the reverse of the merge funtion?

[Kristin]

Before I say anything else I want to mention that the fact that I am even in this predicament is indicative of just how much I love Accordance and how many hours I have spent studying as a result of the awesome scholarly abilities Accordance provides.

 

With this in mind, when I had previously said was overwhelmed since My Notes says I have "5445 notes" I see now that that is a gross understatement as each "note" is obviously associated with a verse, so this is actually a record of how many "verses" have notes, and each verse averages 5-7 individual notes, with some less, and some more. That means over 27,225 notes, and I need to save them all by hand one at a time because of that obnoxious Numbers issue. This will take me 100 years. I know the issue is user error, and has something to do with spaces or commas or whatever in the notes I have in Accordance, but I don't know what my issue is exactly to prevent it, hence moving one note at a time.

 

The note file is so fat that I really don't have a choice but to exporting the notes into new notes files to make sure the size remains small enough for the future. I also understand the principle of eating an elephant one bite at a time, but the issue I am having is I don't know how large my elephant is. I "guess" that most of my notes are in Luke, Isaiah, and Genesis, but I don't really know where the notes are proportionally.

 

So reading my own post right now, I am not so sure this is even a question, as I think I know the answer, but is there a way to segregate notes by books? I know how to merge notes, which is really helpful, and I am wondering if there is a way to break up notes into books or something. that way I can see how the 35 MB are distributed. I am 99% sure that is not possible, but I figured I would ask.

 

Thank you,

Kristin

[Billy32792]

Hi Kristin,

 

Do you have any of the backups from before the time your notes were merged? Maybe Time Machine or the 'Old User Notes' section of the Accordance Files folder in Documents? This may help you break the size down, but of course they would probably not be completely up to date.

 

There is no automatic way to segregate notes by books. Perhaps this is a feature request you may want to post. I don't know the logistics involved or if it is even realistically possible. The programming team would have to weigh in on this one. 

 

The best place to put in a request for adding something to Accordance would be on the forums. We have a couple of special sections dedicated to just that. The people who are in a position to make something like that happen, frequent the forums. They can gauge the overall response to suggestions and requests from the Accordance community there.

 

You can get to the request page at:

 

https://www.accordancebible.com/forums/forum/8-feature-requests/

 

 

You could manually create new user notes for each book and then copy and paste each book's notes into the corresponding new user note for the same book.

I realize that this is a daunting and possibly unrealistic task due to the large size of your file.

 

Here are the steps if you want to try:

 

Select the chapter and verses from the original note and then copy (‘command c’)

 

 

Go to that verse in the text and place your cursor there and then use the key command: ‘command u’ and select your new destination user note (You need to do this every time you change chapters otherwise the new user note ‘contents' will not update).

 

 

Paste (‘command v) into the desired note.

 

 

Click the auto update icon in the top right corner.

 

 

Then click  ‘Update’ in the bottom right hand corner.

 

 

Move to next verses and repeat as needed.

 

Hopefully this will help.

 

 

[Billy32792]

Kristin I will email you these same steps with the pictures. They wouldn't load correctly in this post.

 

If anyone else would like these steps we can send them to you as well.

 

You can request them at: techsupport@accordancebible.com

 

Thanks.

[Kristin]

29 minutes ago, Billy32792 said:

Do you have any of the backups from before the time your notes were merged? Maybe Time Machine or the 'Old User Notes' section of the Accordance Files folder in Documents? This may help you break the size down, but of course they would probably not be completely up to date.

 

Hi Billy,

Thank you for your response. Regarding what you wrote above, I unfortunately don't as the Note in question is the infamous "My Notes" file which I had been working on diligently until it started crashing from being so huge. I think it was 42 MB at it's largest. This has been a very expensive lesson in time, but a valuable one as before this I did not realize that large files can get corrupted, and I also have learned the importance of having multiple backups, and also the importance of segregating information. With new notes I am making, I place them in totally different notes and the "My Notes" is not a note I actively work on anymore. It just has so much valuable information that it just needs to be moved to be preserved.

