Tagging idiosyncrasies
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by
Stork
I've noticed a couple problems with tagging recently. They're just minor things and may not be fixable. Feel free to tell me I'm too nit-picky, but here goes:
On a new page, tag any 5 things, but don't click the green check-mark rectangle on any of those tags. Now at the top right corner of the page click the clock-with-three-dots-under-it icon (hereafter referred to as the Timeline box), and notice that none of the 5 tags are there. Now click any one of the 5 tags to open it, click its green check-mark, and all 5 of your tags are instantly registered in the Timeline box. The problem this causes is that after you've completed a page and clicked Finished to bring in the next page, any tags you've made without clicking their green check-mark won't be registered. I'm sure that I've tagged countless thousands of things since I started with OWD that didn't get registered for this reason. To prevent this problem from happening, when you tag the last item on a page, make sure you click its green check-mark, and that will register all tags you've made on the page but forgot to click their check-mark. I know this is confusing, I hope I explained it well enough so that it makes sense.
2nd problem: if you put tags too close together, their order may get reversed in the Timeline box. I've tagged pages where the author writes so small he squeezes an entire month onto one page. You have to put the Date tags very close together, and sometimes two dates will be switched when you look at them in the Timeline box. For example, the first 5 days of the month will be 1, 2, 4, 3, 5 in the Timeline box, even though when you look at your tags, they are in chronological order. The tags for the 3rd and 4th days are too close together, and for some reason they get switched in the Timeline box.
Also, when you put any tag too close to the horizontal line that comes out of a Date icon, the Timeline box may show it on the wrong day. For example, if you put a Weather tag just below the horizontal line for the 14th day, the Timeline box may show that Weather tag on the 13th day, even though you can clearly see that your Weather tag is below the 14th day's line. To fix it, slide the Weather tag down a tiny bit until the Timeline box shows it on the 14th day.
The too-close problems don't happen every time, so you may not be able to make them happen even if you try several times. Like I said above, these probably aren't fixable, but I wanted to warn everyone that they can happen.
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Well. I have never opened up that timeline box with the 3 dots since I started tagging the diaries. Surprised to see the information it holds! An interesting feature of this project.
PS I stagger my tags, if there are quite a few I don't tag them all under one another so they don't encrouch on each, often room to do this, while keeping them within the horizontal date line.
PPS I always thought all the tags automatically went through and were recorded and I am sure they do.
Posted
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by
cyngast
moderator
in response to Stork's comment.
Thanks for your comments, Stork. Like Marie, I've never actually used the timeline box, either.
It's good to know that tags may be recorded out of order if they get too close together. I try to stagger them, also, so that one is to the left, the next to the right, and so on.
I'm wondering, though, why you don't just click the green checkmark with every tag? How else do you close the box?
Posted
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by
141Dial34
in response to Stork's comment.
Well found Stork. I am also guilty of not always clicking the green button especially when you have to scroll to reach it.i do it for dates & attacking etc...gee in fact i do it a lot! Sometimes an author is so neat you can see for instance the weather everyday on the page so I just do all the weathers on the page in one go without having to click on finish..Nothing says it hasn't worked.The weather icon is in every spot when you recheck so who knew it wouldnt register? the timeline use is in the tutorial...good to pretend we have just joined every now and then & re read the tutorial!Also hashtagging the actual nationality is a good idea seeing one goes to the trouble of doing alliedrelations...as if you are researching say american it come up.
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I check almost everytime the timebox and in this way I sometimes see that I forgot to tag the place names or I see that the place names are not in the correct position with respect to the dates or I misspelled a surname or village or regiment.
Posted
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by
Stork
Thanks for your replies.
Reply to cyngast: I don't click the green checkmark every time simply because it requires sliding my mouse to move the cursor to the green box and then clicking. Call me lazy. You don't need to close the box- after you enter the info in the box, just click anywhere else on the page to make your next tag, and the box disappears. It's just a little easier to leave the box open and go directly to your next tag.
Reply to 141Dial34: I also do all the weathers (and dates, and places, and people...) all in one go like you do. It's much easier that way.
Posted
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by
cyngast
moderator
I think the reason I have never used the Timeline is that when I first began tagging, it didn't make any sense to me. I've looked at it for the two or three pages I've tagged today, though, and I see that it is useful. Thanks for bringing it up, Stork.
I've noticed that while for most tags the Timeline shows the choice I made from the drop-down menu, such as Training under Unit Activity, Hygiene under Army Life, etc., but that for Other Unit it shows only the unit but not the reason.
Stork, I never realized there were so many ways to close the boxes. When you click elsewhere on the page to close a box, your tags aren't being recorded. I find it interesting that they are then recorded later by clicking on the green check mark in a later box. I think I'll stick to just clicking on the green check mark in every box, though. It has worked for me so far, so why mess with my system?
While tagging, I prefer to move through the page line by line, rather than tagging all the weather, places, people, etc. at one time. It's just my preference to approach it that way. I feel I get a better sense of life in the unit that way. However, when I come to a page that is filled entirely with nothing but dates and Training, I do tend to switch to doing all the dates first, then all of the activity.
Posted
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by
ral104
moderator, scientist
The timeline was supposed to be a quick reference to help people check over their tags before finishing a page - some find it useful and others don't. Personally, I hardly ever look at it, but as Erik says, it can be very useful for catching instances of tags falling into the wrong date, or names being misspelled, etc.
As for whether or not to click the green tick box on each tag...Click it! If you don't, your tags won't be saved and you'll be wasting your time.
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