Tips and tricks

[Liselle]

Advanced search form - tag search

I've discovered this is more flexible than I realized. When you type a search term in the "Search Text" box at the top, and uncheck "Title" and "Entry Text" to search only tags, the results will be entries with tags that contain the search term anywhere in them. The search term doesn't have to match the tag exactly, nor does the tag have to begin with the search term. You don't have to remember the tag or look it up. (Which I'd been carefully doing all this time.)

Example:
I have the following tags: "cats", "cats-food", and (sorry) "cats-hairballs". If I do a tag search in Advanced Search on just the word "cats", it finds all entries tagged with any of those three tags, because they all contain the word "cats". Doing a similar search on the word "hairball" will find entries tagged with "cats-hairballs", even though "hairball" is at the end of the tag, and the tag is plural, not singular.

Of course, this will also allow your results to be broader than intended. If I search on the word "food", the program will find entries tagged with "cats-food", but also entries about my own food, tagged as simply "food". To get only the entries tagged with "food" but not with "cats-food", don't use Advanced Search. Use the "Tag Db List" filter in the right sidebar:

• click on the "Tag Db List" tab
• select "tag contains the above anywhere" from the filter drop-down box at the bottom
• type "food" into the text box
• click on "Apply Filter"
• select "food" from the "Tag Name" box
• click the "Tag Info" button - a results window will pop up showing all tagged entries about people food, but none about cat food.

 

[Liselle]

Another implication: I'd been thinking that in order to be able to find every tagged entry in my database having to do with my cats, I'd have to give all of them the general tag "cats" in addition to specific tags like "cats-food." No - just the one more-specific tag will be enough, as long as it contains the more general category "cat" in it. Advanced Search can find the larger group for me. Less work, fewer tags per entry.

 

[Liselle]

Tag limit workaround

Also - if anyone finds themselves running out of tag space (there's a limit of 10 tags per entry), here's a possible way around it: use the 10th tag for a tag named "more tags." Then make a sub-entry which contains nothing but the extra tags (and a dummy title, possibly also something like "More tags"), The "more tags" tag will cue you to go looking for the sub-entry with the extra tags.

Added: and vice-versa with the "More tags" sub-entry title. You need a cue on both entries because the only place the connection is plainly visible is in tree view, and you'll often access one or the other of the entries via a search, or the entry list or calendar view. When you see the title or tag "more tags," you can switch to tree view to see what it goes with.

Entry links would work just as well as a sub-entry to connect them, of course, depending which you prefer working with.

(Having spelled this out, maybe no one will ever go over 10 tags. I've only done it about 3 times so far, but I'm finding myself getting more tag-happy for better or worse, so...)

Edited again - it seems to be perfectly fine to have more than one entry with exactly the same title, and also fine to have multiple entry links called "more tags" that link to different entries. (I wondered about that because you can't insert the same image more than once into Resonance Journal without renaming the image file on your hard drive.)

 

[Liselle]

Making backing-up as easy as possible

Frequent backups are (of course) very important, so it helps to remove barriers to doing it, even tiny ones. Something I've found useful is keeping my backups in a place that requires as little navigation as possible to get to. That is, I keep them in the spot that pops up by default when I click on File > Back up journal entries (on my computer, that's the main Documents folder). Also, I've named the folder something that will keep it at the top of the list, so I don't have to scroll (I used two zeros, but other prefixes will work just as well).

 

[hilary]

I run backups when I remember, but I also have the original journal folder included in my general automated daily backups to an external drive and to Amazon S3. I don't trust myself to remember to do anything much, especially not backups. (Topical post, this. Update everything, back everything up, and don't click links in emails that have anything to do with your money...)

 

[Liselle]

Yes, of course that's even better.

Segue question? I don't know anything about Amazon S3 (but am intrigued and will Google it), but your "general automated daily backups to an external drive"? I do the same thing, but it's not automated because - what's your feeling about this because I can see both sides - both things on the internet and the proprietor of a camera store from whom I bought a camera battery warned me against letting the external drive connected all the time. If a power surge wipes out your computer, your backup goes with it. Actually happened to the fellow. OTOH the chances of being struck by lightning are...it's a cliche for a reason...

 

[hilary]

There are various ways to back up to the cloud - the S3 set-up is just something my absurdly clever other half has set up for me. (Don't use Carbonite - backup is very nice but restore for more than one or two files is insanely user-unfriendly, drove me up the wall...) Anyway, same other half is not too worried about power surges causing data loss, so that's good enough for me.

