Now that I've been using SpellCatcher for almost two years I've accumulated enough glossary entries that I have sometimes have trouble remembering which abbreviation to use to trigger the glossary entry. As a silly example, I know I have a glossary entry for "In my humble opinion", but I can't remember if I trigger if by "humble" or "hum" or "humop" or...
Spellcatcher lets me input all these choices to see whether they are valid (have associated Glossary entries), but I'd much rather have a search tool that lets me find all the Glossary entries that contain the word "humble" in them!!!
Far less desirable if the above isn't possible for some reason would be a tool/utility that would let me export a "cheat sheet" listing of all the entries (either by glossary or globally for all glossaries). Right now I can export listings in Spellcatcher proprietary format or in XML, but it's non-trivial to take the XML file and format the output into something useful by stripping out all the fields. What I have in mind is a tabular format (importable by a spreadsheet or wordprocesser), e.g.
Abbreviation Glossary Entry
========================
Ia --> Iowa
imho --> In my humble option
In --> Indiana
etc.
Long glossary enties would just get their first x characters shown (whatever fit in the table... perhaps that would be user customizable).
PS-- while playing with my word processor to do this formatting it occurred to me that in order to alphabetize different glossary entries in different glossaries I needed to create a new "super" (but temporary) glossary to duplicate all the entries in the individual glossaries... and I didn't see instructions on how to do it in the Manual! I do see that there's an "Add" button that is supposed to let me Add references, but I find the interface a bit confusing; it looks like a File Opening window that lets me pick from existing references, and I don't really see how to create my own new ones. I think in the past I handled this by copying a glossary in Finder, renaming it, and then deleting all the entries... but I'm sure that's not the intended process! :->
thanks much for any suggestions...
0
Tools needed for remembering glossary entries
Started by ddoer, Aug 12 2006 08:27 AM
2 replies to this topic
#2
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Posted 13 August 2006 - 09:13 PM
ddoer, on Aug 12 2006, 09:27 AM, said:
Now that I've been using SpellCatcher for almost two years I've accumulated enough glossary entries that I have sometimes have trouble remembering which abbreviation to use to trigger the glossary entry. As a silly example, I know I have a glossary entry for "In my humble opinion", but I can't remember if I trigger if by "humble" or "hum" or "humop" or...
Spellcatcher lets me input all these choices to see whether they are valid (have associated Glossary entries), but I'd much rather have a search tool that lets me find all the Glossary entries that contain the word "humble" in them!!!
Spellcatcher lets me input all these choices to see whether they are valid (have associated Glossary entries), but I'd much rather have a search tool that lets me find all the Glossary entries that contain the word "humble" in them!!!
True enough, there's no really good way to search for expansion text across different shorthand glossary documents. Easy enough to search within a document, just open it and enter what you're searching for in the search field in the toolbar.
Perhaps some sort of addition to the Find in References command would help? I think it would need to be an option to search shorthand expansions, as there would (could?) be a performance impact. Searching abbreviations is optimized for speed (and a LOT of time was spent trying to make it as fast as possible), but not so for substrings within a shorthand expansion.
If you have any ideas, feel free to let us know!
Quote
Far less desirable if the above isn't possible for some reason would be a tool/utility that would let me export a "cheat sheet" listing of all the entries (either by glossary or globally for all glossaries). Right now I can export listings in Spellcatcher proprietary format or in XML, but it's non-trivial to take the XML file and format the output into something useful by stripping out all the fields. What I have in mind is a tabular format (importable by a spreadsheet or wordprocesser), e.g.
Abbreviation Glossary Entry
========================
Ia --> Iowa
imho --> In my humble option
In --> Indiana
etc.
Long glossary entries would just get their first x characters shown (whatever fit in the table... perhaps that would be user customizable).
Abbreviation Glossary Entry
========================
Ia --> Iowa
imho --> In my humble option
In --> Indiana
etc.
Long glossary entries would just get their first x characters shown (whatever fit in the table... perhaps that would be user customizable).
Again, give me your feedback and ideas.
Quote
PS-- while playing with my word processor to do this formatting it occurred to me that in order to alphabetize different glossary entries in different glossaries I needed to create a new "super" (but temporary) glossary to duplicate all the entries in the individual glossaries... and I didn't see instructions on how to do it in the Manual! I do see that there's an "Add" button that is supposed to let me Add references, but I find the interface a bit confusing; it looks like a File Opening window that lets me pick from existing references, and I don't really see how to create my own new ones. I think in the past I handled this by copying a glossary in Finder, renaming it, and then deleting all the entries... but I'm sure that's not the intended process! :->
thanks much for any suggestions...
thanks much for any suggestions...
Creating new documents in Spell Catcher X is no different from the way it's done in almost any other app. In the Spell Catcher application, choose File > New > Shorthand Glossary. To copy the contents of all your shorthand glossary documents into this new file, you can copy and paste, or drag and drop (not just the entries, but the file itself in the Finder) into the document window.
But you're right, far from ideal for what you're after. Will do the job in a pinch, and it's likely not something you'd do that often.
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Posted 14 August 2006 - 01:54 PM
[[ True enough, there's no really good way to search for expansion text across different shorthand glossary documents. Easy enough to search within a document, just open it and enter what you're searching for in the search field in the toolbar. Perhaps some sort of addition to the Find in References command would help? I think it would need to be an option to search shorthand expansions, as there would (could?) be a performance impact. Searching abbreviations is optimized for speed (and a LOT of time was spent trying to make it as fast as possible), but not so for substrings within a shorthand expansion.]
