Lucas wrote:

While we're on the subject of Ecco Pro and IQ (hope I'm not taking the
thread too far astray)...

(...) But the one thing I still can't get over in the
transition from Ecco Pro to IQ is the loss of hierarchical folders.
Grids basically take the place of folders, and grids offer all kinds of
additional functionality that folders do not, but, at least last time I
checked, grids can't be organized hierarchically. That becomes a
deal-breaker for me. I suppose this is a question to raise on the IQ
forums, but I'm curious if any of you Ecco Pro users who now use IQ have
found a good way to deal with this issue. Is it practical to have
hundreds grids (as I used to have hundreds of folders in Ecco Pro), even
if the grids can't be arranged hierarchically? Or is there a better way
to approach this?

Perhaps this would best be discussed on the IQ forum... but for the record:
- IQ's Grids are like EccoPro's notepads. Ecco limits you to 16 notepads IIRC, IQ does not pose any limit to the number of grids.
- IQ's Fields are like EccoPro's folders (true, with some additional functionality).
- IQ's Properties pane is like EccoPro's folder pane
- Fields can be arranged in a hierarchy in the Properties pane. Click on the icon to the right of the "All Fields" heading to toggle flat view or tree view

HTH !

Pierre
IQ Designer

Thanks, Pierre. I had never thought about it that way. I will have another look now and follow up on the IQ forums.

jimspoon wrote:

It's not hard to use IQ pretty much like you use Ecco. A lot of the
terminology is different though. I even like to put the IQ "properties"
pane on the left side of the IQ window, where it provides the function
of the Ecco "folders" pane, and much more. The IQ "grids" are quite
similar to the Ecco "notepad views". A lot of the Ecco keyboard
shortcuts also work in IQ. Ctrl+F will bring up a find window in IQ as
it does in Ecco. Double-clicking a folder in the Properties pane will
display its contents in a Scratch grid, just like double-clicking a
folder in Ecco. And so on.

That's very helpful. Let us know if you have any other tips to transition from Ecco Pro to IQ. What I'm reading here is motivating me to make a more serious effort.

Wayne

Pierre Paul Landry wrote:

- IQ's Grids are like EccoPro's notepads. Ecco limits you to 16 notepads
IIRC, IQ does not pose any limit to the number of grids.
Pierre
IQ Designer

Hi Pierre:

I don't think this is correct. I have over 16 notepads displayed in one Ecco database right now. Not sure what the limits are for notepads in Ecco, but it has got to be greater than 16.

Jon

Hi Jon,

My mistake... 27 is the correct number.

http://www.compusol.org/ecco/memlimits.html

Pierre

Thank you. I assumed there are limits but I did not know what they were. The problem with Ecco is that these limits are not always fixed because some limits effect others. Consequently it is possible to encounter a problem while being way under some threshold. Very unnerving. IQ eliminates these concerns.

For those who are enamored with this genre of outliner, I recommend trying IQ. It can be as complicated as you need or as simple as you like. It has become as indispensable for me as Ecco Pro has been. Still some rough edges, but very stable and increasingly refined.

Jon