InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by J-Mac on 2010/05/16 17:13

Hello IQ folks! I guess it is time for my (approximately) monthly question(s):

What are the default settings and/or menu layouts for IQ? Or, maybe this would be better yet: Is there a recommended set of settings and/or menu layouts for IQ?

I realize that question sounds about as stupid as they come, but I do have a reason for asking it. Maybe not the best reason, but a real, honest reason nonetheless. I first installed IQ way back in the early "SQLNotes" stages of the beta development, (I'm sure that Pierre remembers when, along with all my no-doubt annoying questions!) Since then, through many, many builds and releases I have tinkered with IQ more than I care to remember, though never quite understanding it or getting comfortable enough with it to use it regularly. Thus I stop in roughly every week or two to check for new builds, read the forum, check for new documentation, etc. And occasionally pester Pierre, Armando, and Tom with questions. During all this time I have often received advice and answers to my questions that directed me to change this setting or that setting, or suggestions to customize my menus by moving whichever menu items I desired into the main menu sections I wanted them. For example in asking why something wasn’t quite working as expected I might have been asked what I had the Hierarchy set to, and then told I should change that to something else. I know that by now I have probably changed my settings back and forth far too many times for me to know where they started, and more importantly what they should be set at!

So back to my question: The IQ default OR recommended settings. Is there any such animal? Changing them all the times I have might be causing some of my confusion with IQ. (Then again, the confusion may never be solved!)

I hope I haven't completely confused everyone reading this post by now! Thanks for any advice!

Jim

Comments

>Hello IQ folks! I guess it is time for my (approximately) monthly question(s):

Cool!

>What are the default settings and/or menu layouts for IQ? Or, maybe this would be better yet: Is there a recommended set of settings and/or menu layouts for IQ?

Well if you look at the manual, Keith has done a pretty good job showing all of them.

And if you want to reset the toolbars etc., it's the same as MS Word and most Office products : you right click on a toolbar --> customize --> Toolbar TAB --> reset. You can also reset keyboard shortcuts etc.

I'm not sure if that will reset the menus though. Maybe I'll try later tonight if I have a few minutes.

> So back to my question: The IQ default OR recommended settings. Is there any such animal? Changing them all the times I have might be causing some of my confusion with IQ. (Then again, the confusion may never be solved!)

Keith asked for a "reset general IQ options" in the tools->"options" dialog. I think it's in Mantis.

I think there's a screeshot of default options in the manual.... But I'm not sure.

In any case, I don't think you can really break anything by changing options etc.

Is there anything that's not working correctly ?

Hi Armando, and thank you for the reply.

[quote=Armando]

Well if you look at the manual, Keith has done a pretty good job showing all of them.[/quote]

OK, I'll check that out; must be a fairly recent addition as I hadn't seen that before.

[quote=Armando] And if you want to reset the toolbars etc., it's the same as MS Word and most Office products : you right click on a toolbar --> customize --> Toolbar TAB --> reset. You can also reset keyboard shortcuts etc.

I'm not sure if that will reset the menus though. Maybe I'll try later tonight if I have a few minutes.[/quote]

I didn't know that was there - TBH I have never had to reset a menu before. Word, Excel, etc. has the menu items pretty well where I expect to find them - or did before the ribbon was hatched. However IQ has always had some strange locations for menu items IMO, and so I had moved a bunch to try and get items where I would normally expect to find them. Where that backfires, though, is that whenever someone mentions a menu item to adjust they refer ro its default location, naturally confusing what I am trying to do!

I did reset them but it appears that nothing changed as to what is selected and what is not, unfortunately.

[quote=Armando] Keith asked for a "reset general IQ options" in the tools->"options" dialog. I think it's in Mantis.

I think there's a screeshot of default options in the manual.... But I'm not sure.[/quote]

OK, I will look again at the manual to see if that is there. I don’t refer to the online manual much anymore - the sometimes extreme slow speed of the site makes me give up shortly after starting.

[quote=Armando] In any case, I don't think you can really break anything by changing options etc.

Is there anything that's not working correctly ?

[/quote]

Oh, a lot of little things. Not that they are not working correctly - they might be. But working "correctly" and what I expect to occur when I do certain things are not necessarily the same thing.

Thanks again!

Jim

1) Jim, the way I change back to default settings for now (portable version) is to just copy over the files from the original download. That throws the menus and toolbars back to the default.

I think the menus and toolbars are in the *dat files, and they just get overwritten.

2) Pester away, and I'll help as much as I can

And you don't have to know everything to use it effectively. And you don't have to have all the fancy stuff going if you don't want to, or don't need it.

