InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by paulobrabo on 2010/02/17 07:35

Hello,

For some notetaking needs I like to use Notebox Disorganizer (link below) which is basically a spreadsheet for text. Each cell correspond to a unique text/rtf note.

http://squirreltech.sitesled.com/software/n-docs.html

My question: can I emulate such "spreadsheet for text" behavior within InfoQube? If so, how do I do it?

Any hints or templates are welcome.

Cheers from Brazil

Paulo Brabo

Comments

I dont think that's possible Paulo,

you can copy selected items/cells in Tab-delimited format (AFAIK if just a bunch of cells are selected it's the default copy method, if full items are selected you get a choice of copy methods)

or,

you can export selected items/cells to a 'webpage' (html)

There are other export methods too but nothing like what you want

(I wonder would it be possible somehow to break up tab-delimited text into seperate files? ...maybe a job for someone over at donationcoder.com)

Are you already using IQ?

Another factor is that the grid doesnt cater towards a lot of text in individual cells (just in case you were planning on writing pages in each cell). Maybe others could comment on that - some people copy texts into IQ in such a way that one paragraph goes in one cell (when pasting, it gives you the option to create a new item after each carriage return in text).

[quote=Tom]

Maybe others could comment on that - some people copy texts into IQ in such a way that one paragraph goes in one cell (when pasting, it gives you the option to create a new item after each carriage return in text).

[/quote]

I use IQ a lot to write. Each cell is just a paragraph, or a smaller unit depending on what I'm working on. It works perfectly well.

IQ doesn't display the info the info the way Notebox Disorganizer does. But I know other ways of displaying info are being planned, and so it'll probably be possible... In the future. :)

[quote=Armando]

[quote=Tom]

[/quote]

I use IQ a lot to write. Each cell is just a paragraph, or a smaller unit depending on what I'm working on. It works perfectly well.[/quote]

Yes, I didnt mean that to sound so negative - I know that having a text broken up that way allows ease of juggling of the contents

"in case you were planning on writing pages in each cell"

That's precisely how I was planning to use it =)

Anyway, thank you, guys, for such a prompt answer. I've tried IQ some months ago, but I think it deserves more attention than I could give back then.

Thank you again

[quote=paulobrabo]

"in case you were planning on writing pages in each cell"

That's precisely how I was planning to use it =)

Anyway, thank you, guys, for such a prompt answer. I've tried IQ some months ago, but I think it deserves more attention than I could give back then.

Thank you again

[/quote]

You're welcome.

When/if you plan to have lots of content for one item, it's best to use the HTML pane (F12 or shift+F12), or create children (sub-items) to split it in sections.

Hmmm...

Can each cell in a column correspond to a different HTML pane? I mean, is it possible to make each cell have its own html longish text? That would be pretty much what I'm looking for.

[quote=paulobrabo]

Can each cell in a column correspond to a different HTML pane? I mean, is it possible to make each cell have its own html longish text? That would be pretty much what I'm looking for.

[/quote]

not sure was this clearly answered:

Each row in a grid (i.e. each item) has it's own HTML content which can have a lot of text

You can create as many text fields (i.e. columns) as you need and put text in those cells. The grid supports simple formatting (bold, italic, underline, etc) and can handle any amount of text. However, cells containing large amount of text (>1000 chrs) can slow down things quite a bit. And there are display issues when a cell height is greater than the window size.

Otherwise, why not use Excel ?

[quote=Pierre_Admin]

Otherwise, why not use Excel ?

[/quote]

well there's certainly lots of other reasons to use IQ lol

Why not Excel?

In Notebox Disorganizer the spreadsheet view is cleaner than what would happen in Excel. In ND's spreadsheet view you can only see the first words of the corresponding text within its cell. If you double click a cell THEN you can view and edit the entire text that correspond to that cell.

I was thinking that I could benefit from IQ's search and viewing habilities, but mind is set in this "each cell a small window to a bigger chunk of text" solution. My plan was to have columns/categories that could be visualized and searched the IQ way, but each cell would remain a small trigger for its own larger html (or even pure) text.

[quote=paulobrabo]

[/quote]

The same can be done in IQ. In your column field properties, uncheck multi-line. Click to edit or Shift-F2 for a sizable editing window

[quote=paulobrabo]

[/quote]

This should work. If you want to print and flip so columns becomes rows, you can do this using the HTML Export >> Use Template File. See 6. Example : Generating Invoices

Using different columns to enter different types of notes is not the best way to approach paulobrabo's "problem", IMO. The "add item" dialog wouldn't function as efficiently in that context, and other features couldn't be used as powerfully.

However, he could mainly use the item field and tile different grids vertically (as many as he wants, really... Until he reaches RAM limit) to obtain the same kind of display as Notebox Disorganizer. This kind of display mimics the "table like" display Jerome already evoked a while ago (and that's what I usually do when I want to work in a kind of table environment -- without tables !)

Example :

Of course, except for certain situations that really calls for it, I'm not sure that tiling all grids is the best way to quickly manage items as it's just as easy to invoke any grid and tile them as needed

1- IQ should be able to remember these kind of display settings (opened and tiled grids) though as it's cumbersome to retile grids everytime it's restarted -- this has been asked a few times.
2- AND/OR a function like "Tile all grids vertically/horizontally" would be very handy for that kind of usage.

=================

Even if I think that the above suggestion would be more than enough, here are some other possibilities :

Something like the "contact mode" you talked about (Picture or image field type), or the "table mode" Jerome suggested a while ago (Calendar Progress: visual aid in scheduling tasks). That way, he could have all these items tiled and have exactly the view he needs, and more.

