Why do some icons look different?
Although the actual colour of each note's icon in a Map View may vary by the colour-related attributes you set, it will always appear in one of two basic styles:
- Notes without children. A solid block of the colour $Color with at note title in contrasting black or white text.
- Notes with children. These are notes are termed 'containers'. They also have a section of solid colour at the top with the note title but in addition the icon is extended vertically and a grey area inset into it, referred to below as the 'viewport'.
Also
- Alias notes/containers. As for their originals but the title text is always in italics (and this cannot be overridden).
- Containers on the (child) sub-map do note show (grandchild) items but if they have a container plot then this is displayed.
What are the blocks of colour in the grey area of the container notes?
These represent child notes inside the container, i.e. you are seeing down one level into the child note's map. By default the child notes in the viewport will show their titles as well. If the sub-map in the viewport does not have a grey background that is because its $MapBackgroundColor has been set to a non-default value. Badges and Shapes are also shown, as indeed are most of the map visualisation attributes.
Why is the title area at the bottom of some containers and not the top?
These indicate the container is an agent1. To clarify, in a Map view a normal note container has its title area at the top of the note whilst an agent container has its title area at the bottom of the note.
How do I navigate down / open a container / drill down a level?
The three preceding questions are effectively all the same. To drill down into any container, you double-click the viewport area of the note and you then navigate down/open/drill down, whichever euphemism you prefer. Should you mistakenly click the top (title) part of the note icon you will simply set focus on note. If the latter happens by mistake, do not worry, simply close the note and make sure you double-click the lower portion of the note. This method works for both normal (note) and agent containers. An alternate method is to select container and press the Down Arrow key (↓) or use the View menu ▸ Focus view (⌘+⇧+↓).
How do I navigate up a level?
To shift the map view's focus to the to the parent map ('drill up') use the Views menu ▸ Expand view (⌘+⇧+↑), or just use the Up Arrow key (↑).
How do I quickly get back up to whole-document outline focus?
- Click the left most segment of the pane breadcrumb bar.
- Use View menu ▸ Expand view (⌘+⇧+↑) repeatedly until at root level (view does not change focus).
How can I tell if my current outline view has whole document focus?
The view pane breadcrumb bar is not displayed. Below root level is shows the ancestor containers of the current scope.
Can I interact with the child map in the viewport?
Yes you may, though it often helps to drag the parent container's icon a bit larger to increase the size of the viewport. You can do two things:
- 'Scroll' the child map. To do this click onto any background area of the child map, i.e. not on a note/container icon, and drag. This will scroll the child map within the parent's viewport. A container's viewport will remember the section of the last-used (visible) section of the map. The date is stored in the attributes $MapScrollX and $MapScrollY.
- Promote notes/containers from the child map to the current map. Simply click on the note or agent in the child map and drag it out of the viewport onto the parent map.
- Demoting note/containers from the current map to the child map. Click on the note or agent in the current map and drag it into a container's viewport. It is not possible to nest two item on the child map, you must drill down to do that.
Can containers show note body copy text, display tabular info, etc., like non-containers?
Yes. For containers, note or agent, the attribute $TitleHeight controls how much of the map icon is devoted to the viewport. The only difference between note and agent containers in this regard is that the body text or $TableHeading/$TableExpression information is always displayed beneath the icon title, which makes sense when you see it on screen, regardless of the relative position of the viewport. To set $TitleHeight manually in map view, simple drag the bottom (note container) or top (agent) of the solid colour area of the icon and drag it up/down to alter the relative allocation of space to title/text viewport. To provide more space overall drag the corner of the container's note icon; as the icon grows/shrinks in size, the title/viewport allocation scales accordingly allowing the $TitleHeight to then be re-adjusted. Being an attribute, $TitleHeight can also be set via action code.
See also—notes linking to here: