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Change in Open Notes field?

Ann

July 02, 2009 20:12

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Maybe I asked this question in the wrong place originally - I'm going to try here.

I'm wondering if you purposefully changed the "Open Notes" field to display only the subject line instead of the body of the open notes? If it was purposeful, is there a way to get the old field back, too? We're not even using the subject line at this point (although I'd be interested in knowing if we could set it to default to the version name.)

Also, the "wrap text" function appears to have stopped working on the Shot -> Versions tab.

thanks!!
ann

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9 comments

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  Don Parker July 02, 2009 20:34

  Hi Ann, those changes were not on purpose.  In fact, they're bugs!  We rebuilt the cell framework that is used all over and some special fields like the "open notes" fields had some rough edges.  I'm making a ticket about this which we'll work to address asap in a patch.  Thanks for the info.

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  Ann July 02, 2009 20:53

  Hmmm.  Isaac just told me the "Open Notes" change was on purpose...

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  Isaac Reuben July 02, 2009 21:30

  Hey Ann, sorry for the mixed messages.  =)  We changed the "display name" of notes to just be the subject instead of body on purpose, and that display name is what is shown in the Open Notes field (as well as other places) but we realize that having the body of the note in the Open Notes field is very useful (thanks for the use cases you emailed, as knowing that you are using that field on the Shot detail page layout is really helpful).  We're working on a solution for you!

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  Isaac Reuben July 02, 2009 21:48

  Would the subject + first part of the body (first 50 chars, for instance) be helpful there?  It was already being truncated to only first 255 chars of the body before.  Our goal in changing it was to make that display name for the note shorter because that same text is used other places than the Open Notes field.
  
  Unfortunately, it wouldn't be a quick fix just to add a second field that shows the whole body, because (and this is getting a bit into the techie guts of Shotgun) that field wasn't actually showing a particular field from the notes, but was showing it's entry in the "phone book" that everything in shotgun has (like a user's name and a shot's code).  What we changed is what goes *into* the listings in the phone book for notes.  Whatever we put in there will be shown everywhere.

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  KP July 03, 2009 22:30

  Joining the chat,

  Yeah I think the other argument I've heard is that if you want to add a Note field and have it auto-complete, some clients don't find the content useful at all in this case and depend on the Subject to allow them to choose the Note they are looking for. So it does seem like some sort of combination would solve both needs. But let us know how you might feel about this solution for sure.

  cheers,
  kp

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  Ann July 06, 2009 02:15

  Hi all,

  Sorry for my delayed response.

  I'd be curious to see examples of how other houses are using the subject line/body of the Notes.  We've actually been skipping the subject line altogether -- in our previous shot tracking system the subject line of the emails was internal/external - date - shot number, but that seemed like a duplication of information in Shotgun.  Are folks really summarizing the fb in the subject line?  And I'm curious what would auto-complete in a Note field... (re: Kevin's note).

  All that said, re: Isaac's suggestion, seeing the first 50chars of the body would be helpful.

  When you say "Our goal in changing it was to make that display name for the note shorter because that same text is used other places than the Open Notes field." I'm wondering which text "that same text" refers to -- and where else it's displayed.

  
  Thanks for thinking through this with me!  I think Shotgun is really great -- just trying to get our heads around the best way to use it.

   

  ann

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  Don Parker July 07, 2009 09:56

  Hi Ann, we just added this update to our new dev cycle that started today.  We'll look into getting this into a patch, so you should have it w/in two weeks.

  As for using subject lines, many of our clients use these like email subject lines.  However, that does take a bit of time, so a handful of our clients are skipping the subject line like you all are.  I remember a fierce debate on our end when we were first building notes about if we should add that subject line.  it seems helpful in some cases to summarize the note in a small space for quick scanning.  But in other cases, like notes in dailies, it can seem like added work.  We've been thinking about ways to help you automate what goes in the subject line, such as a combo of the date and the entity the note is on:  Shot 100_0001, July 7, 2009.  Think that would be useful?

  We'll likely also get to a point where you can simply decide to pull out the subject field and have it go away w/out breaking anything.  But we're not quite there yet.  ;)

   

  I'll let KP and Isaac answer your other Q's.

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  Ann July 07, 2009 16:24

  Hey Don,

  Thanks for the update.  I'm glad to hear that subject lines are worthy of intense debate, and it's not just us being persnickety.  As most of our note-creation happens in dailies, it is true that creating a subject line feels like an extra step.  That said, an auto-fill of the shot code and date into that field would be awesome!

  ann

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  KP July 08, 2009 05:46

  Ann,

  When we refer to the "display name" of something, we are talking about the human readable name. When applying this definition to a Note, it's a bit convoluted but ultimately it's some summary of the Note. In some client's case, that would presumably be the subject line. In others, it's a truncated version of the Note's content. In others still, it's the date and entity (shot code for example), and perhaps something else. The debate continues....

  Back to the auto-complete example... if you add an entity column to Version that is restricted to Notes. When you try and fill that field in, it will attempt to auto-complete based on the display name of the Note. Some clients would expect this to be the subject, especially if they have had a methodology for how they fill in the subject line. This could work even better if we did have a mechanism for auto-filling some of the relevant information though... I think we're realizing we need to allow for better flexibility here to match up with the differing needs.