Jump to content

Wishlist on Accordance 9


Kit

Recommended Posts

Hi, Users,

What features or functions do you want most in the upcoming Accordance?

 

Here is my list:

1. Table feature in the User Tool

2. a function of inserting images in the User Tool

3. can view Asian Language

4, enhance the bookmark feature so that I can save, categorize and organize these bookmarks.

5. The colour in the Timeline can be customized

6. enhance the user interface to be even more mac-like.

and more

 

I really appreciate the Accordance Team for such a nice software.

Kit

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I concur with the first of the requests. I have wanted a table ability in user tools and notes for a long time.

 

I'd like to add one to the list though. Could we put in a filter to find and root out improper spelling of words like "Saviour" and "colour"? Ok, that was just a bad joke, not a request. (-:

 

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I cant comment much as im very new, I guess the only thing I can think of is appearence, giving it a new sheen would be cool as has been done with other softwares. However I think this would probably make more sense with Accordance X.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, Users,

What features or functions do you want most in the upcoming Accordance?

 

Here is my list:

1. Table feature in the User Tool

2. a function of inserting images in the User Tool

...

I love your top two! I would extend that to being able to import tables and images as well.

 

To add to your list, I would add tool links that hide the formatted link and just show the text. For example show:

the Greek for Urge alludes...

instead of:

[bDAG, Greek Entry, martu/romai]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If were adding some items to Accordance, I would make it easier to use Accordance for daily readings. It would be helpful to have preset toos, and just hit a "Daily" button and get it to open to today's devotional thoughts, appropriate scriptures, etc.

 

Maybe this is already a feature that I've not found yet, but I don't like having to find the reading for the day in the browser. Seems easy to automate that using system time.

 

Just a thought.

 

Also I like the new feature from the 'other guys' that will incorporate appropriate sermons from SermonAudio.com into the search results. That's handy.

 

One last thing, I'd give the UI a refresh. Something that feels more 2010, less 2000. Just thinking out loud.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, Users,

What features or functions do you want most in the upcoming Accordance?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First, Better content/library management features. I tend to forget I even own certain modules... Maybe better categorization of tools would help me to remember that I've got access to certain study tools and aids? Second, better/updated UI. I really like how fast Accordance is and the tab metaphor works well enough but having all the floating palettes is a chore to maintain and visually busy... I'd much rather see a one window layout mode that contains all the palettes as doc-able, rearrangeable widgets. Much like many Adobe products (but with your good coding practices and not Adobe's nasty UI bugs!). If this is not an option how about a "snap to fit" type option where the palettes can snap to one another's edges and fill the available display area. My biggest concern is the distraction of being able to see the desktop between all the palettes and the visual distraction they present when open on screen. Third, this is more of a pet peeve of mine and probably not a big change, but when I click on the general tools or english texts or any of the main content or tools icons I don't expect the application to launch my last used resource... I'm constantly opening new resources and this assumption to open the last used resource is frustrating. Mostly I would like to see the list of modules/texts to be displayed on-click. Currently I have to click and hold (while remembering not to drag off of the menus), or control click to get what I have become accustomed to as the standard apple menu user experience. I would much rather these tools interact like the standard apple menu options than in this fashion. I know that I can have the library palette opened and sort that way but for me that's another palette on my laptop and another visual distraction from the text that I'm studying.

 

Those are my big three. The accordance engine itself is fantastic. But the UI is conceptually and in too many places visually dated. The current palette mechanism is cluttered, difficult to maintain and visually distracting. Many times these things are frustrating in daily use.

 

Thanks so much for asking, and thanks for Accordance. God bless!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here are mine in decreasing order of importance:

 

1. iPhone application so that one can reuse Accordance modules on the iPhone.

 

2. This fits with 1. Use MobileMe (or something else) and provide a sync framework that syncs multiple Macs' Accordance settings (and maybe even modules)... plus sync with the iPhone app. Logos just added something like this and I think it would be very handy.

 

3. Cross-referencing of modules -- it'd be nice to see which commentaries, lexicons, maps, works of theology, etc. have references to a given passage while viewing the passage. I believe BibleWorks does something like this.

 

4. Overhauled search tools and engine. I can do a full text search of my computer faster than I can search a handful of Accordance modules. I'd love to see real-time updating to the search too, just as in Spotlight, Mail, iTunes, etc., where the results are updated as I search. In the Google-era, I should never have time to go change the laundry when doing a basic keyword search through a few gigabytes of data.

 

5. Bring the UI closer to the Mac's HIG. While the UI works well, there are places that Accordance seems to vary with more standard Mac interfaces for reasons I suspect are more related to history than any particular present day advantage. The UI is good, but some tweaks would -- I think -- lower the amount of folks that suggest the interface looks dated.

 

I'm a happy Accordance user, so please don't take these as indicating otherwise. I'd just be even happier with these changes, especially 1-4.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It seems that most users want to have a refreshed UI in the upcoming version.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've mentioned this before and I believe it may already be in the work. Not only an improvement on how to organize your library (I too forget I have things) but the modules themselves need to be better named, IMO. AND FURTHER, some description or indication of contents in the library window. Sometimes I forget where to look when looking for certain things (where do I find 1 clement? Which module is the Prayer of Azariah in?).

 

I've mentioned this before as well

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I echo what danzac says about UI and user tools/notes improvements. The latter can be done by moving to Os X's text processing engine. The developer tools come with an example TextEdit project which looks like the full source code for TextEdit. The downside is that Os X's text engine does not handle tables well. and provides very basic functionality.

