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Help With Connected Text
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Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Apr 10, 2012 at 11:09 AM
Manfred Kuhn has a few posts about how he uses attributes and properties, especially this one where he writes about trying to get CT to replicate some of the function of the old program Lotus Agenda:
http://takingnotenow.blogspot.com/2011/09/agenda-and-connectedtext-iv.html
I agree that properties and attributes will only serve you if you have a clear idea of what you need in your database. I am building a database of the books published and sold by the nonprofit organization I work for. Attributes are useful for designating the audience, price, product number, and ISBN for each of those books.
Steve
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Apr 10, 2012 at 01:24 PM
And as a quick follow up, I’m not suggesting that ConnectedText is the best choice if you need that kind of “field” data. A real database probably is. But attributes and properties can extend the use of CT in a lot of cases.
Steve Z.
Posted by Dr Andus
Apr 10, 2012 at 01:28 PM
Steve,
thanks for Manfred’s link. I’ve come across it in the past but after reading your post it suddenly makes more sense. I guess the trouble with getting my head around Attributes is that it is such a flexible feature that I need to see some concrete examples before it begins to make sense.
If I were CT’s developer, I’d hire you to write 10 basic tutorials for me like your two blog posts and I’d link them from the CT homepage :) It seems to be a common enough complaint from non-techie, non-programmer humanities-types like me that it is difficult to get an initial understanding of what CT can do and how to get started with it, as the CT help file is just a bit too advanced in its language and explanation. Even though after the initial hurdle CT is surprisingly easy to use even for a beginner (which I still am). Yet I think that a lot of non-programmer, humanities-types would get very excited about CT once they understand it, just like they tend to do when they discover Scrivener.
Posted by Dr Andus
Apr 10, 2012 at 01:36 PM
Dr Andus wrote:
>Steve,
>If I were CT’s developer, I’d hire you to
>write 10 basic tutorials for me like your two blog posts and I’d link them from the CT
>homepage :)
By which I meant to say, you are really good at explaining this sort thing! I really enjoy reading your software reviews.
Posted by Dr Andus
Apr 10, 2012 at 01:52 PM
And just an anecdote to back up my point. A few days ago I emailed a friend of mine (another humanities-type person and a Scrivener user) the link to CT’s home page, recommending it and saying how I switched from Scrivener to CT. His response was: “Blimey, and I thought Scrivener was difficult to figure out…”
I realise that Eduardo’s challenge is to find a balance between showing off the power of CT on the home page, yet at the same time offer an easy way in, so as not to frighten away the non-programming, non-techie types. There is indeed a link to the Welcome project, but I think a more basic set of tutorials is needed still.