An Idea for "Virtual Containers" (for version-9.0 ???).
The "Taking Notes" feature has great potential, but I find it difficult to use and therefore often avoid it due to lack of time and patience, and consequently am not reaping Biblioscape's full potential power. The problem is that it is cumbersome to create a place (folder) to put a note, and setting the creative thought process aside to do that is disruptive, especially when it must be done repeatedly when reviewing a paper. So I find myself using Biblioscape simply to index papers, rather than for the reason I bought a copy -- to really tap into the contents of the papers in my collection.
I think a way around this would be, at least from the user's perspective, for every container to be able to contain "virtually" any kind of data (references, categories, notes & tasks). Perhaps functionally, behind the scenes, the program would have to be creating a reference container, category container, etc. for each container that the users sees, but the creation of these real entities and their continued existence could be hidden from the user.(*) The tree pane would simply show the hierarchy of the virtual containers, and the list pane could show -- via filters -- just the references, or just the categories, or other single data types within the active virtual container, or even all of them together, unfiltered.
The advantage of this for what I am trying to do, is that I would have to create a hierarchical structure in my database only once (which I have done already through a system of reference folders). But, I need the very same hierarchy for notes and categories (and maybe even tasks).
My hierarchy is becoming complex and continually being expanded, and the problem of rarely having the required place to put my notes when I need it is frustration. If I go through and create the duplicate hierarchies for categories, notes and tasks, then I will have a lot of clutter.
Alternatively, if containers could be treated as "virtually" containers for anything, then as the one hierarchy is expanded, everything else will have a place in it automatically.
Have I explained this adequately? Is this possible?
-- Larry
(*) ... and perhaps Biblioscape would NOT have to immediately create some of these folders on disk, if they would just be blank for the time being. The user could still see a virtual representation of the folders-to-be, and the folder would actually be created on disk when the user actually wants to place something there. But, this is just an optional approach.
Larry, the design philosophy
Larry, the design philosophy of Biblioscape is to use project tree (folders, collections, smart collections) for projects, and use categories for detailed classification. The categories is designed to be cross modules. The same categories tree can be displayed on references, notes, tasks, and charts modules. It seems you are using folders to do the job of categories. Thanks, Paul
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Thanks, Paul. I understand that the category tree can serve as a hierarchical index to the other elements (references, notes & charts), but it works best for me to have my references and notes filed hierarchically as well.
The way I have organized my reference library on Biblioscape is to have each reference placed in a reference folder somewhere in what is a rather large hierarchy, according to its "primary subject." This affords easy browsing of the principal works in whatever subject of immediate interest. From there, categories and notes attached to those references lead me to other works and materials that add nuances to what I am researching. I find this two-stage approach to be immensely helpful. So, I need hierarchies of folders to hold both references and categories. [Explained another way, I need a place to put my reference records, and I don't want to pile all of them into one folder (I'm pusing 1000 references in BScape, have many more to add, and will be accumulating more still.)]
Concerning notes, I need a place to put those and on general principles I don't want them all piled into one folder. As with references, I want to be able to browse my notes from the tree in the left pane. Many times I will access them through links, but ability to browse easily is important to me. Compared to accessing notes or note folders via categories in the left pane, I find my prefered browsing method to provide a notes list that is much cleaner and more informative, intuitive and user friendly.
So, what I end up needing is three separate but identical hierarchies (for references, categories and notes). It is a real fumble creating them and keeping them in synch (or adding on-the-fly to the categories or notes one when I am taking notes on a reference). So with my "virtual folders" I was looking for a way for this to in essence be automated.
My work is literature research oriented, not particularly "project" oriented. The lefthand pane is now called the "project pane" (to which I constantly think, "huh?"), and that may be indicative of our different approaches. Also, I am working in a very complex field, with scores of topics (I'm still building those out) that highly interwoven. Biblioscape (don't know what I would do if I hadn't found it) and the method I am using are the only way I can deal with it.
Sorry if I'm on oddball in the way I'm using the program. The Bscape database I am using now came from my fifth testbed. This was the only method of organizing it that made sense to me, after studying the manual and the Sample database at length. (Sorry too for the long reply -- I tried to be concise.)
Larry, if your database is
Larry, if your database is not project oriented, you can have one references folder, one notes folder, and one categories folder. Under the categories folder, you can have one hundred category items organized in a tree structure. You can organize them the way your organize folders currently. Then you select references, notes, and drag drop them to a category item. After that you can retrieve those references and notes by clicking a category item. Therefore, you only have one categories folder and it is used to organize both references and notes. In other words, categories instead of folders are used to organize references, notes, tasks, etc.