I have a folder containing hundreds of notes, each dated and with keywords (in attributes). I want to leave them in the folder, so I can view them all in chronological order, but to work on them, I would like to pick out certain groups (eg all notes within a limited date range, or all notes with a certain keyword). I can do this with an agent. The problem there is that what I can do inside an agent seems to be limited, in that I cannot arrange all the notes in a single column (as soon as the agent updates, it reverts to grid) and I seem unable to apply a template. So what I have done is to create the agent, copy all the notes from the agent, and then paste them into a new note/container, which I can organize as I want. I then delete the agent.
My question is, Is this the best way to do this? Where I have copied the notes, it looks as though I am viewing the same note in two places? Is that correct?
I wanted to check this before I work on too many notes using this method, just in case there is something I have missed it will result in data that is a mess.
I assume you are not referring to export templates, which is the normal meaning of ‘template’ in Tinderbox use. Could you clarify this a bit?
You now have a normal container note holding aliases of the original notes.
I assume you are referring to ad hoc visual layout, i.e. manual arrangement on the map. I say this because if you want the ability to re-create the layout after trying a different layout, you can only really do that by either:
storing the desired {x,y} coordinates ($Xpos ansd $Ypos) in user attribute(s)
or
using maps of aliases
Note that aliases have some intrinsic attributes, i.e. original and alias can hold different values for the same attribute, and that whilst original and alias share outbound text links, outbound basic links may differ as will all inbound link (a link can only have one destination. There is good reason† for these link-related differences (it is needed to allow accurate link export given that original and alias can export as discrete files in different places).
For that reason, you may find it useful to add attributes to hold specific map positions ands stamps to populate those. By simple use of prototypes it would be easy to toggle the same map items between a number of different layouts (though not view them all at once).
I won’t dive into further detail as that depends on what approach you want to take from the above ideas.
†. So, asking for a variation optimised for multiple maps of the same objects is an already rejected idea. Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to optimise for two mutually incompatible uses—even though many people only employ one or other context/use.
Sorry, I wrote “template” when I meant “prototype”. My mistake.
Thanks for confirming that the copies I have made will be aliases. It sounds as though what I have done will work, provided that I am careful about links. I will read up about those. My main reason for creating “subfolders” was not because I want to create complicated maps, but simply because it makes it easier not to get lost in a sea of several hundred notes. I am organizing them using colours, but even so it can be useful to have them grouped in different ways.