Flags

[Daly de Gagne]

I have tried to find if I can assign a name to a flag other than simply the colour of the flag, ie. green flags are items requiring further reading; red flags relate to a specific client, etc.

Is it possible yet to assign meanings to flag?

Thanks.

Daly

[janrif]

Originally posted by Daly de Gagne
I have tried to find if I can assign a name to a flag other than simply the colour of the flag, ie. green flags are items requiring further reading; red flags relate to a specific client, etc. Is it possible yet to assign meanings to flag? Yes. Look in Tools | attributes | flags | properties

[Daly de Gagne]

Jan, thanks.

I have tried that but have a problem.

I set an attribute for red flag and press ok.

The I go into properties again and want to set an attribute for blue flag, but as soon as I change the attribute it now applies to all the other colours.

The help file talks about a flag toolbar that one can expose by ripping it away from something else.

Unfortunately, it is not illustrated, at least not in the part of the help file dealing with flags, so I have spend 20 minutes looking for the flag toolbar (I have also looked under toolbars).

This is the part of software I find crazy making -- help files need to be more helpful, or else change the name of them.

Daly
Cranky at midnight

[Daly de Gagne]

Here, for example, is help-file speak that is meaningless to me:

"Create the Flag toolbar by tearing off (dragging the top part of) the Flag drop-down item of the Item menu."

In plain language, what the hell does this mean?

I can't find a flag-drop down item. I can't find a diagram in the help file of a tool bar that shows me where I might look for it.

I am sure the answer is simple -- just not simple enough for me, and if it is not simple enough for me I wonder how many other people aren't getting it either?

Daly

QUOTE]Originally posted by Daly de Gagne
Jan, thanks.

I have tried that but have a problem.

I set an attribute for red flag and press ok.

The I go into properties again and want to set an attribute for blue flag, but as soon as I change the attribute it now applies to all the other colours.

The help file talks about a flag toolbar that one can expose by ripping it away from something else.

Unfortunately, it is not illustrated, at least not in the part of the help file dealing with flags, so I have spend 20 minutes looking for the flag toolbar (I have also looked under toolbars).

This is the part of software I find crazy making -- help files need to be more helpful, or else change the name of them.

Daly
Cranky at midnight [/QUOTE]

[Daly de Gagne]

While I am doing my late night rant, here's a phrase that is crazy making if you don't know what each word means:

" Flag: the user can change this value, but the attribute itself can't be modified or deleted. "

In plain language this says what exactly?

For those of us who use computers as a means rather than an end, this kind of thing is not plain language.

Daly

[janrif]

Originally posted by Daly de Gagne
Here, for example, is help-file speak that is meaningless to me: [/snip] Cranky, I agree & mentioned this a while back. The problem is the info is all there; help is very comprehensive but sometimes it's hard to find what you're looking for & the descriptions assume you understand UR lingo. Ultimately that's not much help, There are flash demos for some functions that are quite useful, more under construction.

When you name the flag, put a dash, brackets or whatever you want after the color & add your descriptive label. Then click ok. The next time you look at the flag list you should see the label next to the color.

Flags are part of the "system" attribute group, i.e. permanent attributes that cannot be deleted. However, in the case of flags, the values, i.e. what they stand for can be altered as described earlier.

Ripping off a toolbar: On the main menu, if you click Tools | Customize, you will see that all menus, etc can be customized. Also all mini toolbars, i.e. web, format, search, etc can be moved around, removed or altered by removing buttons you aren't going to use. Put your cursor on the grab bar (small line at head of each mini-toobar) & drag around or off the toolbar lines.

It seems the entire GUI can be customized to your liking. And different views can be set under View | Layouts so you can jump from layout to layout.

Daly, this is the kind of program you will have to invest some time in to use. If you don't have the time, that's one thing but it you do, I think you will find it's quite well designed.

Could it be explained easier? Sure. But I think the Kinook folk are trying to do that with their demos, etc. & they are very responsive to questions. HTH

[kinook]

Originally posted by Daly de Gagne
I set an attribute for red flag and press ok.

The I go into properties again and want to set an attribute for blue flag, but as soon as I change the attribute it now applies to all the other colours.
By 'set an attribute,' do you mean that you are entering a single value in the List Values field of the Attribute Properties dialog for the Flag attribute? You need to add one line in that field for each flag value (replace each existing line with the desired text or add lines as needed). The default list values are

Red
Green
Blue
Yellow
Orange
Purple
Completed

To change the flags' text, edit this field as desired, i.e.:

Roy
George
Bullet
Yes
Ox
Pencil
Done

If that doesn't help, please describe what you're doing in more detail.

The help file talks about a flag toolbar that one can expose by ripping it away from something else.
1) Right-click an item in the Tree
2) Click on (or hover over) Flag
3) Drag the dotted upper border above None and drop somewhere to create the Flag toolbar

[kinook]

Originally posted by Daly de Gagne
" Flag: the user can change this value, but the attribute itself can't be modified or deleted. "

In plain language this says what exactly?
An item's Flag attribute value can be changed, but the Flag attribute cannot be deleted from an item (the 'modified' part is a bit ambiguous with v3: you can actually change the category and text of the Flag attribute in Attribute Properties, but you can't change any other properties [name, type, etc.]).

[Daly de Gagne]

Originally posted by kinook
An item's Flag attribute value can be changed, but the Flag attribute cannot be deleted from an item (the 'modified' part is a bit ambiguous with v3: you can actually change the category and text of the Flag attribute in Attribute Properties, but you can't change any other properties [name, type, etc.]).

Thanks, but the question is more basic.

what is an attribute, and what is an attribute value?

Many of us think we know what those terms mean, but do not, especially when they appear together in the same sentence.

Thanks.

Daly

[ashwken]

Daly,

If you do a Ctrl-4 (same as View | Other Windows | Item Attributes) this will reveal the Item Attributes Pane, which contains two columns - Attribute and Value.

Another way to look at these terms is:

Attribute = Field Name
Value = Field Value

I'm trying to stay on topic with this response, but would be willing to discuss creation of user-defined Attributes if it would help.

Later,
KenA

[kinook]

Originally posted by Daly de Gagne
Thanks, but the question is more basic.

what is an attribute, and what is an attribute value?
An attribute defines the properties (name, category, type, etc.) of a piece of information in a UR item. Attributes are displayed at Tools | Attributes, and their properties are displayed and edited at Tools | Attributes | Properties. For instance, the Date Created attribute is named 'Date Created', its type is Date+Time, category is System, etc.

An attribute value is a specific occurrence of an attribute, with some value, for a particular item. Attribute values are displayed/edited in various locations (2nd column of the Item Attributes pane, columns in the Related Items pane, fields on forms, etc.). For instance, the value of the Date Created attribute of an item indicates the date+time that particular item was created.

[quant]

Originally posted by Daly de Gagne
what is an attribute, and what is an attribute value?

Many of us think we know what those terms mean, but do not, especially when they appear together in the same sentence.

If attributes give you a problem, just ignore them for the time being. You might not need the attributes at the beginning, however you'll be most certainly missing out a lot. Most of Personal information manager softwares dont have this feature. When I was deciding which one to go for, this page came in handy http://www.donationcoder.com/Reviews/Archive/NoteTakers1/index.php

I tried most of them, and then see Ultra Recall, with this comment: "Another EATKS software. Again, I don't think it offers anything particularly unique as far as notetaking." - how much they were wrong!!!

The attributes feature in my case was the most important feature. Go slowly, try some simple examples with defined attributes, do some searches, think about how sth can be implemented. You will gradually learn more about how to use the attributes and see how much they can offer!