InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by David_H on 2016/12/15 10:46

Evernote and several other programs have a nifty feature where you can insert simple to-do checkboxes into a note, just like bullets, but it's a checkbox that you can click on to put a check mark in. The HTML pane is a natural place to use for lists that it would be overkill to enter as separate items in a grid. When doing that, it would be a nice addition if there were a check box that could be inserted next to lists in the HTML pane to check off items as they are completed.

Thanks

Comments

I agree... but why is using separate items an overkill ? It is so easy to create items (Ins key, Enter, Ctrl + N, etc) and then you have the full benefit of "real" items

Are you afraid of running out of items ? No need to worry. IQ can handle millions of items...

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

[quote=Pierre_Admin]

I agree... but why is using separate items an overkill ? It is so easy to create items (Ins key, Enter, Ctrl + N, etc) and then you have the full benefit of "real" items

Are you afraid of running out of items ? No need to worry. IQ can handle millions of items...

[/quote]

Hi Pierre, I don't think it's necessarily overkill, it's just a matter of how far a person wants to break down their tasks/items. For me there is often a point where I want to write out a simple series of steps to check off, but there is no need at all to break them down into parent/child items, and I don't need my attention to be drawn to them other than when I am looking at the item. At that point they go in the HTML pane.

Thanks for adding this! It's a little thing that will be a great addition for me!

I personally almost never use the HMTL pane, except for clipping/reading web stuff, and now to display stuff written with my Wacom tablet.

The grid can do all that you want to do in the html pane... in a simpler more flexible way. It's just a matter of thinking a bit differently, stepping out of the "document" mind set.

[Edit : Is it that you conceptualize items as titles? and what's in the HTML pane as content? Items can be anything, and can certainly be used for small lists -- they're actually ideal for that.]

P.S. I use the grid to write articles, do research, manage tasks and projects, all kinds of lists (grocery lists), memos, receipts, ... Name it : I use the grid for it.

IQ geek

Windows 8.1

CPU: Intel i5 2.6ghz

I too have migrated entirely to the grid. You have maximum granularity and ability to shift context to better accommodate the thought processes. This a document cannot do :)

I first fell in love with the idea while a devoted OneNote user - the thing that won me there was the ability to have many "random" text-boxes on a page which you can freely rearrange at will. Then later moved to mind-maps as they allow for quicker outlining.

And now there is InfoQube which includes the same outliner paradigm as MindMapping programs BUT has the super advantage of being a DataBase, i.e. one super big place where you can focus on exactly what you need without distraction while simultaneously having quick access to everything.

[quote=ethanrox]

[/quote]

p.s. Regarding MindMapping, something is coming your way, on the IQ highway to heaven. Won't say more

Pierre_Admin

hehe :) I need 0 width # column badly right now. Still hanging at 87d :)

Well... 0 width # column is not really on the radar. The 3 pixel minimum width for all column is pretty much built-in

But I'll look into users to hide it, like other columns

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

This will be greatly appreciated. I think it would be a nice feature to be able to hide it because in many cases it is just an auxiliary column which holds no informational value for the user.

Well well, since IQ is all about giving users freedom... in v89:

New: HTML pane: Can now add checkboxes. While editing, click the checkbox to toggle state

(shown here as a list item. In fact, it can be inserted anywhere in the text)

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

[quote=Pierre_Admin][..] it can be inserted anywhere in the text)[/quote]very nice !

Love it. I appreciate the thoughts on grid vs HTML pane. I go back and forth on this all the time. For some reason, I gravitate towards the HTML pane. It seems somehow easier to get the formatting I want and see a lot of info in a small space.

One huge advantage of the grid is the ability to lay out info in spreadsheet format. I think that's the best way to condense and summarize information. The HTML pane does have tables but I found them awkward to use and they obviously don't have the power to sort etc.

We've had discussions about overtaxing grid displays by having too many items to load. Pierre originally suggested maximum 2,000, I think, but later through testing said that 20,000 worked fine. If you put all your notes into the grid, you could could end up with many thousands of items. I can see circumstances where it'd become difficult to load those into a grid (eg if you have a lost item and are searching for it in the journal grid).

Wayne

Have you tried turning the grid lines off and have a single background color as opposed to alternating ones?

If so, you will quickly forget about the spreadsheet metaphor and enter into the hybrid mode a grid truly is.

[quote=ethanrox]

Have you tried turning the grid lines off and have a single background color as opposed to alternating ones?

If so, you will quickly forget about the spreadsheet metaphor and enter into the hybrid mode a grid truly is.

[/quote]

Could you explain a little more? I"m probably missing your point, but I like the spreadsheet metaphor for certain things. For example, in

looking at dental insurance options, I summarize the info in a spreadsheet format to make it easy to compare costs and benefits. I don't want to

give up grid lines here, because that's what organizes the info and makes it easy to compare.

Wayne

What I mean is that the Outliner metaphor is the fastest way for me to develop ideas. It removes a lot of the hidden cost of the "typewritter" metaphor as

- the implicit need for full sentences

- the need for delimiters such as bullet points and numbering when trying to enforce some form of structure.

- the relative difficulty of editing and rearranging words and sentences when needed.

- the impossibility to HIDE/UNHIDE content that is not relevant to the current train of thought.

I want to be able to see the forest AND the trees at the same time.

PS.

