Searching a yes/no field

[chaley]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

It would be 'nice' if Preferences->Add your own columns displayed a table with Column heading, Lookup name (with the '#' on custom columns), Column Type, Description, Format etc.

Then there'd be no excuse for missing the need for a prepended crunch

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

Attachment 144049

Wunderbar - that was quite a lot work -

BR

[tekwrite]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Reading something like this?



Manual for graphical user interface.

As a Technical Writer of 25 years, I stand by my comment. And what is this? "custom series column"? Very vague attempt at saying "user-defined column" wouldn't you say? Otherwise I probably would have found that single example.

ALL of the non custom field searches are highlighted in a different color. The only custom search syntax is buried in the body of the paragraph. Not very consistent.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by tekwrite

As a Technical Writer of 25 years, I stand by my comment. And what is this? "custom series column"? Very vague attempt at saying "user-defined column" wouldn't you say? Otherwise I probably would have found that single example.

"custom" is pretty obviously a reference to the same concept as "user-defined".

The official calibre term for it is a "custom column", not a "user-defined column".


Either way, and regardless of your assumptions vs. established calibre practice, it is obvious IMHO to anyone who spends the time trying to internalize the words of the manual; conversely, someone who glosses through it looking for highlighted words to stand out, is likely to miss a lot of information.

Nevertheless, if you feel you can do better, calibre is open-source and so is the User Guide.
Since you are apparently skilled at writing documentation, why don't you volunteer to clarify calibre's manual? (No, that was not a joke. Writing documentation isn't easy and I am sure if you can improve on it Kovid will be grateful.)

ALL of the non custom field searches are highlighted in a different color. The only custom search syntax is buried in the body of the paragraph. Not very consistent.

That's a very confusing statement to make, because looking at the manual, the custom search syntax is highlighted exactly the same as the non custom field searches.
Although as it only mentions the lookup names, that is all that is highlighted...

[theducks]

Originally Posted by tekwrite

As a Technical Writer of 25 years, I stand by my comment. And what is this? "custom series column"? Very vague attempt at saying "user-defined column" wouldn't you say? Otherwise I probably would have found that single example.

ALL of the non custom field searches are highlighted in a different color. The only custom search syntax is buried in the body of the paragraph. Not very consistent.

Pretty plain to me. Holds a Series type name [and index]

If you set up a custom column, it has a TYPE (behavior)
That says the <your column name> is a series TYPE column.
Since you CHOSE that, I would expect you to know what that reference was about.

I have been reading Manuals for over 60 years. I have yet to run into what I consider "My perfect manual'.
I have used 100% accurate manuals that I consider worthless, because you can't find the needed topic (because you do not know its official name).

I have a number of command reference manuals that fully explain the Syntax perfectly, but fail to convey WHY you might want to use that command or function . The example does not indicate CONTEXT.