 

29 minutes ago, Billy32792 said:

You could manually create new user notes for each book and then copy and paste each book's notes into the corresponding new user note for the same book.

I realize that this is a daunting and possibly unrealistic task due to the large size of your file.

 

Ya, the manual approach is what I have been doing for months, but I am starting to get scared that it will take years. I don't feel like I have a choice though given the value of the document. I realize now that I basically wrote a book on a post-it note, as the Accordance Notes are not designed for what I had done. What I am doing is for each individual note, I copy it like you said, and I decide where to put it, separating the "My Notes" into 8 new Note files. Some of the information is also being placed in Tools when it is more of a topical issue then verse specific. I am also copying the information into 70 Numbers files, one for each book of the Bible and a few Tools I made. Then each Numbers file for the biblical books have an active tab in Accordance, and an old tab, of stuff I took off the program since the notes are old or not needed or whatever. This way if a Note ever gets corrupted in the future it will not be a crisis to find the information and re-paste it into Accordance. I love Notes, obviously, but I think it is wise to have the Numbers backup. Numbers is not really designed for this either, but I am so familiar with it that it has worked well for my specific use.

 

I had been hoping that there was a way to segregate the note file, since then I could see how many MB each book is. I *think* that my notes are primarily in Luke, Isaiah, and Genesis, but I really don't know, so I don't really know how far along in the process I am or not. I have been working on Luke for weeks and I am still in chapter 5. I admit it is a good review to read this all, and it is interesting to see how much I have learned the past few years creating these notes, but I am just feeling under time pressure since I am teaching from them at the same time.

 

48 minutes ago, Billy32792 said:

The best place to put in a request for adding something to Accordance would be on the forums. We have a couple of special sections dedicated to just that. The people who are in a position to make something like that happen, frequent the forums. They can gauge the overall response to suggestions and requests from the Accordance community there.

 

I am under a lot of time pressure since I need to get through a certain chapter before class on Saturday, but I will think of how to best phrase this and post it in a few days. I frankly don't know how high of a priority developers would see it though, as I am pretty sure I am one of very few users in such a strange situation.

 

Take care,

Kristin

[Donald Cobb]

10 hours ago, Billy32792 said:

 

The best place to put in a request for adding something to Accordance would be on the forums. We have a couple of special sections dedicated to just that. The people who are in a position to make something like that happen, frequent the forums. They can gauge the overall response to suggestions and requests from the Accordance community there.

 

 

Since user feedback is important, I'll put my 2¢ worth in... I personally love the notes feature and use it regularly. It allows me to summarize research that I do on the fly and have a reminder of it the next time I go to the passage in question. I used notes some when BW was my primary Bible program but I find Accordance much easier and use it practically on a daily basis. I also love the fact that I can find my notes in whatever version of the Bible I'm using. 

 

This feature could be beefed up. Requests have been made from time to time for it to function much more as a normal word processor does, and that would be wonderful. (The same goes for papers.) 

 

Having said that, being able to export the notes file(s) in a non-proprietary format becomes all the more necessary. Like Kristen, I also have at this point hundreds of notes on various verses as well as on several non-biblical tools, and I shudder to think of what would happen if that file suddenly became corrupt. So yes, having the ability to 1) export the whole file as rtf or .doc and 2) break up that file into smaller discreet files, according either to module (for non-biblical works) or biblical book would be a high priority for me. Thanks!

[Michel Gilbert]

7 hours ago, Donald Cobb said:

 

. . . being able to export the notes file(s) in a non-proprietary format becomes all the more necessary. Like Kristen, I also have at this point hundreds of notes on various verses as well as on several non-biblical tools, and I shudder to think of what would happen if that file suddenly became corrupt. So yes, having the ability to 1) export the whole file as rtf or .doc . . . 

 

This is a fundamental issue/concern and has been brought up many times, e.g., “User Notes Archive to .rtf” at https://forums.accordancebible.com/topic/19025-user-notes-archive-to-rtf/

 

No. 2) would also be great.

