Should TW Tag New Journal entries automatically?

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jventola

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Feb 1, 2007, 10:54:41 PM2/1/07
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You can edit some code to make "New Journal" add a tag of
"Journal" (or whatever you like) automatically.

I would like to propose that that be the default behavior. Since it
IS a journal, why not tag it? Newbies could then just click on "New
Journal," enter their text, and be done.

And readers (or teachers) could then just click on the TAGS menu and
open all the journal entries at once.

I am getting a fair amount of resistance from students who are
confused by TiddlyWiki. I think (hope) they will come to agree with
me that it is well worth learning, but removing any barriers to
immediate usage makes sense.

So what is the down side of doing this? It does add a tag that maybe
some users would not want. But my guess is that it makes more sense
to make it necessary to alter code in order to remove such a tag than
in order to have it.

BTW--off topic--is it possible to PREVIEW one's postings in the new
google groups interface? I miss that ability.

Martin Budden

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Feb 2, 2007, 2:09:51 AM2/2/07
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Jim,

you can get the behavior you want by editing the SideBarOptions shadow
tiddler, so you don't actually have to write any code (although I
guess it does depend on how you define code). So, for example, you
could change the <<newJournal>> entry from:

<<newJournal 'DD MMM YYYY'>>

to

<<newJournal 'DD MMM YYYY' 'journal'>>

(The first parameter to the newJournal macro is the date format,
subsequent parameters are tags to be added).

I actually do this for my own journal entries, so I'm sympathetic to
making this the default behaviour, and requiring people who don't want
the tag to remove it.

Martin

Udo Borkowski

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Feb 2, 2007, 3:47:27 AM2/2/07
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I support the idea of automatically tagging Journal tiddlers.

Of cause the tag name must be localizable (through the lingo stuff) and maybe customizable (e.g. "journal" become "Journal").

I raised a ticket for this: http://trac.tiddlywiki.org/tiddlywiki/ticket/297

Udo

----------
Udo Borkowski
http://www.abego-software.de

jventola

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Feb 2, 2007, 10:57:59 AM2/2/07
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Thanks Martin. Yes, that is the method I use; I came across it while
browsing this group. But trying to share that with students who don't
use computers much (or at all) is tricky.

Already, I have confused them needlessly by asking them to make a
"blog" on their "wiki" but to use the "New Journal" rather than the
"New Tiddler" for that and to use the titled tiddlers for the wiki
they will construct later as a presentation of their research
project. Dumb of me. I should have just started them out with New
Tiddler and asked them to tag with "blog".

BTW, is there a way to have a tiddler tagged automatically? Maybe I
could give them instructions for creating a [[new blog entry]] in the
main menu? Clicking it would call up a tiddler that would have the
code to create a new tiddler tagged "blog" or something.

(Or maybe I am being way too fussy: the reader could just look at the
Timeline and see the postings. The basic problem is that TiddlyWiki is
just too much fun for me and I forget that building a nicely
structured document is not everyone's idea of a great time.)

olivier

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Feb 2, 2007, 1:58:51 PM2/2/07
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Hi

Tagging by default JournalTiddlers is also the method I am proposing
in CognyWiki.
I have implemented the technique proposed by Martin in the left side
menu.
In my approach I am proposing a way to easily untag them with a
checkbox in their headers.

My suggestion is to untag them when you have organized the information
they contain into tiddlers with a more explicit title.

http://liris.cnrs.fr/~ogeorgeo/cognywiki.html

Olivier


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