This idea is inspired from the query in this thread: https://community.logos.com/forums/t/123379.aspx
While it was answered and there is good documentation in the help file, fact remain that for a number of users, access to functionality through using specific search syntax is complicated and liable to mistakes. I believe that it can help whenever there are easier ways to do the same thing.
This is what I propose:
There already is, in the highlighting panel, right-click options for palettes and styles. I suggest adding "search for this palette" and "search for this style." This would open the search pane directly with the properly written syntax. The user can then modify parameters of the search, such as "search in". The user can also make the search more complex on the basis of the generated instance.
I know that from time to time, I use the right-click menu to generate proper syntax because there are too many search types and datatypes and little things such as adding a space in the wrong place, whether or not a colon should be used, etc, can result in the search not working and frustration (e.g., searching for Louw-Nida entries). Most of the time, I just find it faster to generate the right-click search and modify to fit what I want than to track it down in the help file, the wiki, on the forums.
Hence the suggestion for highlighting palettes and styles.
Francis:There already is, in the highlighting panel, right-click options for palettes and styles. I suggest adding "search for this palette" and "search for this style." This would open the search pane directly with the properly written syntax. The user can then modify parameters of the search, such as "search in". The user can also make the search more complex on the basis of the generated instance.
Nice idea
One mechanism that is available at the moment is being able to search palettes / highlights from the Information Tool
Selecting Inline search on the palette will search for any styles from that palette in the resource while searching for the style will search for that particular style in the palette.
Not wanting to detract from the suggestion but hoping this might help some people now
Graham Criddle:Not wanting to detract from the suggestion but hoping this might help some people now
This is very good, Graham. Thanks for pointing this out.
Graham, could you expand on how I get Info open + see the options ranging from Translation to Literary Typing. I have L6 core. Does that negate your method for me?? My open Info panel has no '>' options to click.
Scooter, do you have "Add" in your info panel (in Graham's screenshot, toward the top on the right)? If so, this would be the place where you can see what categories are available to you in relation to what you have. Check on what you want to see and off what you don't want.
Francis, 'Add' is grey + clicking it does nothing. Presumably, the functionality of L6 Core is the limitation. 'Copy' is also greyed + non-functional......Thanks for your reply.
scooter: 'Add' is grey + clicking it does nothing
That is probably because you have all sections included
scooter: Presumably, the functionality of L6 Core is the limitation.
It will limit it but shouldn't stop the highlight section working. I have a test "Core Logos" environment and see the option there
Ensure you have a verse selected which contains a highlight.
Thanks, Graham !!!
Great suggestion Francis. The vast majority of users in every system use interface elements to interact with the software and are completely confused when you start throwing codes at them. We have computers to do the hard stuff for us. We don't want to be our own programmer with obscure codes to do a simple search. Your idea works because it uses a visible interface element that most users understand the purpose of (a drop down menu) that reveals something they understand (a literal phrase that describes what they want).
I would also add "search for highlight style" functionality to the existing search field, which is a more obvious place to go to search for something. We already have an option to select a highlighting filter, just provide a way to execute that search without having to enter any explicit search terms.
Even better, enable the creation of a Notes document from a style. We can already do this for palettes, just extend that to styles. Maybe an option in the style's drop-down menu to "save in style-specific note file." That would provide the exact outcome I was originally looking for.
Thanks again for your help on the other thread and for this great suggestion.
Scott Spinola: would also add "search for highlight style" functionality to the existing search field, which is a more obvious place to go to search for something.
Do you mean something different than this?
This feature is not bad, but the problem is that it does not allow one to find highlights themselves, but text within them. So, to find all passages highlighted yellow, I would have to use an asterisk to search all text within the yellow highlighted (selected in search in). Using the asterisk that way is slow and power hungry since it looks for everything.
Correct. The search feature searches for text within the highlights, not the highlights themselves. Requiring an asterisk to accomplish this gets back to the same problem of requiring obscure knowledge to accomplish the task rather than the interface itself, which a user could at least use to figure out the problem after a few seconds of poking around and trial and error.