some thoughts on Add Reference To New Reference List Tab

[Ken Han]

I've been using Selection -> Add Selection to -> New Reference List Tab to collect different categories of verses for liturgical use. A few things I noticed / wish:

 

1. The first time I select a verse to add to New Reference List Tab, the verse is added to a new tab. And then I "Save Active Tab" to save this list. So far so good. At this point, the tab title says, "Reference List." I wonder if it can automatically be set to whatever name I saved the reference tab list as?

 

2. Next I close the saved reference list tab. I see that it is in my Accordance folder. Then I select a new verse, and when I control click, the "Add Selection to" submenu does not show a previously saved reference list, and only shows the option to "New Reference List Tab". The previously saved reference list tab does not show up in this submenu until I File -> Open... to open up the saved reference list. Even then, the name that shows up under this submenu is not the name under which I saved, but the generic default description of "Reference List." I think it'd be great if Accordance remembered all saved reference lists, and let me add to them without opening them first in a workspace or in a new zone/tab first.

 

3. Now I have the previously saved reference list open in a workspace/zone/tab, and the "Add Selection to" submenu shows the reference list tab is available to add references to. I then add another verse to this reference list. But when I close it and reopen it, the newly added reference is not there, because I forgot to manually save it. Now, I have "Suppress save warnings" turned on in my Preferences, because I find that save warnings can be very intrusive when I'm constantly opening and closing different tools / tabs that I don't necessarily want to see again. (Presumably, that this option even exists means others have felt the same?) But with "Suppress save warnings" turned on, there's no visual cue to let me know there are unsaved changes to the reference list. If I add a new reference to **a previously saved reference list**, I think Accordance should automatically save the addition. I think when I deliberately choose to save a reference to a previously saved list, my intentions are clear - I mean to add it to a list that I like to keep around.

Edited July 22, 2013 by Ken Han

[Joel Brown]

Hey Ken! This is an interesting set of requests. The two things I see it boiling down as:

 

1) When you choose a name in Save Active Tab... the new chosen name should also become the name of the document. [Note, if you set the document name first via Command-Option-N, that will set the document name *and* adjust your save name as such. Also, note, if we do this, it sort of prevents people from using different file names vs. document tab names].

 

2) That reference lists behave more like User Notes/User Tools - they ask you to save each time, and they are 'remembered' by Accordance.

 

 

Its an interesting thought! It also leads to helping in another way, it enables people to recall reference lists into a workspace, rather than them opening as a new workspace each time.

[Randy Steffens Jr]

I agree Joel & Ken, this would be a nice set of features to implement! And particularly nice would be Joel's point #2!

 

Randy