Submitted by WayneK on 2022/05/23 23:27

When I use the group-by sort to organize items by tag assignments, I do not get the result I want.

For example:

 

Item-1 is tagged "Topic1"

Item-2 is tagged "Topic2"

Item-3 is tagged "Topic1" and "Topic2".

Now open the group-by sort bar, and drag the tags column onto the sort bar.  This groups the items by tag assignments.   I expect to see this:

Tag: Topic1

Item-1

Item-3

Tag: Topic2

Item-2

Item-3

The above properly shows all the tag assignments.  But what I actually get is this:

Tag: Topic1

Item-1

Tag: Topic2

Item-2

Tag: Topic1, Topic2

 

Item-3

Note that Item-3 does not appear under Topic1 or Topic2 even though it's assigned to both tags.  Instead, it's assigned to a new composite tag heading (Topic1, Topic2).  

Imagine how confusing it would get with hundreds of items with various combinations of tags.  The view would be chaotic and unusable, wouldn't it?  If I wanted to see all items assigned to Topic1, I couldn't just look at the Topic1 header.  I'd have to scan the whole list looking for every combination of Topic1 and other tags.  Isn't that impractical?

I realize that you can always see actual tag assignments by looking at the tags column, but the purpose of the group-by sort is to gather items together under tag headers so you have a nice clean list of all the items assigned to a particular tag.  It doesn't do that, as far as I can see.

I suspect this behavior is inherent in how the code works and can't be changed.  I ran into the same problem when I tried to use multi-select lists with a column filter. 

I really hope I'm fundamentally missing something.  Is there a way to properly group items under tag headers when items are assigned to multiple tags?

Wayne

Note: I don't mind that it shows tag group assignments, because it might be useful to see which items have the same set of assignments.  What I want is for it still show all the individual tag assignments.  Right now, Item-3 is absent from the Topic1 list even though it's assigned to that tag. 

Comments

Hi Wayne,

You're correct that grouping merely rearranges items with values in one or more columns, so Item-3 will not appear under both groups Topic1 and Topic2, but under group Topic1, Topic2

Column filters do work though, so if you filter for Topic1, you'll get Item-1 and Item-3

I have little control over this (other than manually coding the grouping function, which I won't do as there are other means to achieve a similar result)

Details here: 5. Sorting and Grouping Items

Pierre_Admin

OK, good to have that confirmed as it will save me time trying to make it work the way I want. 

I don't know what you mean by being able to achieve similar results by other means.  I've spent quite a few hours studying the manual and experimenting with different approaches but haven't come up with a solution.

When I display a set of tagged items, I'd like the option of seeing the items as:

1) A list of all tagged items with no parents (like the flat list display mode - this is how it works now).

Or

2) An outline of all tagged items under sub-tag "parents" (like the outline display mode - this is not possible now).

I've been unable to find an approach that can do this, or something similar.

Wayne

 

 

  1. You seem to say that IQ does this fine, right ?
  2. A couple of ways:
    1. Open the Tags pane and double-click on a tag. Items show up in the Scratch grid
    2. Open Live-Search: Click on a tag shows list of items with that tag (or those tags)

Pierre,

1. Yes, I said I'd like the option of seeing the tags in either a flat view or an outline view. 

2. The two suggestions you gave both produce flat lists, not the outline view I'm looking for.

What I want is the outline view that's produced when you drag the Tags column to the group-by bar.  You get an outline view of your tags, with the tag names serving as "parents".  That's what I'm looking for.

Except, it doesn't work correctly for my purpose.  You said that it can't be corrected, which I accepted. 

But then you said there are other ways to accomplish the same thing.  I'm simply asking what those are.  I've been unable to replicate the group-by outline format in any other way.

Wayne

 

Yes, as I said, I was looking for the same format as the group-by sort.  I thought you were saying there were other ways to accomplish this but I think I misunderstood you.

I'll keep working on the Live-Search grid but I'm not seeing what you say.  My tag search results are a flat list with no hierarchy at all.  And no sub-items are shown, apparently.  Everything is a single line of text.  And you can't change the columns, so I don't think it's a window I could do work in.  But let me learn more about how it works.  It's a very attractive, clean look -- well-designed.

I'm moving on from the hierarchy thing.  I thought the view provided by the group-by bar looked useful and was just pondering whether there was a way to generate something similar using another method.

Don't put any further effort into it.  I have plenty of other tools available to organize things.

Thanks, Wayne

@WayneK,

I am not sure if you have used EccoPro in the past?
What both of us are trying to accomplish with IQ is what I am currently doing in EccoPro by having Multiple Folders in a Notepad. The items are then grouped by what folder(s) the items "belong" to.

It works essentially the same way in IQ if you group by Tags, but only if the item only has one Tag (as you showed above).

viking,

I used Ecco Pro for over 20 years but almost entirely as a very simple outliner.  I know I looked at Multiple Folders but never incorporated them into my work.  The things i'm trying to do in InfoQube are way more complicated than anything I ever tried in Ecco Pro.

Wayne

How do I ?