BTW : the "table mode" never got its own Mantis issue, I think it should. As for the "contact mode" (if I may say so).

Addendum : forgot to mention that my point was also that : by using only the item field to store its main notes content, paulobrabo would have access to the HTML pane for each single item.

Used like like that, IQ would remain IQ with all it's possibilities still open.

You're right Armando, I misunderstood. I thought that the various columns were different information, all relating to the same item, when in fact, they are unrelated.

Armando,

Thank you so much for the input and the suggestions in IQ lingo. Yes, that looks really promising, specially if "by using only the item field to store its main notes content, paulobrabo would have access to the HTML pane for each single item".

I don't know IQ enough, so I have a question related to the scenario you described. In the screenshot you posted I see five different columns/categories. Can I put a "tag" (say "Related to Chris") in random items in each column (say, "Seafood", "Travel on my own", "IBM returns to Africa", "Thank you notes to write" and "Etc")? If so, can I visualize the data in a freeform way -- say, can I have a column titled "Related to Chris" which will show me all the items tagged above?

That is the one limitation whitin Notebox Disorganizer that I don't like. Once you write an item/cell within a category/column it will remain there until you manually move it to another column. My idea was to have tagged itens/cells (each one with its own html "larger" content) that could be visualized in very different ways. Say, if a cell/item is tagged "Random thoughts", "Related to Chris" and "Trip to Italy" it would appear in these columns if I chose these tags to be visualized as columns.

Am I making any sense?

[quote=paulobrabo]

Can I put a "tag" (say "Related to Chris") in random items in each column (say, "Seafood", "Travel on my own", "IBM returns to Africa", "Thank you notes to write" and "Etc")? If so, can I visualize the data in a freeform way -- say, can I have a column titled "Related to Chris" which will show me all the items tagged above?

[/quote]

Armando's screenshot shows 5 different grids. Each of these grids can have any number of columns (known as fields) shown.

I say that because I suspect that when you talk about 'columns' you may mean the grids as shown in Armando's shot ?

If that is the case (if not this will hopefully help anyway) there are a couple of ways of doing what you want.

Ticking a simple Yes/No field will facilitate the showing of an item in another grid
Also, there is a 'WikiTag' field - if you add info in the WikiTag field in {text} within fancy brackets, you can then show all the items tagged with {text} in e.g. scratch grid (or make a link for them that will automatically open all these item in scratch grid)
Armando probably has other (more advanced) ideas/methods using text in field-cells & filtering

1) You could say that all fields are tags in the sense that you are requesting.

When you create a new grid, a Yes/No field of the same name is created - if you tick this field for any item, it will show in the new grid.

The new field is automatically the source of the new grid (Alt+S will toggle the Sourcebar - the 'Source' field is shown on the left. Items with a value for this field will show in this grid)

So,

you can tick any number of these fields & thereby show item in multiple grids.

Also you can drag & drop items; or Ctrl+Drag-Drop items in order to show the same item in another grid or under a different parent (in the same or in a different one).

2) WikiTags see Wikitags

EDIT Also 2.06 Getting Started With Items, Fields and Grids should help & Demystifying InfoQube (the article itself & the most recent two posts

Hi Paulo,

... You're welcome!

[quote=paulobrabo]

[/quote]

Did you get Tom's answer ?

In any case, IQ is so flexible that what you're asking is super simple to do.

A few things to consider (sometimes repeating what tom said):

1- The 5 columns you see in my screenshot are actually 5 grids that I tiled vertically (to tile grids : right click on an opened grid tab --> tile vertically.). If you re-read my post you'll see that I'm also saying that it might not always be that advantageous to always work in this fashion (with 5 tiled grids) : you might want to open grids as you see fit (yes, grids can be opened and closed -- using the grid tabs, or the grid submenu on the grid toolbar, etc.)

Please have a look at this section of the work in progress manual :

1. Grids (Outliner with Columns)

Working with Grids and Tabs and

-- link to nonexistent node ID 809 --

2- Grids don't really contain data but rather displays it, depending on the filters that you see when you press alt-s (or Grid menu --> show source bar). You'll see that, in the "Source bar", there are some names which are fields names; they act as filters for the DB content and the grid shows you the result.

Please have a look at this section of the manual : Items, Values and Views

Also :

1. Grids (Outliner with Columns)

3- you can have as many columns as you want in each grid (open an IQ sample DB, you'll see what I mean : File-->New-->sample DB)

I don't think that there's an article on how to add fields/columns to a grid in the manual right now. I might add one later today -- Or if someone wants to do it.... :). There are several ways to do that, but you can just right click on a column header of a grid and click on "Displayed columns" in the field context menu, etc.

4- any item in a grid can have many characteristics that you can associate with it using

a) the grid and its columns

b) the properties pane (F4 or shift-F4) which will show you even those fields that are invisible in the grid (they'd be visible as columns if they were) but there nevertheless. Any field from the properties pane can be seen in a grid.

see : 6. Properties Pane

I hope this is clear enough. It might sound complicated, but, really, for what you want to do, there's actually not much more to learn.

IQ can be used in much more complex ways, but it's up to you and it depends on your needs.

P.S. : Some links to the user manual (if you feel like reading some more):

1- as a collapsed tree : InfoQube Documentation: Main Page

2- as an expanded tree : http://www.sqlnotes.net/drupal5/index.php?q=booktree  (sometimes easier to find stuff there if you use Firefox' search as you type feature.)

Those are also accessible on the left of this page : click on the Documentation--> IQ User manual link

[Edited for slightly better English etc.]

Folks,

Thank you so much. Will have a good look at these. I may be finally understanding IQ =)

Cheers