[Feature Request] Visual Indicator for reference crosslinks?

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iandol
Posts: 481
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:31 pm

[Feature Request] Visual Indicator for reference crosslinks?

Post by iandol »

I am using the excellent "Reference Links" more and more, but the user interface for them is quite frustrating. The Crosslink Inspector is sticky, and does not update when you select new references, and you have to turn it OFF, then ON again to "refresh" it to the current reference. So we cannot know if a reference is crosslinked unless we toggle around. One potential solution would be to use an icon in the reference list to show us references that have crosslinks, just like you do for attachments (second ref here):
Screen Shot 2017-12-07 at 15.47.19.png
Screen Shot 2017-12-07 at 15.47.19.png (27.21 KiB) Viewed 2431 times
This would at least allow us to know if a crosslink was present.

p.s. It would also be nice if we could toggle the Inspector behaviour between sticky and follow (like Get Info in Finder using ⌘I vs. ⌘⌥I).
Jon
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Re: [Feature Request] Visual Indicator for reference crosslinks?

Post by Jon »

The behavior of the crosslink window is a reflection of its purpose. If it "updates" when you select a new reference you'd be unable to drag and drop related references to it as new links, defeating the purpose.

There are several features of which I think you are unaware:

1. To change the parent, you can drag and drop a new reference to the parent reference position (above the list). Now it's the new parent. Or you can use the menu Refs -> Make Parent in Inspector (Option-Command-L).

2. You can display whether a reference has a crosslink (and how many) by added a column "Links" in preferences (List tab).

3. You can go to any cross linked reference by double clicking on it in the inspector.

Please refer to the user guide (Help menu) for how the links inspector works (p. 128 in the current guide).

Jon
Sonny Software
iandol
Posts: 481
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:31 pm

Re: [Feature Request] Visual Indicator for reference crosslinks?

Post by iandol »

OK, those options are a viable option for me thanks (though I wish we could have more than 7 columns, as I already have problems choosing what to display, and adding links means I must sacrifice something else)...
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