Category Notes - show presence in Book list

[BetterRed]

I override the pencil icon that signals the existence of a Category Note in Book details with a less intrusive small red dot.

I would like to have something similar in the book list alongside annotated categories, it can't be done with a column icon because they apply to columns, not to items within a column - e.g. an Author, a Tag, etc.

I use a small blue dot for Category Links, for the sake of completeness it would be good have something similar for Linked items the Book list.

Assuming there's no existing way of doing it, and would require a new feature to be developed:

IMO it would need to be something less intrusive than the default note and external-link icons. For illustrative purposes I am attaching my red and blue dots, and a screen shot of their appearance in Book details.

And, for consistency, a checkbox in Look & feel->Main interface - "Show indication of links and notes on category items in the Book list" should be provided.

BR

[chaley]

Are you saying you want (for example) a list of tags with each tag decorated with a dot? You can certainly do this with a composite column if you can find an acceptable decorator that is a unicode character. For performance the column should use a python template that can process all the category items with one notes lookup.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

Are you saying you want (for example) a list of tags with each tag decorated with a dot? You can certainly do this with a composite column if you can find an acceptable decorator that is a unicode character. For performance the column should use a python template that can process all the category items with one notes lookup.

Lambda (𝛌) and Nu (𝛎) would suit, but wouldn't showing a category column as a composite column preclude editing that column's content in the book list… for me, editing metadata in the book list is a must have.

BR

[chaley]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Lambda (𝛌) and Nu (𝛎) would suit, but wouldn't showing a category column as a composite column preclude editing that column's content in the book list… for me, editing metadata in the book list is a must have.

BR

Doing this in an editable column isn't somewhere I want to go.

You probably know this, but you can get partway there by using the category editor and choosing the "currently selected books" option. That will show you the items for the book along with whether or not they have notes/links. You could get closer by adding a column icon that says whether any item has a note or a link, letting you know that there is more information in the category editor.

I am considering adding icons to the tag browser item lines indicating whether that item has notes or links. Probably wouldn't help you as (I think) you don't use the tag browser much.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

Doing this in an editable column isn't somewhere I want to go.

Fair 'nuff… I'd probably be the only person to make use of it anyway

Originally Posted by chaley

You probably know this, but you can get partway there by using the category editor and choosing the "currently selected books" option. That will show you the items for the book along with whether or not they have notes/links.

But that will only show the items for one category, e.g. tags, or publisher, or #admin_tags, or….

Originally Posted by chaley

You could get closer by adding a column icon that says whether any item has a note or a link, letting you know that there is more information in the category editor.

That would be useful: all I am after is something that indicates the presence of a category item Note and/or Link.

However, it would require a template that interrogates the notes database for every category item assigned to a book, and something similar if I wanted to show a Links icon. I'm not prepared to invest the effort into developing and maintaining such templates.

I can get close enough to what I want via the "Show [current] Book details in a separate window" feature. I have enough screen real estate to park it alongside the main window and I can limit its configuration to only show category columns (i.e no cover, long-text, dates, word counts etc). I might even remove some of category columns from the embedded Book details panel, which is under book list.

Buttons to Save and Load different configurations on the detached book detail panels would be handy.

Originally Posted by chaley

I am considering adding icons to the tag browser item lines indicating whether that item has notes or links. Probably wouldn't help you as (I think) you don't use the tag browser much.

Correct.

And if you do add the icons, I doubt I would show them when I do use the Tag browser.

BR

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

No I meant more like a dot/mark in the corner of the icon. Left corner for notes and right corner for link.

I dont really see the utility of this, hence I would want it off by default. When would one want to eyeball a list of categories to see which ones have notes? And if you make them separate icons people are going to expect to be able to click the icons to edit the notes/links directly as happens in the book details panel.

The Browse notes tool does that.

Be good to have a button to initiate a book search for the currently selected item - I wouldn't suggest taking it further than that. And clearer demarcation between the item name and the note text in the list - e.g. a separator, distinctive font or colour. See attachment.

BR

[Bertrand]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

The Browse notes tool does that.
Be good to have a button to initiate a book search for the currently selected item
BR

Agreed. A button to display all books with the selected author/tag/etc, would be welcome.

I love this Browse Notes. Very handy for seeing all the notes at a glance.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Bertrand

Agreed. A button to display all books with the selected author/tag/etc, would be welcome.

I love this Browse Notes. Very handy for seeing all the notes at a glance.

See ==>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre/+bug/2046825