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Feature requests/suggestions for the Atlas tool


Christopher Heard

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I use the Accordance Atlas module quite a lot for college teaching purposes, but there is one aspect of it that I find very frustrating: scaling and scrolling. Showing the same region over time in multiple class sessions is made difficult. Also, adding places to the map via search causes the scale to change. For example, suppose I adjust the map so that it’s zoomed in as far as possible while still showing Ur, Haran, and Hebron on the screen. If I then search for Bethel, boom, the map scale changes and now we’re looking at a close-up of Judea and Samaria; even Kinneret is no longer visible, much less Haran and Ur. So … if the following map features exist, I would love to know how to find/use them, and if they do not exist, they would make excellent additions to a module that hasn’t changed much in quite a few years.

  • The ability to set the map scale by direct numerical input (1:2808000 or whatever, in the lower left-hand corner) in addition to the +/– scale buttons.
  • The ability to center the map window on a particular site or latitude/longitude.
  • The ability to “freeze” the map scale and scrolling position, both to prevent accidental changes and to prevent search from “zooming in” on search results.
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  • 1 year later...

Reviving an old thread, but the issues mentioned remained, and I have many more issues...

I've just spent a frustrating hour trying to use the Atlas module to lay out a planned trip to Turkey that will visit sites of Paul and Revelation.

First, some issues with the map itself (just looking at Asia Minor/Turkey)

  • Atlas navigation (afaik, these are issues I faced. If someone knows how to deal with them that I'm missing, let me know.)
    • Yes, using kilometers is standard, but I find no way to use miles or add miles as a scale tool
    • There is no way to measure distances. (Like in Google Maps where you can right click to bring up a measurement tool)
    • Using a wheel mouse, the wheel can only scroll the map up/down. I can use CTRL left-click hold to move the map around. What I want, though, is to be resize the map using the wheel. (Again, everyone is familiar with how Google Maps works.) At least make a CTRL or ALT wheel to resize map. I can 'draw' a box and double-click to zoom in, but there is no way to zoom out except to click on those tiny plus and minus in the lower right.
    • There are some excellent ready-made maps, but it's a long list, and you can't use the wheel to scroll down through it. If you know the first letter you can type that repeatedly until you get to the map you want, but otherwise you have to click on that tiny arrow at the lower left of the dropdown and hope you don't accidentally slip and open a map you didn't want.
  • Mislocated sites
    • Hierapolis is located 20 km east of Laodicea instead of 10km north.
    • Philadelphia should be closer to Sardis than Laodicea
    • Aphrodisias is on the north side of a mountain ridge instead of the south side
    • Miletus is at least 8km too far south
    • Assos is about 25km too far east
    • (Alexandria) Troas: This is a major blunder repeated by other atlases. The site located as Troas on the map is actually ancient Troy. Alexandria Troas where Paul had the vision of the Macedonian man is 30km south.
    • Using the "Roman Roads with Site" (or without): None of the likely options of how Paul got from Perga to Pisidian Antioch are indicated. The Via Sebaste, the main Roman road, is not shown at all, nor is the central route leading north from Perga.
    • There is no road shown from Pisidian Antioch to Iconium where Paul went, and it was part of the ancient Roman Southe Road
    • On Paul's 3rd missionary journey, the incorrect location of Hierapolis throws things off as he traveled from Pisidian Antioch to Ephesus.
    • With seven letters of Revelation, it's important to see how they order according to a circular route. On the atlas now, there is no good way to get from Philadelphia to Laodicea. (Blame Hierapolis again.)

I know, perhaps I'm being way too precise, but I really can't use the Atlas to try to show the routes, sites, and features that I'd like to do, and I'm not seeing an easy way to edit or modify the maps.

Edited by mgvh
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Reviving an old thread, but the issues mentioned remained, and I have many more issues...

I've just spent a frustrating hour trying to use the Atlas module to lay out a planned trip to Turkey that will visit sites of Paul and Revelation.

First, some issues with the map itself (just looking at Asia Minor/Turkey)

  • Atlas navigation (afaik, these are issues I faced. If someone knows how to deal with them that I'm missing, let me know.)
    • Yes, using kilometers is standard, but I find no way to use miles or add miles as a scale tool
    • There is no way to measure distances. (Like in Google Maps where you can right click to bring up a measurement tool)
    • Using a wheel mouse, the wheel can only scroll the map up/down. I can use CTRL left-click hold to move the map around. What I want, though, is to be resize the map using the wheel. (Again, everyone is familiar with how Google Maps works.) At least make a CTRL or ALT wheel to resize map. I can 'draw' a box and double-click to zoom in, but there is no way to zoom out except to click on those tiny plus and minus in the lower right.
    • There are some excellent ready-made maps, but it's a long list, and you can't use the wheel to scroll down through it. If you know the first letter you can type that repeatedly until you get to the map you want, but otherwise you have to click on that tiny arrow at the lower left of the dropdown and hope you don't accidentally slip and open a map you didn't want.
  • Mislocated sites
    • Hierapolis is located 20 km east of Laodicea instead of 10km north.
    • Philadelphia should be closer to Sardis than Laodicea
    • Aphrodisias is on the north side of a mountain ridge instead of the south side
    • Miletus is at least 8km too far south
    • Assos is about 25km too far east
    • (Alexandria) Troas: This is a major blunder repeated by other atlases. The site located as Troas on the map is actually ancient Troy. Alexandria Troas where Paul had the vision of the Macedonian man is 30km south.
    • Using the "Roman Roads with Site" (or without): None of the likely options of how Paul got from Perga to Pisidian Antioch are indicated. The Via Sebaste, the main Roman road, is not shown at all, nor is the central route leading north from Perga.
    • There is no road shown from Pisidian Antioch to Iconium where Paul went, and it was part of the ancient Roman Southe Road
    • On Paul's 3rd missionary journey, the incorrect location of Hierapolis throws things off as he traveled from Pisidian Antioch to Ephesus.
    • With seven letters of Revelation, it's important to see how they order according to a circular route. On the atlas now, there is no good way to get from Philadelphia to Laodicea. (Blame Hierapolis again.)