3) How about to start, downloading the tutorial Jerome and I put together and going through it. I think it's less daunting than the sample database.

http://www.sqlnotes.net/drupal5/index.php?q=node/1102

4) After that, grab the manual I put together (in infoqube format) from the existing online manual. I've been using that extensively. You may even want to have two IQ sessions running, one with the manual, and another with a learning tutorial.

http://www.sqlnotes.net/drupal5/index.php?q=node/1373

5) Do you have in mind roughly what'd you like to do with it? Is it data collection/organizing, or calendar type stuff, or...

6) on that samples page, there are quite a few small iqbases put together from things mentioned in the forum; those might be helpful.

Keith

Hi Keith!

[quote=KeithB]

1) Jim, the way I change back to default settings for now (portable version) is to just copy over the files from the original download. That throws the menus and toolbars back to the default.

I think the menus and toolbars are in the *dat files, and they just get overwritten. [/quote]

I use the portable version - I have since the first one - and I always copy all the new files into the program's folder whenever I download a new build. But I don’t think that the toolbar items ever moved back to their original locations.

[quote=KeithB]2) Pester away, and I'll help as much as I can

And you don't have to know everything to use it effectively. And you don't have to have all the fancy stuff going if you don't want to, or don't need it. [/quote]

Ah, but I DO need to know pretty much all the "fancy stuff" I believe if I am going to use it for the stuff I have in other apps currently.

[quote=KeithB] 3) How about to start, downloading the tutorial Jerome and I put together and going through it. I think it's less daunting than the sample database.

http://www.sqlnotes.net/drupal5/index.php?q=node/1102 [/quote]

OK, I don’t know if I have that already. I'll go take a look after I post this.

[quote=KeithB] 4) After that, grab the manual I put together (in infoqube format) from the existing online manual. I've been using that extensively. You may even want to have two IQ sessions running, one with the manual, and another with a learning tutorial.

http://www.sqlnotes.net/drupal5/index.php?q=node/1373 [/quote]

That I definitely do have though I haven't yet had a chance to work through much of it yet.

[quote=KeithB]5) Do you have in mind roughly what'd you like to do with it? Is it data collection/organizing, or calendar type stuff, or... [/quote]

Sure I have in mind what I want to do with it. I presently have several hundred MB of data in Ultra Recall Pro, not to mention a database of about 2500 less important notes in Evernote and about 400-500 MB of data in OneNote 2007. Believe me, I know the "what" and I can probably get it all into IQ without much difficulty. It is making sure that IQ can do with the data what I need, or more importantly, that I know my way around IQ well enough to do what I need to do with it all. That has been my biggest obstacle with this program thus far: learning how to manipulate/change/report on/ etc., etc. my data because of the learning curve. I really can't afford to take it little tiny bites at a time or I will be spending a lot of time there that I truly cannot afford to spend.

[quote=KeithB] 6) on that samples page, there are quite a few small iqbases put together from things mentioned in the forum; those might be helpful.

[/quote]

Yes and I have taken a quick look at most if not all of those. Unfortunately none of them are directly usable and as for trying to learn how IQ works by taking "baby steps" with databases completely unrelated to anything I need to do is time I don’t have.

Thank you.

Jim

[/quote]

[quote=J-Mac]

Hi Keith!

[quote=KeithB]

1) Jim, the way I change back to default settings for now (portable version) is to just copy over the files from the original download. That throws the menus and toolbars back to the default.

I think the menus and toolbars are in the *dat files, and they just get overwritten. [/quote]

[/quote]

Right, user modified toolbars etc. are stored elsewhere IIRC : *\Users\YourUsername\ .

You'd have to overwrite the files in there. Be careful not to erase your own VB code etc. if you added any.

(Backup this folder just in case something goes wrong and you realize you lost something)

I'm surprised that the "reset" didn't work. I must say that I won't try that for now... :)

Keith's suggestions are good.

I think you should also try this:

1- start with one thing you'd like to try doing with IQ (e.g. : manage tasks)

2- move some data you need in IQ, or just start with a few "test items"

3- then ask for help for specific things you want to do.

That's all for tonight. If you need more help just ask....

[quote=Armando]

Right, user modified toolbars etc. are stored elsewhere IIRC : *\Users\YourUsername\ .

[/quote] I found that info's in InfoQube Program Install and Set-up

(I moved that section out from the troubleshooting section of the manual)

I added an indication in Mantis regarding the menu defaults etc.

0975

Tool options "default" button

New feature

minor