View Options and other stuff

[iteachnology]

I have downloaded the trial versions of Bookpedia, DVDpedia CDpedia, with the intention of purchasing all program specifically because I want a record of all my books on my iPhone. Using Google Spreadsheets has become a nightmare, although I can now edit those spreadsheets. I have read that there might be a 2-way syncing between the Book/DVD/CDpediae and Pocketpedia?

Anyway...I am very excited about Bookpedia (and DVD/CDpedia), yet I'm having an issue... I am attempting to change the view options to meet my requirements and those changes are not occurring. Am I wrong in assuming that the view options customize the information displayed by the info button?

Although I do have a MacBook and a PC laptop, do prefer the PC...so if Bruji ever thinks about creating programs for the PC...I'll be your first customer!

Just curious if there might be a software pedia in the works? Being a computer science teacher, I download and test a lot of software...just a thought.

Thanks!

joy...suzanne

[Conor]

There are so many views that finding all the preference take a few minutes with the programs. The "view options" are for the table columns that are displayed. This same information can be customized from the contextual menu by ctrl-clicking on the column headers. For the info view you will find those preferences in the preference window under the Bookpedia main menu (command-,). Select the fields tab and then change the pop-up button from "Add Edit Panel" to "Info view". The info view is also HTML based and can be customized. Over the years we have included a few styles that our customers have created with the program and you can view those styles under the styles tab (ctrl-clicking on the info view gives you access to setting these styles as well). Some extras styles that are not included with the program can be found on our extras page. For example the Leo Tab has some great buttons that lead to specific searches on YouTube and Google based on the title, allowing you to dig deeper into your movies directly from DVDpedia.

I have read that there might be a 2-way syncing between the Book/DVD/CDpediae and Pocketpedia?

We are working on that but it something we want to get exactly right and that takes a bit of time.

f Bruji ever thinks about creating programs for the PC...I'll be your first customer!

Thank you for the vote of confidence, but we have no plans to start working in the Windows world.

Just curious if there might be a software pedia in the works?

It's a program idea we have explored and could build in the future, but at the moment we are focusing on refining every detail of our programs so that when we do branch out new program will be the top of their class.

Hope to have you as a Pedia user in the future even if your main machine is a Windows machine.

[kbarnes70]

Hope to have you as a Pedia user in the future even if your main machine is a Windows machine.

I can't resist a at that!

Regards, Keith

[sjk]

…, but we have no plans to start working in the Windows world.

Thank goodness!

[iteachnology]

Thanks for the directions. I bit the bullet and bought Bookpedia, and now I'll spend the day playing!!!

One suggestion I have right off (or maybe I just haven't found it out how to do it yet?)...instead of having to go into the edit book screen every time I want to add a note or comment, is there a way to add/change within the info area? Like if I command+click on a field I could then edit said field? Oops, but then empty fields would need to be visible and they aren't, are they? Any work arounds?

Thanks for making such a great product!!

Awww, my poor pc is giving me very sad looks...

joy...suzanne

[Conor]

Hi Suzanne,

The info view is not editable but if your displaying the column for a field then you can edit directly in the table view without using the edit window. For example select "View Options..." from under the view main menu and check the comments column. Then a single click near the beginning of the column will start the edit (you might need a previous click if the row is not yet selected, but should be as it's the one in being displayed).

[sjk]

Then a single click near the beginning of the column will start the edit

With the keyboard Tab (and Option-Tab, at least) also activates field editing; is that intended? The DEVONtechnologies folks considered it a bug in DEVONthink and changed its behavior. In DVDpedia I still haven't learned to stop mistakenly tapping Tab in the wrong context, expecting it to keep rotating focus but end up activating editing instead. Also, is there a keyboard method to cancel out of that and other field editing? Escape and Command-. don't work so I've been clicking on some non-active part of the UI but it's clumsy.

Thanks for any feedback about that.

[Alex]

With the keyboard Tab (and Option-Tab, at least) also activates field editing; is that intended?

Yes, it is intended, it's how most databases work. Any editable field will cycle with tab. To get out of the editing mode cycling with tab will do it once it reaches the end of editable fields. Clicking elsewhere on a different field will also do it.

[Conor]

We will report the ESC key not canceling editing to Apple as I would also assume this is how it should work. In the table view we do not handle any of this ourselves it's the standard table that Apple provides to developers that we work with.

[sjk]

Yes, it is intended, it's how most databases work. Any editable field will cycle with tab.

I'm not familiar with most databases but using Tab (plus any modifier key variants) to enter editable fields bothers me.

To get out of the editing mode cycling with tab will do it once it reaches the end of editable fields.

True, and I can see intention behind making Tab exit and enter editable fields.

Clicking elsewhere on a different field will also do it.

I'd prefer using a mouseless method for canceling, e.g. by fixing this problem:

We will report the ESC key not canceling editing to Apple as I would also assume this is how it should work.

Thanks. That would make the Tab behavior more tolerable.

In the table view we do not handle any of this ourselves it's the standard table that Apple provides to developers that we work with.

That what I thought when Tab began interacting differently with field editing in several apps. And previously Return would initiate editing and Escape would cancel; now neither work that way. I first noticed the change while editing Safari bookmarks, then in DEVONthink Pro, and in other apps I can't remember offhand. It was finally DVDpedia that made me question it most seriously.

It's arguable that it used to be incorrect and now it's been "fixed", but any sudden switch of input mode behavior without warning after being familiar with a certain usage style for a long time is disconcerting. It demands figuring out the differences and readjusting to them, which I can do. Still, I didn't appreciate this surprise.

So, thanks for helping my better understand how this change is Apple fault and that developers/users can be "victims" of it.

[Conor]

A lot of developers were caught of guard by the switch in Leopard and Apple has been refining it ever since with the 10.5.x upgrades. When Leopard first shipped there was a lot of surprise by users who thought the change was done by us. The most common confusion was it used to be double click to edit, but now it is a single click on a text on a highlighted row, but because the system has to wait to make sure it's not a double click the editing is not immediate and it feels like the computer did not capture your click. iTunes had actually been employing this sort of editing in Tiger and it's where the change came from. Another useful feature of the table in Tiger was enter took you to the next row for editing instead of end editing (speaking of which use 'enter' to end editing). We actually re-implemented this feature in our links and credits table as it makes editing there much easier. However, in general we try not to change the behavior so that tables can work consistently in all programs. It might not be the way we would choose to do it, but at least it's standard and that why we must move these things up the chain to Apple to decide on what is the best way. I like you enjoyed that tab went from the main focus areas in the program (collections, table, search field) without entering the table editing. For that reason there is a command-option-f shortcut to the search field, so that I can still use the keyboard to cycle between these views (it was after implementing that shortcut that I realized that backward cycling with shift-tab still worked, but it's never bad to have more ways that one to achieve a goal so I left the shortcut in).