I know, perhaps I'm being way too precise, but I really can't use the Atlas to try to show the routes, sites, and features that I'd like to do, and I'm not seeing an easy way to edit or modify the maps.

+ the alternative way of Exodus through the red sea. 

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These are all great suggestions. I just wanted to chime in on a couple of issues that may prove helpful in the meantime.

 

  • Yes, using kilometers is standard, but I find no way to use miles or add miles as a scale tool
  • There is no way to measure distances. (Like in Google Maps where you can right click to bring up a measurement tool)

 

If you hold down the option key (on Mac) while clicking at different points (e.g., to follow a route) the distance appears in both km and mi. I know that doesn't address most of what you mentioned, but hope that it's helpful!

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Mark, thanks for the feedback.  Darryl is correct, you can measure distances using the Option (Alt on windows) key.  You can also zoom using either a pinch gesture on a trackpad, or Ctrl hotkeys.

 

The menu interface is an unfortunate side-effect of the system that would require some major work to replace.  However, you can edit that list, customizing, adjusting, adding your own, or removing unwanted ones.

 

Finally, you can add your own sites, regions, roads, etc, by editing your own User Layer.

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Mark, thanks for the feedback.  Darryl is correct, you can measure distances using the Option (Alt on windows) key.  You can also zoom using either a pinch gesture on a trackpad, or Ctrl hotkeys.

 

The menu interface is an unfortunate side-effect of the system that would require some major work to replace.  However, you can edit that list, customizing, adjusting, adding your own, or removing unwanted ones.

 

Finally, you can add your own sites, regions, roads, etc, by editing your own User Layer.

Thanks for the ALT click for distances tip.

I found the CTRL and + or - keys for zooming (but you can't use the +- on the numeric keypad)

I don't have time to get into it now, but I'm not finding much in the Help system to show how to edit anything. E.g., I don't see how one can 'move' Hierapolis to its correct location by right-clicking or changing it coordinates. I can define a new user layer or route, but I can't find how to change site coordinates.

Thanks.

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You can't edit a site exactly, but you can add your own site visually, or a correction, by drawing the appropriate marker and name in the desired location.

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  • 2 months later...

Hello to all!

 

Maybe my question was already answered or it is implemented already in Accordance:

 

do we have actually a possibility to edit / change the names of sites from English into e.g. Polish?

 

If not, I would like to ask for this possibility.

 

Greetings to all

 

Roman

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  • 1 year later...
On 6/10/2020 at 3:42 PM, mgvh said:

Reviving an old thread, but the issues mentioned remained, and I have many more issues...

I've just spent a frustrating hour trying to use the Atlas module to lay out a planned trip to Turkey that will visit sites of Paul and Revelation.

First, some issues with the map itself (just looking at Asia Minor/Turkey)

  • Atlas navigation (afaik, these are issues I faced. If someone knows how to deal with them that I'm missing, let me know.)
    • Yes, using kilometers is standard, but I find no way to use miles or add miles as a scale tool
    • There is no way to measure distances. (Like in Google Maps where you can right click to bring up a measurement tool)
    • Using a wheel mouse, the wheel can only scroll the map up/down. I can use CTRL left-click hold to move the map around. What I want, though, is to be resize the map using the wheel. (Again, everyone is familiar with how Google Maps works.) At least make a CTRL or ALT wheel to resize map. I can 'draw' a box and double-click to zoom in, but there is no way to zoom out except to click on those tiny plus and minus in the lower right.
    • There are some excellent ready-made maps, but it's a long list, and you can't use the wheel to scroll down through it. If you know the first letter you can type that repeatedly until you get to the map you want, but otherwise you have to click on that tiny arrow at the lower left of the dropdown and hope you don't accidentally slip and open a map you didn't want.
  • Mislocated sites
    • Hierapolis is located 20 km east of Laodicea instead of 10km north.
    • Philadelphia should be closer to Sardis than Laodicea
    • Aphrodisias is on the north side of a mountain ridge instead of the south side
    • Miletus is at least 8km too far south
    • Assos is about 25km too far east
    • (Alexandria) Troas: This is a major blunder repeated by other atlases. The site located as Troas on the map is actually ancient Troy. Alexandria Troas where Paul had the vision of the Macedonian man is 30km south.
    • Using the "Roman Roads with Site" (or without): None of the likely options of how Paul got from Perga to Pisidian Antioch are indicated. The Via Sebaste, the main Roman road, is not shown at all, nor is the central route leading north from Perga.
    • There is no road shown from Pisidian Antioch to Iconium where Paul went, and it was part of the ancient Roman Southe Road
    • On Paul's 3rd missionary journey, the incorrect location of Hierapolis throws things off as he traveled from Pisidian Antioch to Ephesus.
    • With seven letters of Revelation, it's important to see how they order according to a circular route. On the atlas now, there is no good way to get from Philadelphia to Laodicea. (Blame Hierapolis again.)

I know, perhaps I'm being way too precise, but I really can't use the Atlas to try to show the routes, sites, and features that I'd like to do, and I'm not seeing an easy way to edit or modify the maps.

Are any of the above errors in the Atlas going to be fixed? Hierapolis is still way out of place as of the current edition. Pretty disappointing for the flagship Atlas on Accordance!

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