 

[Liselle]

Internal links in a series of readings/entries

Sometimes it's natural to have a series of entries, readings or otherwise, on the same topic. All this time, I'd thought, silly silly me, it was necessary to add internal links for each series entry in each entry - in other words, criss-cross all of them, link-wise. That ends up being tedious and might not get done.

Nope. (At least I don't think so; to each his own.)

First, or main, series entry: collect all the links to every other series entry, in chronological order
Subsequent series entries: link only to the first one

As long as each entry connects back to the first one, you'll never lose track of the whole set.

 

[hilary]

(Or create a tag just for the series - whatever works for you!)

 

[Liselle]

:bag: Good point, that - and easier still. Thank you.

 

[Liselle]

(Or create a tag just for the series - whatever works for you!)

:bag: Good point, that - and easier still. Thank you.

Have experimented a bit - definitely much easier, and I think uses can made of the fact that a tag is a thing:
- you can say, in notes, something like "see tag 'x'"
- if you want to make an internal link to a particular reading from the series, you can look for its title in the "Tag Info" list, and then use words from the title to filter the "Link to Entry" list.
- etc.?

 

[Liselle]

Finding all readings with any specific set of moving lines

This is a tip from Hilary, originally posted here (Change Circle link). It was specifically about finding readings with all lines changing, but can be tweaked to find any specific set of lines (just put a different hexagram in for yang pattern).

In Advanced Search:

1. In the 'hexagrams' box type '1'
2. In the next row, 'hexagram type', uncheck 'primary' and check 'yang pattern'
3. Click the 'search' button

Back in the main window, the list of entries is now filtered to display only those with a yang pattern of 1.

In Cast History:

1. From the dropdown menu select '1'
2. Under 'types' check the 'Yang Pattern of Change' box
3. Click 'view results'.

This will pop up a results pane showing all entries whose yang pattern is 1.

 

[Liselle]

This is pretty obvious, but one way to have various translations/commentaries/notes available in one place is to create a new translator with last name set to something like "All." Then if you select the "All" translator in Hexagram Browser, all the translations will appear in the right-hand cast pane.

My_key just pointed out something much easier - you can open multiple Hexagram Browser windows at once, each set to a different author. Looks like the last one opened (or the last author changed to) is the one the Yijing Cast pane in the main window uses.

 

[Liselle]

Re: searching for exact readings using system tags

• As far as I can tell, the only time this does not work perfectly is with single-digit hexagrams. For example, if you enter "hexagram 6" in the search text box, limit that to tags, enter 59 in the hexagrams box and check off yin pattern (or 55 as yang pattern), the results will be any reading whose primary hexagram starts with "6" and has lines 1, 3, and 4 moving. 6.1.3.4 > 9; 61.1.3.4 > 44, 60.1.3.4 > 28, and so forth.
  
  Adding a trigram filter to the above doesn't help. E.g. if you try to narrow it down to hexagram 6 by specifying upper trigram = qian, the search produces no results.

This is no longer true. Justin has added leading zeros to the single-digit system tags to distinguish them.

For instance, to find only your 4.5 to 59 readings, enter the system tag # hexagram 04 in the search text box, making sure to type '04', not '4'. Fill out the rest as usual (enter '59' in the hexagrams box, check off 'yin pattern'). You will get only your 4.5 to 59 readings, without also 40.5 to 47, 41.5 to 61, etc.

There are various ways this can be used. For instance, if you enter a system tag without the leading zero (or think of it as entering the first digit of double-digit hexagrams), you'll get all of your readings in the whole decade that match the yin or yang pattern(s) you selected.

Search text: '# hexagram 5'
Hexagrams: '14'
Results will include:
50.5 to 44, 51.5 to 17, 52.5 to 53, 53.5 to 52, etc.

To get every reading you've cast in a hexagram decade with any combination of moving lines, do this:
Search text: '# hexagram 5'
Hexagrams: copy the following list and paste it into the 'Hexagrams' box: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64

 

[Liselle]

Very easy solution to My_Key's question here:

Alternatively is there a way to list the all readings and against each reading will show the changing lines?.

Just type your cast in the question box:


and it will be displayed in Entry List:


Then you can see your casts by scanning quickly through the list, without opening each one. (I've been doing this for a while and I like it.)

