For the next iteration of Accordance?

[Donald Cobb]

Hello all,

 

I love using Accordance. In fact, just in yesterday's NT class, I replaced a PowerPoint presentation I had put together to introduce my students to the N-A²⁸ critical apparatus with Accordance, showing the N-A text in one panel, the apparatus in a parallel panel and, just for comparison, the Tyndall House edition of the GNT in a third one. It's much easier to directing them to the apparatus in the print edition, as you can isolate separate verses, and you can increase the font size with a single click. It worked like a charm.

 

There is one thing that I think could be improved (in addition to, e.g., being able to justify the text or other suggestions already made, and improving the stats chart): Accordance's menus and banner take up a pretty big chunk of real estate on my screen. I've reduced wherever possible (small icons, etc.), but when there are, say, three zones all showing at the same time, there isn't much room left for the actual text, like this:

 

 

In this screen shot, the menus (along with ID) take up more than half the available screen space, reducing each side text to less than two sentences. Obviously far from ideal!

 

So I'm wondering: in the next version of Accordance, would it be possible to collapse the menus into thin, say 5 mm borders, that could then be re-expanded by clicking on a discrete radio button located in a corner of the border or by simply hovering over them? The menus themselves contain important commands and functions—I would hate to see their functionality diminished. But as they are, they detract from the information in the texts, which is, after all, the most important thing.

 

Perhaps there would be other ways of reaching the same goal. But this is an idea that seems to me fairly easy to implement—even more so as I know absolutely absolutely nothing about programming! :-) Perhaps it can at least put some grist in the mill, although I'm sure thought has already gone into the visuals for the next version.

 

Thanks for taking this into consideration and for all you folks do!

 

 

[OSchrock]

I'm always trying to squeeze more space out of my screen as well.

 

You can save a lot of space by going to Preferences>Workspaces and selecting "Hide tab area if only a single tab"

[David Lang]

There are a few things you can do now to save on screen real estate. In the Workspaces settings of the Preferences, you can check "Hide tab area if only a single tab". That would hide all the tabs you have since each zone only has a single tab. If you don't need to search NOAB and the Jewish Annotated NT, you could display those as panes within the left hand zone. Or if you like having them stacked to the right, you could open a second zone containing a search window, display NOAB and Jewish Annotated NT in parallel panes arranged one above the other, then close the pane containing the Bible text.

 

You can also focus on individual zones by magnifying that zone, so even though NOAB and Jewish Annotated NT are tight, when you want to focus on them, just magnify the zone. To focus on the text of a single pane, try selecting Reading Mode from the gear menu. Finally, if you have a workspace with all tabs in a single zone, you can try using the Slide Show to get rid of superfluous interface elements.

 

Hope this helps.

[Tim Hall]

I have 12" MacBook, so screen space is an issue for me too. One thing I have found helpful is to have the Instant Details set to "Show popover on click and hold". What this does is show you the instant details (whatever they are) when you click and hold over a word, note, etc.

 

I have found this incredibly helpful. I will also say tat it would be pretty cool if the toolbar would fade out when not in use.

[Donald Cobb]

There are a few things you can do now to save on screen real estate. In the Workspaces settings of the Preferences, you can check "Hide tab area if only a single tab". That would hide all the tabs you have since each zone only has a single tab. If you don't need to search NOAB and the Jewish Annotated NT, you could display those as panes within the left hand zone. Or if you like having them stacked to the right, you could open a second zone containing a search window, display NOAB and Jewish Annotated NT in parallel panes arranged one above the other, then close the pane containing the Bible text.

 

You can also focus on individual zones by magnifying that zone, so even though NOAB and Jewish Annotated NT are tight, when you want to focus on them, just magnify the zone. To focus on the text of a single pane, try selecting Reading Mode from the gear menu. Finally, if you have a workspace with all tabs in a single zone, you can try using the Slide Show to get rid of superfluous interface elements.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Thank you David, I hadn't tried using the "hide tab area" before. That's helpful. I can't get the slide show to do much however: a popup says it will only work when there is only one zone per workspace—which is ruled out but the setup shown above. Even if I magnify one of those zones to populate the full screen space, it gives me the same message. Perhaps that might be something to look into?