 

+1000 for both

[Mark Allison]

3 minutes ago, Michel Gilbert said:

 

 

 

This is a fundamental issue/concern and has been brought up many times, e.g., “User Notes Archive to .rtf” at https://forums.accordancebible.com/topic/19025-user-notes-archive-to-rtf/

 

No. 2) would also be great.

 

+1000 for both

 

I agree that this is an important feature request. I've bumped it on our development list.

[Daniel L]

On 4/28/2022 at 1:24 AM, Donald Cobb said:

Having said that, being able to export the notes file(s) in a non-proprietary format becomes all the more necessary.

On 4/28/2022 at 8:48 AM, Michel Gilbert said:

“User Notes Archive to .rtf”

Actually, RTF is a proprietary format by Microsoft. Due to the different versions and implementations of it that there have been, I think there is potential for portability glitches across platforms. Regardless, it's always good to have multiple rescue options.

 

So, in addition to RTF, I would recommend exporting to Open Document Format (ODF) -- *.odt (ODF Text) for word processing documents. Also, as a last resort, there should be an option to export to plain text. This is for when nothing else works. It would strip out any formatting but would salvage the text of the notes/documents.

[Kristin]

This is strange... I created two post replies today and they both disappeared. I wound up re-responding to the other thread, and now I see I need to do it again. @R. Mansfield, I think you might be involved with tech issues on the forum, so I wanted you to be aware of this.

 

With that said, here is hopefully most of what I said on my first reply to this a few hours ago...

 

@Daniel L, while I understand what you are saying, the idea of "stripping formatting" would not be practical for a lot of people who use colors and bolded text for reasons than emphasis. I have a lot of notes where the different colors represent different concepts or speakers, and stripping the formatting would make the note worthless.

 

Likewise, while I use OpenOffice with a lot of students, with Chinese students I am forced to use Mac programs since OpenOffice scrambles the Chinese characters. I am sure it would for Hebrew also, but I am not sure.

 

I also think that a Numbers / Excel type format works better given the way the Notes are even structured. Column A is the verse reference, and Column B is the note associated with that reference. Then the next row down Column A is a new reference and Column B is the note. This keeps the notes organized and allows them to be searchable and even sortable.

While it is extremely time consuming, exporting the notes by hand has preserved the formatting.

 

Take care,

Kristin

[Michel Gilbert]

Hi @ Daniel L,

 

 

I didn’t start the topic that I linked to, but I assumed, incorrectly, that rtf was nonproprietary by now. I don’t know about the legalities of using rtf. But almost every program I use can export their files in rtf format. Even Accordance can import rtf files; see “Importing RTF Notes (Including BibleWorks)” at http://accordancefiles2.com/helpfiles/OSX12/content/topics/05_dd/importing_rtf_notes.htm. So I assumed, perhaps incorrectly again, that they could also export in rtf format.

 

What I meant is that we need to be able to export all of our notes in a non-Accordance format, so we can save them and use them in other programs. If Accordance could legally export in rtf format, it would be my first choice. I also agree with you--the more the better. I don’t use Accordance notes at all, and never will until an export feature that supports Unicode is added to notes.

 

So I basically agree with you, and with Kristin.

 

Michel

[R. Mansfield]

23 hours ago, Kristin said:

This is strange... I created two post replies today and they both disappeared. I wound up re-responding to the other thread, and now I see I need to do it again. @R. Mansfield, I think you might be involved with tech issues on the forum, so I wanted you to be aware of this.

 

Not certain why this would happen, but let me know if it happens again.

 

Just out of curiosity, what time of day did it happen, including time zone? I did not run an update on the forums this weekend, but I wonder if Invision did?

 

[Kristin]

Hi @R. Mansfield,

Thanks for your reply. I was able to re-post both of my replies on the forum without a problem. I will send you a message concerning other details that come to mind.

 

Take care,

Kristin