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Add My Notes to Tools Modules


Gedalya

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I would very much like to add NOTES to my TOOLS modules. Any thoughts on adding this ability?

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It's on the To Do list for the not-too-distant future.

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  • 1 month later...

A related question: since I've maxed out the versions of Mac OS X that will run on my G4 I am sitting on v9.6.6 of Accordance. I keep seeing replys from the staff that such and so will maybe available in the next upgrade to v.10 or 11. So think fondly of us poor (money-wise as well as other contexts) left-behinds who tried to keep up but the fever to have the latest and greatest has depleted our bodies and condemned us to spend the rest of our lives in the ditch beside the road.

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When I got to the point that I was three operating systems behind on my desktop, I went ahead and bought a new Mac. I got a mini – they're relatively cheap.

 

Right now there is a truly remarkable sale at Best Buy on the MacBook Air. Students get the best deal, but it's not bad for non-students, either. Lowest prices I've ever seen on the Air. Here's the link.

 

I used to have two 'Pro' machines. At this point, the consumer machines are so good that I don't need to go Pro anymore.

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I agree with Julie. My daughter's MacBook Air is actually faster than my MBP. The link Julie provided says that students can purchase the entry level MBA for $649 this weekend!!!

 

The Mac mini is another good option.

 

If you are really, really tight on cash, consider one of the new non-Apple tablets that runs Windows 8.1. They can be had for as little as $200. The latest version of Accordance for Windows runs on them just fine. [if you own Accordance 10, you own it for both Mac and PC.]

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Tim--either on this thread or in a PM, I'd be curious to hear more recommendations you might make on something Windows-related... preferably that includes a full keyboard and full Accordance functionality....

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Abram, I'm interested in getting one of these for myself, but Rick Mansfield is far more acquainted with these devices than I. Let' see if he will join the thread.

 

Rick?

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Tim, on the tablet front don't you guys (Accordance) need an Intel/AMD processor under that ? I am not 100% sure but I think the cheaper ones tend to be Atom/Windows RT which I believe does not run Accordance. That is apart from other limitations like expandability.

 

ooops : I got confused - its ARM that RT is aimed at.

 

Thx

D

Edited by Daniel Semler
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There are a number of low-cost Windows (full version, not RT) tablets for well under $500. Dell's Windows tablets can be found as low as $249 at Dell's own outlet website. That very low price is for the 8" Dell Venue 8 Pro, but even the 10.8" tablets can be had for under $500.

 

Let me say as someone who was once a diehard Mac guy who wouldn't have even begun to have considered a Windows machine a few short years ago, I have been totally sold on the idea of having a touchscreen on a computer. Really, it was the iPad that probably did it for me. It's so very natural, and if you use an iPad, think about how many times you've tried to go back to a Mac and touch the screen out of habit. I don't know if we will ever see touchscreens on Macs or not (outside of something like the Modbook); I have my own theories about this, but I'll leave that for a later discussion.

 

Regardless, the full version of Accordance can be made to work quite on a Windows tablet. I've had a Surface Pro, and now I have an Acer Aspire R7 (which has a tablet mode), and Accordance works great on these devices. I've used these machines for long hours at a time, and no, I do not get "gorilla arms" like Steve Jobs suggested we would.

 

If you're going to put Accordance on a touchscreen Windows machine, I would make a couple of suggestions:

  1. First, make certain you have enough hard drive space. A lot of the least expensive tablets only have 32 GB total storage and Windows itself can take up 1/3-2/3 of this space. According to how large your Accordance library, you could become cramped for space rather quickly. Even if you're going to use this as a secondary machine, I'd still recommend at least 64 GB. I don't think a "complete" Accordance installation would fill this up, but you want to have enough breathing room on the device to be comfortable.
  2. Get a tablet that uses an active stylus. I'm referring to a stylus that is sometimes called a digital stylus or active stylus--one that will activate the hidden Pen menu in any of Microsoft's Office apps when brought into close proximity with the screen. I'm not referring to one of those awful capacitive styluses that are sold by third parties to go with iPads. Most of the kind of styluses I'm referring to are using technology made from Wacom or N-Trig. My Acer Aspire R7, like the new SurfacePro 3 uses N-trig technology. I actually have a battery in my pen. Why is this kind of pen important? You want one of these styluses with your Windows tablet for two reasons.
  • Accordance is a desktop app not designed first and foremost for a touch interface. That's not a criticism--it's just stating the reality of using any Windows desktop application in a touch environment. A good stylus will help a lot in this regard to hit small touch points, such as those to close a pane or zone in Accordance.
  • When using a Windows tablet by itself, without the aide of a mouse or stylus, you lose the mouseover feature which is so very helpful in Accordance. With one of these digital styluses, you can simply bring the pen within about a centimeter of the screen--you don't even have to touch the screen--and the mouseover feature will kick in. It's actually a pretty cool effect to behold.