[David Lang]

As I said, Slide Show only works if your workspace has a single zone. Each tab essentially becomes a separate slide. The single zone limitation is an old one that I've long wanted to see changed, but I'm not sure where that is on the list of priorities these days.

 

Interestingly, Slide Show does work with your current configuration if you take that second zone and choose Detach Tab from the Tabs & Zones submenu of the Window menu. That will separate that zone into its own workspace. Now choose Tile Windows from the Arrange submenu of the Window menu to arrange those workspaces side by side. If you choose Slide Show at this point, each workspace will become its own separate "slide". Actually, because these are distinct workspaces, they are each really their own distinct set of slides, and you can't use the arrow buttons to go between them. You CAN, however, use the pop-up menu to switch between them.

 

Alternatively, you could just add NOAB and Jewish Annotated NT as panes in your left-hand zone, get rid of the right-hand zone, and do Slide Show that way.

Edited February 28, 2019 by David Lang

[Jesse Dornfeld]

As I said, Slide Show only works if your workspace has a single zone. Each tab essentially becomes a separate slide. The single zone limitation is an old one that I've long wanted to see changed, but I'm not sure where that is on the list of priorities these days.

 

Interestingly, Slide Show does work with your current configuration if you take that second zone and choose Detach Tab from the Tabs & Zones submenu of the Window menu. That will separate that zone into its own workspace. Now choose Tile Windows from the Arrange submenu of the Window menu to arrange those workspaces side by side. If you choose Slide Show at this point, each workspace will become its own separate "slide". Actually, because these are distinct workspaces, they are each really their own distinct set of slides, and you can't use the arrow buttons to go between them. You CAN, however, use the pop-up menu to switch between them.

 

Alternatively, you could just add NOAB and Jewish Annotated NT as panes in your left-hand zone, get rid of the right-hand zone, and do Slide Show that way.

 

Does the slideshow only work for NOAB and Jewish Annotated NT?

[Mark Allison]

Does the slideshow only work for NOAB and Jewish Annotated NT?

 

 

Slide show works by converting any tabs in your workspace to slides. It will work with any Text or Tool, including the Atlas and Timeline. You access it by going to Window—>Slide Show.

[Donald Cobb]

As I said, Slide Show only works if your workspace has a single zone. Each tab essentially becomes a separate slide. The single zone limitation is an old one that I've long wanted to see changed, but I'm not sure where that is on the list of priorities these days.

 

Interestingly, Slide Show does work with your current configuration if you take that second zone and choose Detach Tab from the Tabs & Zones submenu of the Window menu. That will separate that zone into its own workspace. Now choose Tile Windows from the Arrange submenu of the Window menu to arrange those workspaces side by side. If you choose Slide Show at this point, each workspace will become its own separate "slide". Actually, because these are distinct workspaces, they are each really their own distinct set of slides, and you can't use the arrow buttons to go between them. You CAN, however, use the pop-up menu to switch between them.

 

Alternatively, you could just add NOAB and Jewish Annotated NT as panes in your left-hand zone, get rid of the right-hand zone, and do Slide Show that way.

 

Thank you again, David. As I mentioned, this helps. Several things in the posts on this subject do seem a little like work-arounds. So I wonder if a more standard way of implementing them—e.g., my suggestion—might not be a good feature for Accordance 13... 

[David Lang]

Don't worry, Donald, we're not ignoring your suggestion.   We're just trying to help you find suitable workarounds in the meantime, and introduce you to some features of Accordance you may not have been aware of.

 

This is actually a pretty regular topic of discussion whenever we look for ways to improve the interface. The challenge is always how to save on screen real estate without making the interface unduly cryptic or cumbersome.

Edited March 1, 2019 by David Lang

[Donald Cobb]

Don't worry, Donald, we're not ignoring your suggestion.   We're just trying to help you find suitable workarounds in the meantime, and introduce you to some features of Accordance you may not have been aware of.

 

This is actually a pretty regular topic of discussion whenever we look for ways to improve the interface. The challenge is always how to save on screen real estate without making the interface unduly cryptic or cumbersome.

 

Thanks David. I appreciate the response and the help with the existing features!