Writing this post in drupal is a testament of how much harder it has become for me to use the traditional tools.

[quote=WayneK]

[/quote]

just to be clear: that's about how many items are displaying at any one time in a grid, isn't it?

[quote=Tom]just to be clear: that's about how many items are displaying at any one time in a grid, isn't it? [/quote]

Yes. This is probably getting off topic for this thread but it seems there are cases where you need to load and see all items in a grid. Having all your notes in the grid would increase the chances of not being able to do that because of limitations on what can be displayed at one time. But I could easily be wrong.

Wayne

In such cases, at the very least, you can use the DateFilter to view items year by year...

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

Users should keep the number of items in grids to something manageable, that is why there are fields and filters.

So the database may have 1 million items in it, but only a sub-set is shown at any one time.

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

I'll say it before anybody asks for it...

It could eventually be possible to link a checkbox in the HTML pane to item field-values. If there is interest of course...

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

I was thinking of this a couple of months ago in connection with possible Evernote integration with regards to to-do lists.

Evernote and IQ's architecture seem very similar and allowing such a thing even to a lay programmer like myself.

I think Evernote is the perfect no-cost augmentation for IQ in terms of device-integration and cloud capabilities. The two programs seem to complement each other almost perfectly:

- Evernote's uncustomizable FLAT UI that is handicapped in data presentation to IQ's many grids, panes, conditional formatting etc.

- Evernote's lack of REAL privacy in that everything is in the cloud (I know you can work locally but still) to IQ's good old local storage

- Evernote's ecosystem to IQ's limited ecosystem.

- Both relying on the database/fields paradigm, so potential users wouldn't be as thrown off from IQ.

I think Evernote's power users would find IQ immensely helpful because for them it would be great to have

1. offline organization

2. actually being able to manage their collected input data via Evernote

Off topic, but yes, sync between selected IQ items with Evernote has been considered. Some work was even done. It was stopped due to lack of time and resources.

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

Well, I couldn't resist, so here it is, in v89:

New: HTML pane: Can now add checkboxes. While editing, click the checkbox to toggle state.
If the name or id properties of the checkbox matches a field, these will synchronize. Combining this new feature with HTML's built template support provides a new view of data, in the form of a "dynamic HTML pane

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

[quote=Pierre_Admin]

Well, I couldn't resist, so here it is, in v89:

New: HTML pane: Can now add checkboxes. While editing, click the checkbox to toggle state.
If the name or id properties of the checkbox matches a field, these will synchronize. Combining this new feature with HTML's built template support provides a new view of data, in the form of a "dynamic HTML pane

[/quote]

Wow, that's pretty cool.

I hate to be greedy

, but is this going to be a formatting option where they can they function like bullets? That's how they function in EN, so basically once you've selected to format with check boxes and typed a line (or lines), each time you hit the return key it inserts another at the beginning of the line. The faster/easier the better.

Yes, a small dialog opens up where you can set:

Bullet
Linked field

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

HTML Checkboxes are fine if they take a few minutes to implement. Who knows, I might even use them once or twice. ;)

[quote=Pierre_Admin]

It could eventually be possible to link a checkbox in the HTML pane to item field-values. If there is interest of course...

[/quote]

I knew that was coming.

[quote=WayneK]

If you put all your notes into the grid, you could end up with many thousands of items. I can see circumstances where it'd become difficult to load those into a grid (eg if you have a lost item and are searching for it in the journal grid).

[/quote]

Why on earth would you need more than 20000 items displayed *all at once*? Can you give us an example?

As Pierre said, filters (and hierarchies) allow you to display a subset of items at a time.

[quote=WayneK]

[quote=ethanrox]

Have you tried turning the grid lines off and have a single background color as opposed to alternating ones?

If so, you will quickly forget about the spreadsheet metaphor and enter into the hybrid mode a grid truly is.

[/quote]

Could you explain a little more? I"m probably missing your point, but I like the spreadsheet metaphor for certain things.

[/quote]

I think ethanrox just means that the grid can be used for almost anything data related

IQ geek

Windows 8.1

CPU: Intel i5 2.6ghz

[quote=Armando]

Why on earth would you need more than 20000 items displayed *all at once*? Can you give us an example?

As Pierre said, filters (and hierarchies) allow you to display a subset of items at a time.

[/quote]

I gave an example in the very part you quoted. I was trying to make a minor point that's not worth repeating. I realize it's not an issue because of filters. Really doesn't merit a "why on earth..." response.

Wayne

Don 't worry Wayne, I'm sure Armando use that expression in a very liberal manner...

His point is that IQ provides many ways to restrict the number of items in the grid to something manageable, both for the software sake AND the user (i.e. imagine having to manually go through 20000 items to find something...)

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

Pierre answered before me!

Anyway, I'm sorry Wayne! Pierre's right : I didn,t mean to be offensive at all. I was merely expressing astonishment.

At the time, I didn't understand you answered Pierre's suggestion, and so (even if you said, e.g. "[…] you have a lost item and are searching for it in the journal grid"), I still asked...
Because... well, I was really wondering why you'd need to search a list that long! (I think you also mentioned the same need in the past, but I might be mistaken.)

It's OK though, I understand it was some kind of misunderstanding.

IQ geek

Windows 8.1

CPU: Intel i5 2.6ghz

Thanks, guys. I figured that was the case. Everything's good.

Wayne