How to view (display) combined text(s)? [Archive]

Spliff

06-28-2023, 10:54 AM

I simply don't find it anymore, but I think I remember that in UR it's possible to see combined text, like, I select two or more items, then trigger the command I don't find anymore, and then, within the Content Pane, I see the texts of those items combined, in tree order.

Ideally, I could also had been able to edit that combined text, those edits then to be replicated into the original items, but I think that's not possible, I just remember (or think I remember) I could view the combined text.

Also, it would have been preferable or even much more important to have those combined texts by searching, since before viewing those texts, I don't know yet in which items they the terms I'm after, are "hidden", but again, I just think I remember it was by manually selecting the items in the tree - should then also be / have been possible, or be easy to implement? - by selecting the items in the search results, though, since in the end, it's not important, for other commands, from WHERE the item(s) is / are selected, upon which some command then is run?

(Btw, it's reasonable that first, I would have to select the items in question, even from the search results list, since that would enable me to discard unwanted search results from the combined view/display.)

I also remember (if I'm not totally mistaken) that I left it then, since the building of the combination was too slow for my liking, but now, I'm again after that, for just multiple items, each of which contain just one or two paragraphs of text, so with just some items, and just some paragraphs, the speed problem shouldn't be as virulent.

But of course, when I now select several items, I just get, "%n% items selected", and I don't find (context menu, edit menu, view menu, item menu, tree menu, tools... help file...) the needed command for then displaying the combo. (Or does my memory plays games with me?)

EDIT: I forgot to mention: Whilst the ability to EDIT the "originals" from within the combined view would probably not be realistic, navigating (!) to the item in question, from within the combined view, would perhaps be possible, e.g. by double (mouse) click? But currently, as said, I don't even know anymore how to view the combined display.

Spliff

06-29-2023, 03:35 AM

Thank you for your direction; I had also viewed all the Options categories, without seeing it, my bad (I'm old, and it's not the first time, and will not be the last, unfortunately, that I don't recognize what I've been searching though, even when it's before my eyes: sorry to have bothered you!).

So I assigned the Quick-Option to a shortcut (which then appeared in the Quick-Options list when I display that by Tools-QuickOptions (so here, too, would be existant code to copy/adapt for Flags...), in order to make it a fast-available toggle. (Of course, in order for this shortcut become really persistent, you will need to assign it while there is just one UR db open, as for all shortcut assignments.)

I now recognize why, after having it seen then, two years ago, I had quickly discarded it for my means then:

As a general setting, it would just have created problems, since whenever you select several items, in order to then move them in bulk to some new position (in the same tree, or to another UR db), it first combines the contents, slowing down the process, and that's obviously not wanted, BUT just activating it for special uses (as I am after indeed), by shortcut in this case, works flawlessly is is very helpful indeed (I hadn't had those uses in mind 2 years ago, so then almost forgot about it).

Now, for its use.

It works fine, but does not allow editing (as expected) of the combined text, but you can copy it to clipboard, in order to then insert it into some other application in case.

Practical use, in the context of search, would be, to search for one or two terms, within the limits of some sub-tree ("Limit search to selected item in Data Explorer pane"), or even further limited to the first, or two first levels in that sub-tree (advanced search, nested searches (!)); then ^a to select all "hits", and then you see the combined text(s).

The texts (or contents in general, I didn't try with pics in text, but that might work the same way) are separated by 2 blank lines, but it's just the contents, NO leading title - which would be expected though, since it's NOT possible to then (by double click with mouse, or by other means) navigate to the item in question (i.e. an item of interest to you in that situation, in the compound you see), in order to do some editing; instead, you would currently have to select all the (sound) items one-by-one again, in order to identify the item to edit, finally, so the practical use of this fine - and seemingly unique (! I checked lots of other PIMs yesterday, for this "combine texts" feature, assuming I had been wrong about UR, and had seen it in the course of some trial of some other application...) - feature is, currently, unfortunately, very limited.

(Furthermore, if you use this feature not from search results, but from the Data Explorer, it will not really be possible to visually check the items one-by-one, since you might not remember them all, single selection (i.e. single item focus) here destroying any "group selection" you might have done before, whilst in search results, the result list will be left unchanged between single selections, in order to identify the items you will then be after.)

It becomes obvious that in order to make this potentially enormous useful feature "functional", and whilst the possibility of (persistent) editing would demand too much coding indeed (I'm fully aware of that), it'd be necessary to identify the "original" items from within the combined text(s), but that should be really easy:

1) Just retrieve the respective item titles, too (the code uses the item IDs anyway, to gather the texts/contents) and put them, ideally even with a leading bullet (plus space), and/or boldened (and a trailing ":" if no leading bullet), before the respective texts (and after the two blank lines then, or even just one blank line would then suffice; NO blank lines between the title lines, and their texts/contents).

2) Ideally, a double click on those title lines would then select the respective item in the Data Explorer, BUT I'm aware that would be LOTS more code... but just implementing 1), leaving it up to the user to do the necessary navigation themselves, only would just ask for some easy code lines, and would make the "combine" routine useful indeed, finally.

( 3) If you want to preserve the "non-inter-titled" variety for copy-and-insert though (where in most use cases, "original item identification" would also be preferred I think!), you could add a second "Combine..." toggle ("(with titles)", vs. the original = current one, "(just texts)"), and whenever both toggles are set to "on", the "with" toggle would override the "without" one; or then, you'd do an additional toggle / QuickOption "Combine texts with texts", the default then being "without". )

As it is, it's allegedly unique but not very useful; with just some lines of code, 1), plus 3) in case, its usefulness would rise sharply, though.

EDIT:
It just occurs to me that since the functionality of linking to other items, even from within the Content pane, is already there, even 2) would be possible with just very limited additional coding; it's just that the IDs would have to be included within the combined text, either being visible (e.g. within some " [25973] :" behind the title, in the respective title line) or, very simply, "behind the scene", i.e. those title lines then being "formatted" as links, AND "working" as any other such "in-line" UR link then, its leading bullet then indicating it's not a link within the compound text, but a link to one of the compounded source items. Thus, if I'm not mistaken here, even a "complete" solution would be easy. ;-)