Note format template

Caveat: let me apologize in advance if this is ridiculously simplistic and/or has already been discussed a billion times. Though I am an experienced computer used, I have no background in programming or computer science. If there is a place where this question is already explained, please just point me toward it. Thanks very much, David

I would like to change the basic template for my notes. I gather that the only way to do that is to make a note with the desired characteristics (is that the same as attributes?), have that in a separate document, and then make links to that document when making notes in other documents in the future. Is that correct? If those links exist, does that confuse all the notes linked back to the template?

A very good question, so no caveat needed :slight_smile: Ao we are on the same page, what do you mean here but template:

I would like to change the basic template for my notes.

In Tinderbox the word normally refers to exporting data, though thatā€™s clearly not the aim hereā€”and my question does not imply an error in your usage. I think you are referring, in Tinderbox terms, to prototypes. this is the mechanism whereby to customise one note and them others use it as their ā€˜prototypeā€™ and in doing so inherit all those customisations. If Iā€™m in the right area, you might find my notes Inheritance of attribute values useful, noting that most customisations are stored as attribute values.

Does that help? Iā€™m sure there will be further questions arising from the above, but I hope this gets you moving towards the parts of Tinderbox at which you need to look.

That does help. Thanks for helping me to understand the terminology. I will look at your notes.
Best,
David

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Thank you again. I was hunting around in TbRef to find how to make a prototype for the format/attributes of a note. I found an instruction page, but now cannot relocate that page. It talked about saving the note that was to become a prototype in a folder within ā€œLibraryā€ on the Mac, within the ā€œTinderboxā€ folder. I could not locate that folder on my Mac. I wonder if the latest Mac OS (11.5) has changed the file system so the instructions for saving a prototype no longer apply?
Thanks again,
David

It sounds like ā€˜Shared Prototypesā€™. But, Iā€™d not start in on just advanced behviours until you are comfortable with the basics. You are much better off reading Prototypes and doing some simple task. Ideally test in a small doc and not using your actual data. That way you neither damage you data nor implement methods in the main document until you can do so with confidence.

Although a note anywhere in the document can be a prototype, they is ā€”I believe mainly still there to support very old files where the app was much less capable nd systems were more permissive.

Ideally, make your prototypes in a root-level /Prototypes container. An easy way to make that (with additional useful customisation) is to add a built-in prototype to your document. Itā€™s not a matter of which prototype, the point is it creates a correctly configured /Prototypes container for you; you can always delete the added prototype when done.

Although simple examples tend to show prototypes affecting visible things like the colour of a note, thatā€™s mainly sow changes can be seen. However most aspects of a note as an attribute and as such can be altered by changing that attribute. prototypes helps where you want to do a lot of customisation, as you only need to do it once and notes using that prototype inherit all the customisations.

If when trying things, notes using a prototype donā€™t inherit changes in the prototype it is most likely you have set a ā€˜localā€™ value in the note using the prototype. As a local value always trumps an inherited one, you may need to re-set inheritance as described here.

Reading the thread thus far, I think Shared Prototypes are only going to confuse you if you go straight to those.

Let us know how you get on.

I think Shared Prototypes are only going to confuse you

Putting in my 2Ā¢: donā€™t be intimidated by scope! Get the hang of prototypes this afternoon, using a throwaway document to practice with. After a day, itā€™ll be second nature and you can copy/paste prototypes when you need them. Or you can just set them up again: once you understand prototypes, it takes seconds.

By next Thursday, maybe youā€™re tired of copying and pasting. (Or maybe not: lots of people never need shared prototypes. I donā€™t, and I use Tinderbox a lot!). The easiest way to open the Tinderbox support folder is to use the Help Menu command, but I doubt you need this right away.

(BTW, are you the food writer David Leibowitz? Canā€™t resist asking, even though I know four or five other Mark Bernsteinā€¦)