I'm not entirely sure that adding a hoist command to Ultra Recall would solve the problem of trees that are hard to navigate, since hoisting geared to focusing the user's attention on a given branch and its subordinates not on reaching deeper levels of hierarchy. I'm sure the hoist command would help, but I'm not sure it's the basic solution.

This is a problem that was predicted by the developer of a competing program, Idea!, who warned that bringing everything into the database could render it unmanageable. Features of Idea! are geared to avoiding the problem. First, records in the database are listed in a separate pane in Idea! If you have five records on average per branch, this reduces tree clutter by a factor of five. Clutter is further reduced by liberally attaching files to records. If for every branch you have an average of three attached files, this further reduces clutter by a factor of 3. A total of 1,500% reduction in branch nodes is not trivial.

But there's a subtler issue that might be more significant. Idea!'s design encourages a more a priori approach to structuring the tree. The result that a user is apt to use considerably more forethought in planning the structure. Ultra Recall, on the other hand, tends to give rise to the profligate creation of branches on an ad hoc basis.

This isn't necessarily a criticism of Ultra Recall per se; more a possible limitation on its use. It may not be the ideal place to organize a large database. I contended months ago that Idea! was more suitable for very large databases. What I didn't quite realize is how soon the Ultra Recall tree would become difficult to manage, even with my more modest data collecting needs.

So, I'm gradually brining my data into Idea!, while at the same time continuing to put it into Ultra Recall. I want to see how the approaches compare concretely. (If anyone knows how to do this expeditiously, I'd like to hear it. I'm just using Clipmate (which incidentally has a new major version).

But Idea! is a considerably harder application to use than Ultra Recall. Seldom do I find anything in Ultra Recall that I even must think about before knowing how to do it.

In Idea! I am unable to figure out how to attach documents other than one by one. There's a basket that's supposed to help, but it is populated only by three files. I don't even know why those particular files are there. I'm almost certain I'm overlooking something. I'd appreciate someone's instruction on how to make the attachment.

Stephen Diamond

In Idea! I am unable to figure out how to attach documents other than one by one. There's a basket that's supposed to help, but it is populated only by three files. I don't even know why those particular files are there. I'm almost certain I'm overlooking something. I'd appreciate someone's instruction on how to make the attachment.

The basket (which is shown after "Attachments" is pressed in the toolbar) has two file lists. The lower list is the "most recently used files" from Windows. The upper list are files that you have collected. To collect any file from a Windows Explorer window, right click on it and choose “IDEA2”.

You actually have two choices for attaching multiple files; if they are all in the same directory, just select them and drag them to the attachment pane (the Upper Right one, not the basket); this will automatically create an attachment row for each file.

The other, when files are located in various folders, is to navigate to their locations and collect them by right-clicking and selecting "IDEA2". When you are done with collecting, go back to IDEA!, check the files you want to attach, click on the database record you want the files to be attached to and press "Imp" in the basket toolbar.

With the second approach you can do all your collection in one go and then distribute the collected files to various database records, since for each record you can check the relevant files.

As you pointed out, IDEA! is more suitable for large databases and this is reflected in its importing tools as well.

alx
















In the upper area of this window the chosen file is marked blue. In the middle, information about the document is shown (if available). In the lower area you can enter a comment for this attachment. The comment you enter here, will later be automatically added as the comment for the file when it is attached to a record via the previously described window with the 2 baskets. This function is available wherever file handling is done under windows. It is very helpful when you want to remember a document, to attach it later to a record but IDEA! is not open at this moment. The moment you work on a document, you normally know very well what it contains and then it is easy to add a short comment.



The marked files are available when you click the "Attachments"-button in the upper left corner of the IDEA! menu bar.




To attach a file, just mark the file by clicking on the check box (multiple choice is possible) and then click on the red arrow with Imp (for Import). The marked files will be attached to the active record. The active record is the currently marked record. If you don¢t know anymore, what one of the files in your basket contained, you can start a file in this box with a double click on it.



Normally the window appears in the middle of the screen. The size and location of the window can be adjusted with the mouse. Your changes will be saved when you leave IDEA!.



related links:

the 4 windows: overview

In Idea! I am unable to figure out how to attach documents other than one by one. There's a basket that's supposed to help, but it is populated only by three files. I don't even know why those particular files are there. I'm almost certain I'm overlooking something. I'd appreciate someone's instruction on how to make the attachment.

The basket (which is shown after "Attachments" is pressed in the toolbar) has two file lists. The lower list is the "most recently used files" from Windows. The upper list are files that you have collected. To collect any file from a Windows Explorer window, right click on it and choose “IDEA2”.

You actually have two choices for attaching multiple files; if they are all in the same directory, just select them and drag them to the attachment pane (the Upper Right one, not the basket); this will automatically create an attachment row for each file.

The other, when files are located in various folders, is to navigate to their locations and collect them by right-clicking and selecting "IDEA2". When you are done with collecting, go back to IDEA!, check the files you want to attach, click on the database record you want the files to be attached to and press "Imp" in the basket toolbar.

With the second approach you can do all your collection in one go and then distribute the collected files to various database records, since for each record you can check the relevant files.

As you pointed out, IDEA! is more suitable for large databases and this is reflected in its importing tools as well.

alx

[The rest of the text appearing in my previous posting was a copy from the IDEA! Help text I used as a reference; apologies for the confusion]

I'm not entirely sure that adding a hoist command to Ultra Recall would solve the problem of trees that are hard to navigate, since hoisting geared to focusing the user's attention on a given branch and its subordinates not on reaching deeper levels of hierarchy. I'm sure the hoist command would help, but I'm not sure it's the basic solution.

I have contended that databases relying primarily on a tree hierarchy to structure information are almost always going to become cluttered to the point of unusability, sooner or later, depending your tolerance for clutter. You are right, Stephen, when you say that hoisting is only a partial solution, or work-around. A better solution, in my mind, for UltraRecall would be to allow multiple databases to be open at the same time and accessible through a tabbed interface, and to include cross-database searching. Hoisting sort of mimics this process -- that is, you can think of a single database as multiple databases, if you can focus in on any one branch at a time.

Zoot, by the way, has virtually the same functionality that you ascribe to Idea! Data items are listed in a separate pane and multiple file links can be applied to any one item (though Zoot, wisely I think, saves screen space by providing the list of links as a drop down from an icon). Zoot is not as nimble at creating hierarchical categories as Idea! appears to be, though you can do so and you can set it up to apply these categories automatically.

Steve Z.