 

[Liselle]

Instructions for finding all of your readings with a specified number of moving lines, from this thread. For instance, to find all of your readings with exactly two moving lines, no matter which lines they are, use the '2-line changes' list.

1. In the "Hexagrams:" box in the middle of the form, type in all the change patterns for the number of moving lines you want. (Can copy and paste from lists below.)
2. Tick the Yang Pattern checkbox.
3. Un-tick the Primary checkbox.
4. Click Search.

unchanging: 2
1-line changes: 7,8,15,16,23,24
2-line changes: 3,4,19,20,27,29,35,36,39,40,45,46,51,52,62
3-line changes: 11,12,17,18,21,22,31,32,41,42,47,48,53,54,55,56,59,60,63,64
4-line changes: 5,6,25,26,28,30,33,34,37,38,49,50,57,58,61
5-line changes: 9,10,13,14,43,44
6-line changes: 1

(If anyone finds mistakes in those lists, please let me know.)

 

[Liselle]

The "Insert Image" and "Insert Link To File" dialog boxes will accept a whole local path, if you have that at hand - might save some navigation sometimes.

Paste it into the File Name spot, click "Open", and it'll create the link.



If you paste in a folder path (step 1) and click Open, the dialog box will jump directly to the folder for you (step 2):

 

[Liselle]

One more way to keep readings in mind

There are quite a few suggestions about this; here's one more. I've been doing it for a while and it seems to work well, for me at least.

Give the readings you want to review periodically a tag like ! review. Adding a tag to an entry is quick and easy. The ! puts the review tag at the very top of the tag list, where it's easy to find. Then click on Tag Info and you have a handy list, in one place, of everything you want to review.

Refinement: make two tags, for instance ! review, archived and ! review, current.


(Of course most readings should be reviewed and kept in mind... I guess I've felt I recognize these when I see them. One subset seems to be ones like "Guidance for next week's appointment?," that I don't want to forget to think about between now and then. If there are several such readings going it helps to have them in one list.)

 

[Liselle]

Have I had this hexagram a lot lately? Using Insights to make an easy time-series graph

End result:
A few weeks ago I wondered if I'd been getting hexagram 55 more lately in readings. Answer: Yes, in the past three months I had been. Look how the graph starts jogging upwards 90 days ago. Insights time frame options make this easy to see.

How to do this:

1. Collect the data.
   • Open Insights.
   • Decide if you want primary only, or primary and relating. Tick the box at the bottom accordingly.
   • Select a time frame well before the time you're interested in, for instance "All Time."
   • From the Insights table, record in a spreadsheet the number of occurrences of your hexagram for that time frame.
   • Repeat this for successively shorter time frames.
   • You'll end up with data like this:
     
     (To figure out the number of days for "All Time," scroll in Entry List to when you started using Resonance Journal. Be careful not to distort this with scattered very old readings. If you started using Resonance Journal heavily on about July 1st, 2019, but you've added in a hodgepodge of readings from before that, only calculate the days since July 1st, 2019. The "All Time" number of days doesn't have to be terribly exact since you're only looking for trends. This is a judgement call, and if in doubt start with a shorter time frame.)
2. Calculate
   • In a new column to the right, enter formulas to calculate Occurrences per Day.
     
   • This will produce ugly numbers. Don't worry about it. The numbers don't matter, you just want to see trends in the graph.
     
3. Make the graph. To some degree this will depend on the spreadsheet program you're using, and is beyond the scope of this post (sorry). But it's not too hard. Like many such things, the instructions look more complicated than doing it is.
4. Figure out what this means to you in your life. (This part may or may not be easy...)

If you want something more fine-grained, you can do that by exporting your whole journal in .xls format. (In the menu, Entries > Export Entries to MS Excel.) But this can be a helpful and much simpler approximation.

Added: you can also use the Custom time frame option to set whatever time frames seem most useful. For instance you could compare each week for the past month (use the 7-day and 30-day presets, and manually enter start and end dates for past 14 days and past 21 days), or every month for the past year, and so on.

 

[Liselle]

Advanced Search ("Tags")



This finds your search text anywhere in the tag (that is, not only tags that begin with the search text). For instance in my journal the above search returns entries tagged errands and android.

(Apologies if this is common knowledge. I hadn't realized it before .)