Is there a way to tag lines?

[Ryan1]

I often have information placed randomly on different topics in a document that I would like to tag.

I would like to be able to create tags that can be applied to a line/character/location so that I can get a list of all lines that have that tag.

Is this something that AWP already can do?

Thank you.

PS: I have seen this post, but it isn't really what I am referring to. What I am thinking of is a dropdown list of user defined tags that can be inserted anywhere without having to have the text of the tag in the document and the ability to search on those (invisible) tags to bring up a list of tagged lines.

viewtopic.php?t=2394

[admin]

If you do not have an index in your document, you could tag locations in your document using index entries. Just click a location that you want to tag, press Shift+Alt+X, type the tag name, and press Enter. You could then use the Index panel of the Control Board to sort the tags alphabetically, and to navigate among the tagged locations.

[Ryan1]

Thank you for your reply. Your response got me to familiarize myself with the Index function and I can see some potential usefulness in it for some things I need.

If I understand it correctly though (and please correct me if I am wrong) using the indexing function lacks two key features that I would need:

1) I think an index entry/tag can only refer to one location. I would like to be able to use the same “tag” to mark multiple locations. The name of the tag would represent a collection/category and each location would be tagged with the same tag indicating it is in the same collection/category.

2) I would like to be able to get a list of all the lines with the same tag. I love the way the Find/Replace feature works and ideally it would allow you the option to search on these tags instead of on the text of the document so you could get a list of all the lines that contain that same tag the same way you get a list of the text in the “Find what:” field.

[admin]

You can mark as many locations with same "tag" (index entry text) in your document as you wish.

As I said, you could use the Index panel of the Control Board to manage the "tags". It can sort the index entries alphabetically. You can also click the list of index entries, and start typing the tag name that you want to find in this list. All the index entries starting with the typed letters would be automatically highlighted in the Index panel.

[Ryan1]

You can mark as many locations with same "tag" (index entry text) in your document as you wish.

Thank you for your help. I apologize but I could not find how to do this.

Say you have an index entry called "ABC" listed in the Index panel of the control board that references location #1. How do you get that same index entry to also reference location #2 so that it references both locations simultaneously? How do you apply the existing index entry to additional locations?

Thanks again.

[admin]

I never said you could make an index entry point to multiple locations in your document. You create separate index entries for each location, but use same entry text. Let' suppose that you have three locations in your document that you want to mark as "ABC". Click each of those locations, press Shift+Alt+X, type "ABC", and press Enter. Alternatively, select all three locations as a multiple selection (use Ctrl to add a new item to a multiple selection with the mouse), then press Alt+X only once. The Index panel would list three "ABC" index entries grouped together if you sort them alphabetically.

[Ryan1]

Thank you for that clarification. Yes, I see you can have multiple index entries with the same name. However that is not the functionality I had in mind. I am thinking about being able to have a single tag that can be assigned to multiple locations ( a single tag would represent a group of locations) and to be able to search on that tag to display a list containing the text from the lines in all of the locations that tag refers to instead of searching on actual text.

[admin]

When the index entries are alphabetically sorted in the Index panel, entries with identical text appear grouped together. Such a group can be treated as one tag. In the same time, you can still easily manage tags of individual locations.

But I suggested using the Index panel not because it is meant to tag paragraph lines in exactly the way you had in mind. I suggested it as a workaround. Not a bad workaround, in my opinion.

[Ryan1]

Thank you. Yes, I understood you were suggesting a workaround. I'm not sure it would be satisfactory for me for this purpose but I understand your idea and appreciate the thought you put into it.

But what about the second part of the process, being able to list the content of each of the tagged lines similar to when you use the Find panel to search text. One of the main values of tags, as they are usually implemented, is that you can see a list of content with the same tag. It acts as a kind of filter to show only lines related by the same tag.

Is there something in the workaround that addresses that? I'm not sure what value just being able to alphabetize the index entries would have as it would simply show a list with multiple entries of the same "tag" name, not the text of the lines the tags refer to. So if I had a list like the one below in the Index panel what could I do with it that would it be useful?

I think maybe you are saying I could select the tags one by one to see where they point to? If so, it's a clever idea but not really useful for the purpose I have in mind in part because there could be dozens of tags that are identical and I would have to look through all of them selecting them one by one to find one I am looking for. Just not practical.

Index Panel
Tag1
Tag1
Tag1
Tag2
Tag3
Tag3
Tag3
Tag3
Tag3
Tag3
Tag4
Tag5
Tag5
Tag5
Tag5

[admin]

You can easily find out where each index entry points to just by hovering the mouse pointer over it in the Index panel, if the “Mouse hover previews” option of the Control Board is on:



You are talking about a quite uncommon task. Sorry, but Atlantis cannot have a brand new dedicated feature to deal with it.

[Ryan1]

I think this would be a really useful feature for a lot of users. To be able to insert an invisible tag from a popup list and then be able to get a list of the text at locations tagged by the same tag. Seems extremely useful to me. But I appreciate your view.

Since this isn’t possible I am thinking of another possible workaround. Even though it isn’t invisible, some visible text (such as #category1) can be inserted as a tag and then the Find panel can be used to get the list of the lines.

Is there anything that exists currently in AWP that might make this a little better… such as a way to insert prestored text?

I don’t think so, but just wanted to ask this one last question before I let this topic go.

Thanks again.

[admin]

There are multiple ways to “tag” locations in Atlantis. You can use index entries. You can use bookmarks. You can use paragraph styles that bear no actual formatting (you can search for them with the Find/Replace tool of Atlantis). But there is no dedicated “tags” feature in Atlantis that would work in exactly the same way you need. I am not even sure that your "tags" idea is compatible with MS Word documents. Sorry, Atlantis does not support hidden text.

[Ryan1]

Sorry, Atlantis does not support hidden text.

Maybe I am using the wrong terminology. Maybe "hidden text" is not the right way to describe what I am referring to.

A "Bookmark" marks a certain place in a document. The name of the bookmark does not have to be the same as the text in the document that it referrs to. You can call the Bookmark "ABC" and have it refer to a line of text containing only "XYZ."

The feature I was hoping to have is exactly the same as a Bookmark in this way. You would create a "Tag" you could name "ABC" that would refer to a location that can have any text in it, just like a Bookmark does. No difference. It doesn't need to have hidden text.

The only difference between a "Tag" and a "Bookmark" would be that a single "Tag" would be able to refer to multiple locations and not just one location like a Bookmark. And the existing Find search would be modified so you could optionally set it to do a search on the Tag name instead of searching actual text (and it would search for the multiple locations the Tag points to and return them the same way it does when it searches on actual text).

So I don't think that it requires "hidden text" any more than a Bookmark would. I may have chosen a bad term to describe what I had in mind. It is really the same concept as a Bookmark, but with the two additional features I mentioned.

I just wanted to clarify the point above before letting the topic go in case I caused a misunderstanding.

I can't imagine why many users wouldn't love this feature. Seems to me to be extremely useful. It is a more powerful implementation of Bookmarks.

Thanks again for listening.

[Ryan1]

Sorry double post.