How do I make best use of check mark, observation status, priority, and rating

[jeffshy]

I'm having trouble optimizing the use of the four above mentioned columns.  I find that these have a huge potential for prioritizing and organizing my observations, but there seem to be some obstacles that are holding me back.

In particular, these columns do not carry over from the Planning tab to the Real Time tab or vice versa.

I would think that the rating column would be associated with the object.  But it seems to be associated with the object, tab, and observing list.  Why wouldn't a rating for an object always be associated with that object?  It would be nice, for example, if I could search for all items with a five-star rating to make a "best of" observing list or to use a rating when i was deciding what I wanted to view on an evening.

The priority, observing status, and check mark, it seems to me, ought to be associated with the object and observing list, but ought to carry forward from the planning tab to real time tab.  I'd like to be able to review a list in the nightly planner and to somehow mark certain objects to be ignored for observation when I get to the real time tab.  I could use priority, observing status, or check mark to do this if they were to carry forward from the planning tab to real time tab.

How can I mark an object during review of my nightly plan so that mark appears on the object in the real time tab?

Jeff

[theskyhound]

Hello Jeff,

The check mark column is for multiple selections, e.g. you want to copy a set of objects to another list (by right clicking in the multiple-selection column). It doesn't really make sense to have it attached to objects or to be shared with the Real Time tool.

The ratings are parts of the notes feature. Notes are attached to specific objects are are not depended on the observing list, in other words, they can appear across lists and will appear on the Real Time tool. Ratings are attachments. Attachments are things attached to objects, such as a note, note brief, rating, link, or image. These attachments are organized into attachment folders. An attachment folder is selected on the Nightly Planner and can be connected to an observing list. Once selected (upper right of the Nightly Planner) only the notes, ratings, etc are displayed that are in that folder. The Real Time tool works the same way. All you need to do is select the same attachment folder in the Real Time tool.

A case can be made for the observation status and priority to be attached to objects rather than be a feature unique to each list. But the flip side is that many people do want them to work that way, and in fact its a lot more flexible to to have them be part of a list. I can think of a half-dozen cases where a person might wish to have different priority and observation status values for the same object, depending on the project they are working on.

Having the status and priority shared between the Nightly Planner and Real Time tools is something I hadn't really considered before. I can see why this makes a lot of sense, and will start looking into sharing them between the two tools for the same list.

We have some tutorials on our youtube channel that might help clear up how these features are often used:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXc1wWwz...73IGuOhTwA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEk7bBvg...zr&pp=iAQB

[jeffshy]

Hello Jeff,

The check mark column is for multiple selections, e.g. you want to copy a set of objects to another list (by right clicking in the multiple-selection column). It doesn't really make sense to have it attached to objects or to be shared with the Real Time tool.

The ratings are parts of the notes feature. Notes are attached to specific objects are are not depended on the observing list, in other words, they can appear across lists and will appear on the Real Time tool. Ratings are attachments. Attachments are things attached to objects, such as a note, note brief, rating, link, or image. These attachments are organized into attachment folders. An attachment folder is selected on the Nightly Planner and can be connected to an observing list. Once selected (upper right of the Nightly Planner) only the notes, ratings, etc are displayed that are in that folder. The Real Time tool works the same way. All you need to do is select the same attachment folder in the Real Time tool.

A case can be made for the observation status and priority to be attached to objects rather than be a feature unique to each list. But the flip side is that many people do want them to work that way, and in fact its a lot more flexible to to have them be part of a list. I can think of a half-dozen cases where a person might wish to have different priority and observation status values for the same object, depending on the project they are working on.

Having the status and priority shared between the Nightly Planner and Real Time tools is something I hadn't really considered before. I can see why this makes a lot of sense, and will start looking into sharing them between the two tools for the same list.

We have some tutorials on our youtube channel that might help clear up how these features are often used:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXc1wWwz...73IGuOhTwA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEk7bBvg...zr&pp=iAQB

Greg,

Thanks so much for your usual thorough and timely reply.

After reading your note, I went back and carefully checked what I was doing.

Your explanation of the checkmarks makes a lot of sense.  They are a tool for selection purposes, it makes no sense in that context to carry them from the planner to the real time tab.  So I'm good with the check mark.

I did not realize that the ratings are handled as an attachment on the object.  I must have been tinkering with that in a way that made it so that they didn't show up from tab to tab.  This is actually a pretty cleaver way to handle this.  I can think of some interesting use cases to give an object multiple ratings with this feature.  Thanks for the explanation.

Now that I've done some more testing on the observation status and priority, It seems to me that they ought to be attached to the list and that the status and priority should be shared between the nightly planner and real time.  As best as I can tell, that's the way they seem to be working.  Your note seems to indicate otherwise, but they look like they work that way to me.  I can change the observation status or priority on either tab and it will show up on the object in the other tab.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way these items work now that I understand them.

Thanks for your patience,
Jeff