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Outline vs. Map Interface

Context

Newer users often get confused trying to compare Outlines with Maps. This is not entirely surprising as Tinderbox always starts a new document with a blank Outline. Users wanting maps then make a new Map view. Now they will have an Outline and a Map that sort of look the same (especially if there is no nesting of notes) but are not. This article attempts to answer some of the functional side of the similarities/differences of the two view types. Note: words in this article with a $ before them indicate reference to a TB attribute, e.g. $Name is the title of a note. Now, consider the outline and map views above, of the same TBX content.

So, "What's the point?" you may ask. If you set up a simple TBX like this you can see the effect of:

How the TBX illustrated above was created

On the left is the outline view, on the right the map view. The notes all have a short two-l or three-letter $Name like 'bb', 'ag' or 'rrr' and the rest of the title you see is a $DisplayExpression enabling you to see the $OutlineOrder on screen. Names where the two letters are the same are notes/containers (including separators); two different letters denote an agent; three similar letters denotes an adornment. In addition, in the map, the $Xpos and $Ypos X/Y location co-ordinates are shown; in notes/containers this is by displaying body text ($Text) and for adornments, which have no (visible) $Text, the $DisplayExpression has been further amended.

How was the mark-up done? Prototype note '*Display' (in /Prototypes) has the following Rule:

$Text = "Xpos: " + $Xpos + " / Ypos: " + $Ypos 

…and DisplayExpression:

$Name + " / OutlineOrder: " + $OutlineOrder 

As we cannot display text in adornments, prototype adornment '*Adornment' (seen on the map of /Prototypes) uses a different $DisplayExpression, which has to be set via the adornment's Info view (General panel). Thus $DisplayExpression:

$Name + " / OutlineOrder: " + $OutlineOrder + " / Xpos: " + $Xpos + " / Ypos: " + $Ypos

You will notice that you will need to set icons a bit wider than the default and on notes/containers drag the title section down a bit to see all the captioning. Notice too that a map view container icon's viewport map shows $DisplayExpression but note text is not drawn as in a normal icon; see the icon for container note 'ii' inside the viewport of container note 'jj' at left of the map.

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