Icons on The Toolbar:
As I write this note, I'm looking a a toolbar with an icon of bullets, a piece of film, a smiley face, a pair of scissors, a couple of clipboards, and a few more images. I've moved some resources and features to my toolbar in L4B3, and I see a Blue Box, a Black Box, a Red Box, and they are meaningless. If there's any detail on the little boxes, at 1280 x 800 resolution on my laptop, it's lost, it's just not there. I've got to hover over the icon to see what it means. Before I drag a whole lot more little meaningless, colored, boxes to the toolbar I'd really like to make a plea for something meaningful -- like real no kidding icons.
- For years, since we could customize our toolbar in Series-X of the LDLS (and I don't remember when we were first able to do that) I've had a "pair of eyes" that I've used for "lookup" with my dictionary program. I've had an "anchor" that I used for the "Anchor Bible Dictionary" (I think I even captured that idea from something the old LLS program, don't remember, it's been too long.
- What I'm saying is that although I came kicking and screaming and dragging my feet in the GUI world, I've come to appreciate the icons. But, little colored squares just don't cut the mustard. That having been said, I will admit that simply dragging the ABD to the toolbar was a lot easier (but admittedly not as much fun for a tinkerer) than the toolbar "customizing" feature in LDLS. I just want a little more ability to control how I do business -- even (ok, I'm on thin ice here) that superior word processor (WordPerfect) has the ability on its toolbar to use a built-in (albeit admittedly small and somewhat limited) icon editor that's built right into the program so I can customize my Print, Print page, copy, and copy without formatting icons so that I can quickly differentiate what I'm working with, and make them meaningful to me.
The Lectionary:
- The Lectionary viewer in L3 is, in my humble opinion, implemented in a much more usuable fashion that the lectionary in L4. with L3, there's a simple listing of the lectionary readings -- ok, the text follows, but I'm not forced to scroll down through the entire OT reading, The Psalter, The Epistle Reading, just to find out what the Gospel lesson is for the week. That's number 1 -- it's not well implemented for the lectionary community and therefore not very usable. Ok, keep the text of the scriptures underneath -- I really don't need them since I can hover over the reading anyway and see the text in a popup box, or I can click and open a Bible with that reading. I don't need it like a reading plan. The current implementation is not helpful for weekly and monthly worship preparation.
- Also, there's no quick way of moving to the next reading (or of telling if you've missed a reading because you used a date and missed a holy day in between Sundays). With the lectionary viewer in L3 (which, again, is IMHO, a much better implementation that the L3 homepage) I can click am up or down arrow (still think I'd prefer left and right but beggers can't be choosers) and move through the year (I don't need to guess what the next Sunday or Holy day is going to be on the calendar). The database for the lectionary will just move to the next reading (it's usually a Sunday, but it may be a feast day in the middle of the week).
- The greatest benefit for me with this feature is for planning future worship services. I want the readings, I click the arrow, and in four (or five) clicks I get the readings for the next month. And, I don't need a calendar in front of me to use the lectionary. With L3, I simply type the date I want (but I don't know what the first Sunday in December is, so I type December 1). Et Voila, it comes to December 6 (the first Sunday). With L4, I type December 1 (again, since I don't know the first Sunday in December), and it just sits there. Still looking at the reading from Hebrews, for Oct 4.
What I'm saying with regards to the lectionary is that I know you can do better -- you have done better, you just haven't done it in L4.
As always, thanks for listening
