It would be nice to have the option of excluding from compile all children of a folder or file according to the option selected for the parent. I wonder if that could be set as a a global option, similar to the navigation option: “Treat all documents with children as folders.” I suppose it could read something like: “On compile include/exclude all children with parent: Y/N.” kraml
Is this a condition that can be predicted based upon the outline structure? For example, all text files beneath a certain level in the outline are to be considered offline notes-to-self? If so you can do that with the Levels system in Formatting by setting the level you wish to obscure so that none of the checkboxes are enabled.
Otherwise, I can think of another approach that would work, but it depends on a feature that hasn’t been implemented yet: default subdocument types. Basically you’ll be able to assign a Document Template type to a container, meaning that when you create new items within it, they are automatically created using the document template rather than the blank new file construct—and these templates could have their Include in Compile checkbox disabled by default. Since the container itself, with that default subdocument type applied to it, can be a document template, that means you can easily create these type of structures wherever you need them.
Thanks for the response, Amber. I don’t think that predictability is a part of the equation in this case. My writing is technical/scholarly, and I tend to write using deep levels. Sometimes I may only have a single proposition in a document. For various audiences, I might wish simply to exclude an entire “section” here and there. I could always copy the project, deleting what I don’t want in various cases, but it strikes me as handy to keep everything in one project, turning off and on what I want, when I want it. Does that make sense? Perhaps there is another way (other than manually selecting/deselecting each document). I suppose that I could apply a keyword then exclude; but the concept of excluding everything down the tree with one click is attractive too. Thx, kraml
Yes, that does make sense. You could tag these sections using the Collections feature. Then it would be easy to select them all in the Outliner and toggle that checkbox for them all at once with the Alt-click trick (not sure how well that translates to Linux). Keywords could work as well, especially since you can create search collections that look for them.
It sounds like I need to explore the collections feature. Thx again, kraml
Collections would be a good future-proof route to take for this, as well, because we’ll eventually be adding an automatic filter option to the Contents compile pane. One thing you’ll be able to do with the filter is exclude any items that exists within Collection A (or inversely, to only compile items found in the declared Collection). It would be the same working practice up front, but without having to manually bulk toggle Include checkboxes prior to compilation.
Amber, after looking at “collections” I realized that I have used that feature a good bit for various tasks. I failed to make the connection with the term “collection” at the time of my previous post.
Anyway, after thinking about it a bit, what I really want is a way to see if a doc (or folder and contents—children) is set to compile, while navigating through the complete project (including the hierarchy) in the binder. So I am probably splitting the request, I realize.
Now if the default panel of the inspector is in view, we can see our compile selection. But if we are working with a technical document, we most likely have the footnote panel open. We cannot see if an item is set to compile. Can the compile state be added to the document/folder flyover? Or perhaps added to the document context menu on right click? Or perhaps add an option to show compile status in the same way as “show subdocument counts in binder”? Virtually any indicator at all would help.
I don’t wish to overdo the request, but seeing and selecting the compile option in realtime (and including children) would be, for me at least, a most marvelous feature. kraml
This should be easy enough to do in the Outliner, by adding the “Include in Compile” checkbox, as described before. Earlier I was recommending that view as a way to easily bulk toggle the checkboxes, but it’s also handy when you’re just navigating around in the project and see what is or is not a part of the draft.
We’ve got a few ideas in the in-house testing builds for making this particular setting a bit more visible in the future, and it’s more than likely that at least one of them will make it into a future version, maybe both. I can’t say more about it specifically as the implementations are still in testing.
What I have sometimes done in the past is employed a form of signification that is visible in the Binder: the custom icon. Setting excluded items to a particular icon makes their status extremely visible throughout the software, in singular and overviews alike. The downside is, of course, you have to set two things instead of one thing—but for myself that works okay since I only ever use this checkbox for static assignments, i.e. items that will never be included in any production output. It would be a bother, too fiddly for my taste, if I used the feature more like a filter, as you do, but maybe you’ll have more tolerance for the idea in practice, than I would.
Note you can select dozens of items at once and change their icons in bulk.
Ah! I missed your point about the Outliner earlier. Now I see what you were referring to, in the Outliner pulldown. That will help much for the near future. Thanks! kraml