No really, I haven't read this note!

Question

I just realized that in the Notes window, if I click the book/chapter/verse reference in an “Unread” note without opening the note, it loses its “Unread” status. This caused a problem for me recently, resulting in me not processing a number of notes, and I wonder if users want Paratext to behave this way? I certainly don’t.
Thanks,
RickNivens

Answer 1

It does seem a little unexpected, but I also wonder why you’d ever use the Notes window to shortcut to a reference if you weren’t planning on reading the notes.

I do want to say that the Notes window marks notes as read if you click the drop-down arrow on the far top right, and I very much think that feature works exactly the way it ought to.

Comments

I figured people might wonder that. My answer is, it’s easier. Just a click on that link, rather than clicking on the book name dropdown box, typing or selecting the three-letter book name abbreviation, then TAB and type the chapter number.

Here’s the scenario: Say I’ve been working in book A, but I see in the notes window that the translation team has sent notes in book B. Maybe it’s 10pm, or maybe it’s noon and I’ll be doing other things all afternoon, and I just want to take a quick peek at that chapter in book B, or maybe I just want to make Paratext go to that book and chapter so that tomorrow when I open Paratext it will be open on my screen. So I take the easy path and click on that reference link in the unread note. But then tomorrow, since my notes window is set to view Unread Notes, that note that I clicked the reference in is no longer visible, so I don’t even know that the note exists until some time later, when I’m looking through all the notes to see if there are any more that can be marked as “Resolved”.

When I was in college 40 years ago and was taught to write computer programs, I was taught to make them “idiot-proof”. So, in this case, I’m the “idiot” who is proving that Paratext isn’t idiot-proof.

I agree with you that if you click the drop-down arrow on the far right, then you have seen the contents of the note, and it should no longer be marked as Unread.

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I have been caught by this sequence of actions too; it is disconcerting to realize that there are indeed notes I have not “seen” because I took a quick look at some point.