Annotate boxes distracting, unlinked and hard to identify

Have new ideas for the next release of IHMC CmapTools and IHMC CmapServer?
We welcome your suggestions and we will carefully consider whether to incorporate them into the software.
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arend
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Sep 02, 2014 10:13 am

Annotate boxes distracting, unlinked and hard to identify

Post by arend »

The Annotate box is distracting, unlinked clearly and cannot be easily identified as to which "object it belongs unless clicked on. Also, they are not included in the nesting function so just sits out there on the screen when the nest is rolled up. Why not include it as a button within the "object" field instead of these free floating unidentifiable boxes?
cmapadmin
Site Admin
Posts: 797
Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2008 2:22 pm

Re: Annotate boxes distracting, unlinked and hard to identif

Post by cmapadmin »

Annotations can be associated with more than one node. You can select nodes from several sections of the Cmap and make an annotation. When the annotation is opened, the nodes are selected. Therefore, the annotation cannot be part of any node in particular.
andlister
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2017 10:20 am

Re: Annotate boxes distracting, unlinked and hard to identif

Post by andlister »

I can see some value in being able to associate notes with more than one node, but I see greater costs. If I want n nodes and n notes - which is I think by far the most common case - then I have 2n items that move independently on my canvas. Every time I change the map, I have to make sure that the right note is with the right node. It's true I could use "add info" for mouse over popups, but then the user couldn't select and copy that text (and wouldn't see that there is text associated unless checks by hovering mouse). Why not lock note onto first node clicked when creating? You could still have the highlighting to indicate multiple association. But I would personally be happy to sacrifice multiple association for the sake of not having to keep track of which note is supposed to be on top of what node. Perhaps others feel differently, or have a different method for keeping notes and nodes together.
nhoeller
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2011 3:06 pm

Re: Annotate boxes distracting, unlinked and hard to identify

Post by nhoeller »

I would like to second andlister's suggestions. One of the really powerful features of Cmaps is the ability to automatically clean up a messy Cmap using the Desktop Format -> Autolayout feature. However, having to open each annotation and the manually moving it back to the associated node is time-consuming and error-prone.

I do not know enough about the internals of Cmap to guess whether some sort of a 'group' feature is possible, or associating annotations with nodes based on overlap (this would handle the case where an annotation is associated with multiple nodes).

Thanks, Norbert
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