Info window

[RevM]

When I bring up a Bible passage my info window sometimes misses some commentaries I have on the passage. This is quite frustrating at times when I kow I have a particular resource. But it is a problem when I don't know I have a resource and I miss it.

[Kristin]

Hi @RevM,

Are you sure the resources are actually "commentaries"? For reasons I don't understand, the Info Pane has "Commentaries," "Apparatus," and "Grammars" sections, but that is it, so if the Accordance program thinks your resource is something else it won't show up.

The workaround for this is sort of time consuming, but I find it is worth it:

 

Open the Info Pane and click on the little settings wheel under "My Toolset." From there you can manually add the rest of the books from your Library, and in the future those books will show up under My Toolset.

 

I hope this helps some, and I hope that in the future Accordance improves the Info Pane for sections of ALL resources and not just these few categories. 

Kristin

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

We're seeing an occasional report of this. Does Settings (Preferences)>Appearance "Reset Tools By Category" help? Warning, it will reset any tool customizations you've made.

[Kristin]

2 hours ago, Kristin said:

the Info Pane has "Commentaries," "Apparatus," and "Grammars" sections, but that is it, so if the Accordance program thinks your resource is something else it won't show up.... I hope this helps some, and I hope that in the future Accordance improves the Info Pane for sections of ALL resources and not just these few categories. 

 

@Dr. Nathan Parker,

Can you also look into this concern I mentioned? It seems sort of ridiculous that commentaries are automatically added, but other resources need to be added one by one by hand by the user. 

It also makes my "Toolset" very disorganized, as it is a collection of random resources in different categories, but it is the only way to have them appear in the Info Pane.

Thanks. 

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

The categories we have there already should automatically add new books as you buy them.

 

We have feature requests in to add additional sections to Info Pane. Theological and Preaching are two biggies.

 

In terms of "My Toolset", I like your suggestion about being able to add other major categories to the Info Pane. I'd recommend you post it as a "Feature Request" on here. This could be super-handy to let the customer add which tool categories they want to Info Pane.

[Kristin]

12 hours ago, Dr. Nathan Parker said:

The categories we have there already should automatically add new books as you buy them.

 

We have feature requests in to add additional sections to Info Pane. Theological and Preaching are two biggies.

 

Hi @Dr. Nathan Parker,

If you don't mind, I would like to clarify my concern. First of all, yes, I am aware that books automatically are added to the categories Accordance already has. As mentioned above, it has  "Commentaries," "Apparatus," and "Grammars" sections. So I am aware of this, but the fundamental problem is that it lacks categories such as "Dictionaries" etc.

With that as a preface, my concern is that the potential added categorizes of "Theological" and "Preaching" sounds like "Would you like to go to New York or by bus?" 

"Commentaries" is a TYPE of book.

"Apparatus" is a TYPE of book.
"Grammars" is a TYPE of book, etc. 

 

"Dictionaries" (which needs to be added) is a TYPE of book.

The current Info Pane (is rightly) divided by what type of book a resource is.

"Preaching" or "Theological" are not types of books, but more like topics which overlap different types. It also seems arbitrary. If there is a "Commentary" which addresses "Theological" issues (don't they all?), would the updated category move my commentaries to a subjective "Theological" category?

Would all of my dictionaries still be left out? It sounds like it, unless you can say that dictionaries are "Preaching" since sometimes pastors clarify original language words to their congregation.

 

I would thus argue that the Info Pane remains organizing books by type, regardless of whether the type of book covers a specific topic or is deemed "theological" or not.

 

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Adding Dictionaries would be great. Can you elaborate further on what else you'd like to accomplish with Info Pane?

[Kristin]

11 minutes ago, Dr. Nathan Parker said:

Adding Dictionaries would be great. Can you elaborate further on what else you'd like to accomplish with Info Pane?

 

At the moment nothing is as obvious as "Dictionaries," but apart from that I feel like "Study Notes" is another major one which is missing. A lot of people use the NET Notes without using the NET Bible, as an example, and so pretty much all the "Notes" or random Bibles end up in my "Toolset" so that would be helpful.

I think a Maps section would be helpful. I understand there is the official "Atlas" section (which is very helpful!) but I have a lot of PhotoGuide stuff that sometimes gets lost. 

 

So that is just a thought, but I would say 90% of my "Toolset" is just dictionaries.

 

 

Also, without mentioning a specific category, maybe just talking about a general philosophy would be helpful.

 

I have a lot of resources (and I know I only have a fraction of what a lot of Accordance users have), and as a result, I favor the resources which show up in the Info Pane for obvious reasons. Thus, whenever I buy a book which is not a commentary, I add it to my "Toolset" which really clogs the Toolset.

 

It would thus be helpful for ALL resources to have a logical section in the Info Pane so that the Toolset is a small section of random things, like my Ugaritic stuff or whatever which is odd, but that all normal resources have a spot.

 

So commentaries, dictionaries, grammars, maps, etc. However a book is categorized by Accordance, just those sections so that all resources show up apart from rare exceptions.

 

This would greatly improve the users ability to actually use the resources they have.

 

I am sorry if this response is sort of rambly, it is not formulated in my mind very well, but hopefully this makes sense.

 

Kristin

 

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Sounds good. That clarifies what I was thinking. Great feedback for us to consider. Thanks for it!

[Lawrence]

@Kristin @Dr. Nathan Parker

 

Modern filing systems are moving away from fixed categories to flexible tagging. This might be something Accordance can move to as well.

Take gmail for example. You can have mail labelled as "Accordance" (vs "Microsoft" or "Apple" or "Family") and also as "Seminar" (vs "Sales" or "Support"), and you can filter to include both Accordance and Seminar (or Accordance and Support, etc).

 

How about turning "Text", "Commentaries", and other categories into tags? You're already almost there with custom groups.

- Allow each volume to have multiple tags, and add a customisation bar (like a search bar) to the info pane to allow combinations like "This <and> (That <or> TheOther)".

- Allow user-defined tags (just like with custom groups) so that users can organise things as we wish.

 

To address @Kristin's issue of having to tag volumes one by one, add a page that works like gmail's label system: search bar at the top like with Easy Install, and a drop-down box to select a tag, then list the volumes, each with a corresponding box. The user can do a search, select-all or select / deselect some manually, then press an button to update the selected volumes with respect to the selected tag. Include an undo or return to defaults etc for user comfort.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

That's good feedback. Thanks for that!

[RevM]

I would find 'Biblical Studies' section very helpful.

Why not make all groupings in the library avilable with the option to select wich group(s) you want in a preferences dialogue?

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

9 hours ago, RevM said:

I would find 'Biblical Studies' section very helpful.

Why not make all groupings in the library avilable with the option to select wich group(s) you want in a preferences dialogue?

 

That's exactly what's been going through my mind. :-)