Gregory, Rennes, France - GMT +1/+2; EST +6

JJSlote

2009/08/03 12:03

In reply to by Pierre_Admin

> Right-click would list grids that this item is displayed and users can choose which grid to open/display
 
Hi Pierre

I'm not sure this would change anything. We already have "Shown in [n] Grids" in Properties, and we can click on one of those grids. The problem is that the only grids available in "Shown In" are those that have at least one parent presently expanded to show the item. That's why I change grid source to "(All)" and back again, a slow and cumbersome process.
 
I think "Shown in" should include active grids where the Item meets the Source, even if its parents are collapsed. IQ should expand levels as necessary to display our desired item.
A right-click method of listing containing grids probably should not differ in behavior from "Shown in [n] Grids". Users would not understand the distinction. Instead, perhaps IQ could color-code the "Shown in" control to distinguish "presently Shown In" from "potentially Shown In" and display both sets of grids for access, whether by right-click or from Properties.

Rgds

Jerome

JJSlote

2009/08/05 15:58

In reply to by JJSlote

I've managed a successful technique, described in a blog entry.
 
Jerome