The revised interface for the formats manager is great. I was wondering if it'd be possible to make a few revisions to the way the example works (sorted by priority).
1) So far the provided example in the Format Manager (the "Mercep..." hypothetical article) works well in a limited number of cases. I was wondering if it's possible to base the example on the current reference the user is positioned in, rather than the "Mercep..." case.
The rationale is that it's better that users check the consequences of formatting changes in their own references.
2) Is it possible to update the example dynamically as one moves from style to style or updates the formatting rules? Now that all styles are on the left pane, it's natural that the user tries to see how a given type is formatted in two styles. However, as the user switches from one formatting style to another, the example doesn't update. Because some styles are close to each other (Turabian and the many Chicagos), it may seem that actually the formatting is the same. I recommend that the example update dynamically as the user switches between different formats or as the user updates the formatting rules. But if that's not possible, I would prefer the Example drawer to collapse, so the user doesn't get the wrong impression that the example is updated.
3) Is it possible to beef up the example to show the "citation" and the "bibliography" formatting? So far the user can only see the Bibliography formatting, but not the citation. So, say, for a typical Chicago format I would like to see this info in the example drawer:
B: Mercep, Michael. "Activation-induced apoptosis." Journal of Biological Chemistry 292, no. 10 (2001): 1256-1265.
C: Mercep, Sussman and Noguchi, "Cell death"
Notice that this is the way information is presented in the Chicago Manual of Style, Turabian and the such. So far it takes a few clicks to get there.
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Finally, a less modest revision that goes beyond the example pane. I wonder if in the future it's possible to revise the GUI to the formatting language to have a more visual type of representation. I'm thinking on something borrowing from Mellel's autotitle format window and Mellel's Find/Replace windows, which allow bracketing and use of graphic tokens to represent fields and logic rules. (At the same time it'd be good to keep the current option as well).
I hope this all makes sense. I'll be happy to clarify.
Modest proposals for the format manager
Hi,
I was planning on basing the format example on a selected reference in 10.1, but it didn't make the cut. I'll think about adding it in the next update. Of course, if the selected reference is a book and you are creating a journal article format, the fields won't necessarily make much sense.
I agree, the example really should update when you switch formats.
Your other suggestions are good ones, and I'll add them to the feature requests list.
Thanks for the feedback.
Jon
Sonny Software
I was planning on basing the format example on a selected reference in 10.1, but it didn't make the cut. I'll think about adding it in the next update. Of course, if the selected reference is a book and you are creating a journal article format, the fields won't necessarily make much sense.
I agree, the example really should update when you switch formats.
Your other suggestions are good ones, and I'll add them to the feature requests list.
Thanks for the feedback.
Jon
Sonny Software