Exactly the kind of tool I had in mind... slower performance (only when the user chose to do it) probably wouldn't be a problem. Getting a list of all the "hits" right away, rather than having to Command-G through the list to see them all, would be good.
/////////////////
[quote]
Far less desirable if the above isn't possible for some reason would be a tool/utility that would let me export a "cheat sheet" listing of all the entries (either by glossary or globally for all glossaries). Right now I can export listings in Spellcatcher proprietary format or in XML, but it's non-trivial to take the XML file and format the output into something useful by stripping out all the fields. What I have in mind is a tabular format (importable by a spreadsheet or wordprocesser), e.g.
Abbreviation Glossary Entry
========================
Ia --> Iowa
imho --> In my humble option
In --> Indiana
etc.
Long glossary entries would just get their first x characters shown (whatever fit in the table... perhaps that would be user customizable).
[/quote]
[[Actually, take a look at the result you get from printing a shorthand glossary document. Maybe you can use that as-is? Again, give me your feedback and ideas.]]
I'd overlooked this option, good point. If there was an option to combine all the glossaries into one that would be good... otherwise it wouldn't help me much.
[quote]
PS-- while playing with my word processor to do this formatting it occurred to me that in order to alphabetize different glossary entries in different glossaries I needed to create a new "super" (but temporary) glossary to duplicate all the entries in the individual glossaries... and I didn't see instructions on how to do it in the Manual! I do see that there's an "Add" button that is supposed to let me Add references, but I find the interface a bit confusing; it looks like a File Opening window that lets me pick from existing references, and I don't really see how to create my own new ones. I think in the past I handled this by copying a glossary in Finder, renaming it, and then deleting all the entries... but I'm sure that's not the intended process! :->
[/quote]
[[ Creating new documents in Spell Catcher X is no different from the way it's done in almost any other app. In the Spell Catcher application, choose File > New > Shorthand Glossary. To copy the contents of all your shorthand glossary documents into this new file, you can copy and paste, or drag and drop (not just the entries, but the file itself in the Finder) into the document window. But you're right, far from ideal for what you're after. Will do the job in a pinch, and it's likely not something you'd do that often. ]]
[/quote]
Oh! Makes sense. But then what is the "Add" button on the Universal References page? A mouseover of that button says it's used to "Add References to the list", but as above I find the interface confusing... your File>New method is much better, but I didn't think it would be available. I'd add a short mention of this to the Help documentation... I think all the explanations are for adding individul entries rather than new References.
I probably would want to create a superset glossary from the various individual glossaries fairly often... but it's nice to know that the drag-and-drop option you describe is available. But you're right, that method would get old pretty fast.
Exactly the kind of tool I had in mind... slower performance (only when the user chose to do it) probably wouldn't be a problem. Getting a list of all the "hits" right away, rather than having to Command-G through the list to see them all, would be good.
/////////////////
[quote]
Far less desirable if the above isn't possible for some reason would be a tool/utility that would let me export a "cheat sheet" listing of all the entries (either by glossary or globally for all glossaries). Right now I can export listings in Spellcatcher proprietary format or in XML, but it's non-trivial to take the XML file and format the output into something useful by stripping out all the fields. What I have in mind is a tabular format (importable by a spreadsheet or wordprocesser), e.g.
Abbreviation Glossary Entry
========================
Ia --> Iowa
imho --> In my humble option
In --> Indiana
etc.
Long glossary entries would just get their first x characters shown (whatever fit in the table... perhaps that would be user customizable).
[/quote]
[[Actually, take a look at the result you get from printing a shorthand glossary document. Maybe you can use that as-is? Again, give me your feedback and ideas.]]
I'd overlooked this option, good point. If there was an option to combine all the glossaries into one that would be good... otherwise it wouldn't help me much.
[quote]
PS-- while playing with my word processor to do this formatting it occurred to me that in order to alphabetize different glossary entries in different glossaries I needed to create a new "super" (but temporary) glossary to duplicate all the entries in the individual glossaries... and I didn't see instructions on how to do it in the Manual! I do see that there's an "Add" button that is supposed to let me Add references, but I find the interface a bit confusing; it looks like a File Opening window that lets me pick from existing references, and I don't really see how to create my own new ones. I think in the past I handled this by copying a glossary in Finder, renaming it, and then deleting all the entries... but I'm sure that's not the intended process! :->
[/quote]
[[ Creating new documents in Spell Catcher X is no different from the way it's done in almost any other app. In the Spell Catcher application, choose File > New > Shorthand Glossary. To copy the contents of all your shorthand glossary documents into this new file, you can copy and paste, or drag and drop (not just the entries, but the file itself in the Finder) into the document window. But you're right, far from ideal for what you're after. Will do the job in a pinch, and it's likely not something you'd do that often. ]]
[/quote]
Oh! Makes sense. But then what is the "Add" button on the Universal References page? A mouseover of that button says it's used to "Add References to the list", but as above I find the interface confusing... your File>New method is much better, but I didn't think it would be available. I'd add a short mention of this to the Help documentation... I think all the explanations are for adding individul entries rather than new References.
I probably would want to create a superset glossary from the various individual glossaries fairly often... but it's nice to know that the drag-and-drop option you describe is available. But you're right, that method would get old pretty fast.