Now, here are a couple of friendly suggestions for the wonderful Windows Accordance programmers that would make using Accordance on a Windows tablet an even better experience:

  1. There needs to be the ability to "Use Large Fonts" within the Accordance preferences. I'm not referring to the ability to make the content text of various titles larger. That's been around since the early days of Accordance on the Mac. I'm referring to the system fonts. Now, you can increase the size of the system fonts at the Windows level in the control panel, and this will make Accordance's menu text larger; but it does not seem to affect the text of the Library window, text in title bars, table of contents, etc. I'm seeing an increasing number of Windows desktop applications that have some form of this feature. I see it in programs like Quicken and even FamilyTreeMaker--they have an option in the preferences to "Use Large Fonts." And of course, in the MS Office apps, you can differentiate between using a mouse or using touch with any of the apps. Windows machines have a much greater diversity of screen sizes and resolutions than what Apple makes available on the Mac, so this kind of feature would be extremely helpful.
  2. There needs to be an option in the Accordance Windows installation process to install the data files onto an SD card, which most of the Windows tablets have--either an HDSD or microSD card. Most Windows programs allow you to install software on any available drive. I installed Accordance for Windows again recently, and I believe this is still not possible. Ideally, If using a Windows device with limited hard drive space, it would be ideal to put the Accordance executable on the main hard drive and all the Accordance titles on an SD card.

As I mentioned, there's a lot more diversity among screen sizes for Windows than for the Mac. Personally, I really like the idea of being able to take something like the Dell Venue Pro 8 tablet as an extremely portable Accordance tablet for carrying with me; but then when coming back to my office, I could connect to a keyboard, mouse, and external monitor and have a full desktop computer experience. I don't have one of these yet (my wants are always greater than what's in my bank account), but I'm keeping my eye on the 64 GB Dell Venue Pro 8 tablet for this very purpose. Again, I'd have to add the stylus they offer for it because it doesn't come with it. But I believe this would make for a very nice portable tablet with the full Accordance experience. And I really miss having full Accordance on the Surface Pro that I used to carry to church. Even though my Acer Aspire R7 has a tablet mode, the large 15.6" screen would make me feel rather conspicuous sitting in the worship service, so I'll continue to use my iPad in that setting :-)

 

I hope this helps some. Feel free to ask questions or pick any of this apart.

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Thanks, Rick!

 

Very helpful.

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By the way, over at tabletpcreview.com, there is an exhaustive list in the forums of current Windows 8 tablets and convertibles that can be used with a stylus as I described above. This is a post that began in 2012, but it has been actively maintained. I was reminded as I looked at it again that what makes these tablets different (their ability to use a "true" digital pen) is the "active digitizer" that is part of the screen. So, if you've ever used a Wacom tablet with a Mac or PC, imagine that technology embedded into the device's screen.

 

Interestingly, my Acer Aspire R7 (which is what I'm typing this on) tops the list as the largest screen with an active digitizer: 15.6" and a native resolution of 1920 x 1080. There are two 8" models--from Dell and Asus (with 1280 x 800 resolution)--and, of course, multiple sizes in between.

 

For my purposes, and because I also use the pen to grade papers, I simply would not want a Windows computer without this technology at all.

 

By the way, I should also point out that if anyone is looking at Windows tablets, keep in mind that any device that is 8" or less comes with Microsoft Office for free.

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Rick--this is great. Thanks very much!

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My other 2¢ (thanks for the keyboard tip). {I'm going broke here.} I have 13 computers in my possession. Some are Windows, some are Macs, some are other technologies that have long since gone to computer "ah!, do you remember the ol' ___?" including a Z-80 and an 8008 based pair. Been there, done that, and t-shirts then didn't have printing on them, they were made to wear under your "go out of the house" shirt. I am in my Mac mode right now. If I had my Windows 7 machine up and running, I don't think I would have chosen Accordance as my bible study software choice. Each computer has, for me, its own look and feel, especially feel, that draws me to make software choices.

I have several programs that I can run on both Mac and Windows. Even though they do the exact same tasks and have the same window layout, there is something about running a given program on one system that I prefer over running the same program on the other system. While I make use of this dual platform functionality to make data from one machine to another, I have preferences. Likewise, if there is a program that runs only on Windows and another that does the exact same thing but only runs on Mac, if I have a task to do that requires that ability of those programs, I will choose the program and the machine that feels "right" to me to do it.

My dad would only buy Oldsmobile cars. He bought a Ford once and traded it in early. My uncle would only buy Fords and we never saw any other make in his drive-way. One could say that both makes would get you where you wanted to go. Yet we always have preferences. The key to the old Coke vs Pepsi challenge was in the fact that Pepsi put more sugar in their formula that you could taste and people were responding not only in their soft drink preferences, but in other foods to increased sugar flavor notes to determine the product they wanted.

As for me, if you held a gun to my head and I had to decide Win-or-Mac; I would choose a Cray super-computer with programs that would emulate Windows and Mac environments.

 

Actually, that was only $0.0178926 -- when do I get my refund?

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