[APBeta] New annotation feature in 2.0b30

[Hilary Jones]

Thanks for looking at this so quickly!

Hilary

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Rodman" <paul at ilanga.com>
To: "AstroPlanner Beta Testers" <apbeta at lists.astroplanner.net>
Sent: Saturday, April 04, 2009 9:11 AM
Subject: Re: [APBeta] New annotation feature in 2.0b30


> 
> On Apr 3, 2009, at 11:53 PM, Hilary Jones wrote:
> 
>> I tried the new annotations feature quickly tonight.  I haven't  
>> really explored all the possibilities yet, but I do have a couple of  
>> comments.
> 
> Now why did I think you'd be the first  :^)
> 
>> First, a possible bug.  To demonstrate this, create an annotation,  
>> but don't click the save button.  Now create a second annotation.   
>> You will find that AstroPlanner has forgotten the first annotation  
>> and replaced it with blanks. Perhaps AP should warn about this, or  
>> maybe better still, just remember the first annotation.  There's  
>> also a question of whether AP should warn you that the annotations  
>> haven't been saved when you exit the app or move to another object.
> 
> Yeh. I've been pondering this and I believe I can do away with the  
> Save button altogether and just do it automatically.
> 
>> Second, I can't find a way to highlight objects based on their  
>> annotations. I use annotations to tell whether an object is  
>> especially interesting or not.  For example I prefix each annotation  
>> with an asterisk if I think the object is especially noteworthy, and  
>> I use an exclamation point to show that the object is something I've  
>> finished work on.  Then I can use the highlighting rules to place  
>> the interesting objects at the top of the plan and the uninteresting  
>> ones later.  It's true that I can set the highlighting based on the  
>> object's "notes" field, but I really need to be able to set the  
>> highlighting based on an annotation.  That way the highlighting will  
>> be the same with every plan and I won't have to edit the notes field  
>> for every plan.  Actually, the best answer would be if the notes  
>> were shared between all plans in the same way that annotations are  
>> shared.  Alternatively, I would be happy if there was a highlighting  
>> rule that worked for the first annotation, say.  I certainly don't  
>> need to be able to set my highlighting based on the contents of the  
>> 37th annotation!
> 
> As I mentioned, this is a work in progress. However, I didn't mention  
> highlighting as one of the areas to be attacked. I will probably have  
> two separate highlighting items for an object: number of annotations,  
> and contents of those annotations. i.e. you ca highlight on "Number of  
> Annotations > 0" or "Annotations contain 'UHC' " for example.
> 
> I'm also looking at flagging plan objects and catalogue objects to  
> show that they have any annotations. Not sure how I'll do that yet.  
> Either a new column, or some kind of badge in an existing column.
> 
> Paul R.