I’ve created an arbitrary collection as instructed in the tutorial. I can see the collection list of files in the binder pane on the left, but I can’t see it in the editor window. When I select an individual file in the collection list, its contents are displayed in the editor window. But what I want is to see the whole collection as a corkboard in the editor window. How do I do that? Clicking on the collection’s tab does nothing.
Issue: when I right click a file in the collection list, one of the options is ‘Move to Trash (Shift + Del)’. In fact this action only removes the file from the collection list, which I guess is the desired result. So the menu should say ‘Remove’ (or something similar). And wouldn’t it be better to have a different key combination, because this is a completely different action from Shift+Del does in other contexts.
To see a collection, or indeed any arbitrary group of files in the corkboard, select all of the files you’re interested in and then click the Corkboard icon.
To select a group of files in sequence, click the first file, then shift-click the last file. To select a non-sequential series of files, click the first file, then ctrl-click each additional file.
Thanks for noticing the mis-named “Remove” command. You’re right, that could be confusing. I’ll flag your comment for the developers.
Thanks, the files are displayed as a corkboard when I do this, but I can’t seem to move the cards around. Maybe this is a design decision. If not, it would be helpful if:
clicking on the collection’s tab made the editor window display the entire collection as a corkboard
To see an entire collection as a Corkboard, click on the Corkboard icon in the icon bar.
You can re-order the documents in a collection by dragging them around in the Binder-style list on the left.
The issue with giving a collection-based Corkboard full functionality is the link between index cards and actual files in the document. For instance, someone might be writing a novel in which scenes appear out of chronological order, but might want to use a collection to review the story’s timeline. If you drag index cards around while viewing a collection, what changes? The order of the collection, or the Binder order? Or both? What if you have a split screen, with the collection corkboard in one half and the Binder corkboard in the other? I can’t speak for Lee or Keith, but I would say the potential for confusion is why the design works the way it does.
When I use the search box to set up the Collection, the Options and Operator entries on the search’s drop-down are greyed out. Does this mean that these features are not implemented yet? (and so I can only search on a single term?)
I’m curious if this is really the reason for not being able to drag cards around for “arbitrary” collections. If you can rearrange them in the collection’s binder view, the cork board should present no additional confusion if users are allowed to rearrange through that interface. It’s kind of the point of the (non-search-based) collections, to test out various orders of scenes, after all.
The problem with moving cards around on a corkboard in a collection right now is that you aren’t actually viewing the collection’s group view, technically speaking. What you are actually looking at is a Multiple Selection that contains every item in the collection—and multiple selections can never be organised for obvious reasons—they do not “exist” anywhere except in that window.
Once the ability to view the collection as a proper group has been implemented, then arbitrary collections will indeed have the capability to be edited on the corkboard/outliner view. And of course, that only applies to arbitrary collections. Those being generated by a search query can never be organised since they are not a list of items, but a piece of code that generates a list of items.