 

As to UI improvements, that will require porting Accordance to cocoa from carbon. I was looking through interface builder to see what was available in Carbon that would improve the UI, but most of the nicer/newer gui elements are Cocoa apis. these include the finder l/itunes like sidebar (which would be great for the contents lists of modules), metal buttons like the ones in Finder's toolbar, just to name a couple. This move would open up some doors to some cool stuff that Accordance could make use of, but I am sure it would take a ton of re-writing. I am not sure how tied to carbon the underlying accordance mechanisms (such as searching, module file decoding, etc), but I would assume most every piece of functionality would have to be ported or completely re-written. Apple just recoded Finder to Cocoa, which should help us to see that it might not be so easy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This issue of carbon vs. cocoa has come up before. A move to cocoa would pretty much stall enhancement for a few years by the sounds of it, and would eliminate backwards compatibility as well as the pc emulator users.

 

Your comment about the Finder is an interesting one, because I don't really notice much of a difference between the SL finder and the old Finder. So the sidebar, etc., wasn't cocoa specific.

 

In the back of my mind I worry that a decade from now carbon will no longer be supported by Mac OS, with the Finder change being a sign of things to come. I don't know a lot about coding though, so I'll put my faith in Roy and his team to make the decisions.

 

I will say that I use a lot of apps and play with a lot apps, and I can usually see and feel a difference between carbon and cocoa apps. I'm an Accordance loyalist, but it does feel carbon-like.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

3. Cross-referencing of modules -- it'd be nice to see which commentaries, lexicons, maps, works of theology, etc. have references to a given passage while viewing the passage. I believe BibleWorks does something like this.

 

 

5. Bring the UI closer to the Mac's HIG. While the UI works well, there are places that Accordance seems to vary with more standard Mac interfaces for reasons I suspect are more related to history than any particular present day advantage. The UI is good, but some tweaks would -- I think -- lower the amount of folks that suggest the interface looks dated.

 

 

These are both top on my list. Particularly your first suggestion. I would LOVE TO HAVE THIS FEATURE!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On top of the ease of use, I think the UI enhancements, cross-referencing modules more visibly, and a more robust daily reading function would all get more of spending more time using Accordance. It could go from an incredibly powerful search tool, to a regular part of an average user's day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Smaller icons on the resource palette. I have a 13" screen, so screen real estate is very valuable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I'd like to be able to see Asian fonts in Accordance too -- specifically, I'd like to be able to access Chinese language Bibles.

 

Also, I'd like to be able to view all the items listed in the browser with one option-click, rather than have to click each small triangle to see what's under a subheading.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have three browsers: in the Tool, the Library and the Search All windows. Option-click opens all levels in the Library, but in the Tool it drills down to the exact article you are viewing. Since the tool may have many many levels, opening them all at once is likely to be overwhelming.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have three browsers: in the Tool, the Library and the Search All windows. Option-click opens all levels in the Library, but in the Tool it drills down to the exact article you are viewing. Since the tool may have many many levels, opening them all at once is likely to be overwhelming.

 

Hi Helen, I was referring to the Tool browser. Is there then any way to see a listing of all the contents of a tool? Kind of like a contents page? That's my main reason for wanting to see all the levels of a tool at once -- to have an overview of its contents. Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, because on multi level tools like Hermeneia or WBC the list could be extremely long.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Starting with the rabbinic texts, I would like to see the Bar Illan University Responsa in Accordance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am eagerly awaiting syntactical search capabilities. That will ramp up an already powerful exegetical tool.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I type in a list of verses in the search entry window, the results are in the order I entered and not in canonical order. However, when I add these verses to a new reference list, they are resorted in canonical order. Unless I have missed something in the manual, this is the only choice. A helpful feature might be a choice to select the order of the verses in the reference list. As a work-around, I send myself an email with the verse list or save them in a document to cut and paste later.

 

Tom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like the suggestions of everyone above, especially the user interface improvements. Here are a couple more things I thought about as I read the suggestions of others.

 

1. In my Josephus module (and some other texts/tools such as Eusebius, Apostolic Fathers, and Pseudepigrapha), occasionally I find a misspelling of a word. It would be nice to be able to correct that misspelling so that the next time I search for that word, it will find it. If there is no way for us to correct the text, the next best thing would be for you to provide an easier/faster way to notify the folks at Accordance so that they can correct that spelling for the next update of the Text/Tool.

 

2. Is there any chance you might incorporate Josephus' Discourse on Hades into the main body of his complete works module, and provide the tagged Greek text to go along with it? That would be a lot better than the separate English-only version of it that I have now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. In my Josephus module (and some other texts/tools such as Eusebius, Apostolic Fathers, and Pseudepigrapha), occasionally I find a misspelling of a word. It would be nice to be able to correct that misspelling so that the next time I search for that word, it will find it. If there is no way for us to correct the text, the next best thing would be for you to provide an easier/faster way to notify the folks at Accordance so that they can correct that spelling for the next update of the Text/Tool.

 

Hi, Edward!

 

Unfortunately, changing the spelling of the word in your text, even were it possible, would make no different in outcome of the search. Our texts are pre-indexed before being released in order to make rapid searches possible. It's the index itself that would need changed

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2. Is there any chance you might incorporate Josephus' Discourse on Hades into the main body of his complete works module, and provide the tagged Greek text to go along with it? That would be a lot better than the separate English-only version of it that I have now.

 

According to Wikipedia, this was probably written by Hippolytus and is almost identical to the section: Against Plato, on the Cause of the Universe. which can be found in English in the Church Fathers CF-AN module. I don't think we can provide a tagged Greek text of this any time soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...