Pre-selection of Source Record for Auto Source Citation pane
Posted: 22 Mar 2015 12:03
Background: In v5, if the Source-Records window was selected and a Source-Record within it was selected, then invoking the menu item for Tools / Auto Source Citations, brought up a window with the selected source-record already selected. The user "only" needed to add entry-date, where-within-source, etc, to enable the automatic source citation.
In v6, this "pre-selection" of the highlighted source-record has been lost. Instead, after selecting Tools / Auto Source Citations (or the Auto Source Citations button), one must find the source-record again through one of several methods such as the drop-down source-title list or the option "Find Source Record ..." on the cog-menu.
The latter option is especially infuriating as (1) the source-record has already been found in the Record-window below and (2) the window brought up by the cog-menu option is identical(?) to the record-window below excepting that it is smaller and therefore more difficult to work with.
For those of us who are source-record-centric, and have created the source-record beforehand, this extra set of steps is annoying because it adds extra work for no reason when compared to v5. (Note that I never create a source-record from scratch - all my source-records are clones of either existing source-records or of existing skeleton records to ensure that all the correct values are entered - it is easier to use the big window to find the skeletons.)
It is also arguably confusing from a User Interface viewpoint that selecting Citation update facilities can be used to update Source-records (e.g. through Create or Clone Source Record) - Citations and Sources are two different entities and should have different update screens.
Proposal: 1. The v5 method of pre-selecting the source-record be reintroduced (it is hard to imagine why it was deliberately removed?). In other words, when selecting Tools / Auto Source Citations or the Auto Source Citations button, then if (a) the source record window is current and (b) a single Source-record is highlighted, then that source-record should automatically appear as the selected source in the yellow Auto Source Citations pane when it appears.
Additional Possibilities:
- It should be possible to right-click on a source-record and populate it as the selected source in an already displayed yellow Auto Source Citations pane.
and / or
- There should be a menu item and /or tool-bar button to carry out the same functionality as the right-click just described above.
Reference: See General Usage Forum item Automatic Source Citations do not auto populate (12345).
In v6, this "pre-selection" of the highlighted source-record has been lost. Instead, after selecting Tools / Auto Source Citations (or the Auto Source Citations button), one must find the source-record again through one of several methods such as the drop-down source-title list or the option "Find Source Record ..." on the cog-menu.
The latter option is especially infuriating as (1) the source-record has already been found in the Record-window below and (2) the window brought up by the cog-menu option is identical(?) to the record-window below excepting that it is smaller and therefore more difficult to work with.
For those of us who are source-record-centric, and have created the source-record beforehand, this extra set of steps is annoying because it adds extra work for no reason when compared to v5. (Note that I never create a source-record from scratch - all my source-records are clones of either existing source-records or of existing skeleton records to ensure that all the correct values are entered - it is easier to use the big window to find the skeletons.)
It is also arguably confusing from a User Interface viewpoint that selecting Citation update facilities can be used to update Source-records (e.g. through Create or Clone Source Record) - Citations and Sources are two different entities and should have different update screens.
Proposal: 1. The v5 method of pre-selecting the source-record be reintroduced (it is hard to imagine why it was deliberately removed?). In other words, when selecting Tools / Auto Source Citations or the Auto Source Citations button, then if (a) the source record window is current and (b) a single Source-record is highlighted, then that source-record should automatically appear as the selected source in the yellow Auto Source Citations pane when it appears.
Additional Possibilities:
- It should be possible to right-click on a source-record and populate it as the selected source in an already displayed yellow Auto Source Citations pane.
and / or
- There should be a menu item and /or tool-bar button to carry out the same functionality as the right-click just described above.
Reference: See General Usage Forum item Automatic Source Citations do not auto populate (12345).