Introduction

The Tree Panel appears on the left of several panels in WebGuide. It is used for displaying content in a hierarchical (tree) structure. In addition to the display of notes, the tree panel includes a number of navigation features: perspective buttons across the top and tree manipulation buttons across the bottom.

The display of notes usually contains the following information:

>    recency stars: *** for entries in the past 2 days; ** for entries in the past 7 days; * for entries in the past 14 days.

>    category: what kind of note it is, such as heading, comment, argument, etc. as selected by the author.

>    title: the title of the note as specified by the author.

>    author: login name of the person logged in when the note was created.

>    perspective: the perspective in which the note was created.

>    date: the date the note was created.

Alternatively, the display of notes can contain the first part of the content of the note (the first 100 characters). This option is selected in the Discussion Panel.

The Tree Panel may also be used for information other than notes, such as the tree of perspectives. In this case, it has the same navigation buttons on top and bottom, although they may not always be relevant.

Perspective Buttons (across the top)

Group Button

This shows the group perspective. It includes notes that were "seeded" in the collaboration space to provide initial content or topic headings for the group of users. It also includes notes that were added to the group perspective as a result of group consensus or group leader decisions. Notes that appear in the group perspective are inherited into all other perspectives -- that is they will appear there unless they are explicitly deleted, edited or moved in the other perspective.

Discussion Button

This shows the group perspective plus all discussions that overlap more than one perspective. For instance, if author1 adds a discussion note to an existing note in author2's perspective, then both the existing note and the added discussion note will appear as a discussion thread in the discussion perspective, usually under the heading "Discussion".

Negotiation Button

This shows the group and discussion perspectives (described above) plus all proposals for negotiation and the discussion attached to them.

Personal Button

This shows the personal perspective of the author currently logged in. That author's "private" notes will also be shown in this and other perspectives. Personal perspectives inherit notes from the group perspective. They may also inherit notes from sub-group or team perspectives.

Comparison Button

This shows notes from all perspectives in the whole collaboration space. There is some duplication of notes and sub-trees of notes because some notes are edited, moved or copied in different perspectives.

Archive Button

This shows the same thing as the comparison perspective, but it also shows notes that have been deleted.

Perspective Selection List

This pull-down list allows you to select any perspective defined in the collaboration space, including the personal perspectives of other authors. You must press the REFRESH button to change to the selected perspective.

Refresh Button

This button will refresh the display of notes in the currently selected perspective. Some functions, like adding new notes do not display titles with frequency stars, category, author, perspective and date (in order to save delay). You can refresh the display to see these or to change to a perspective selected from the pull-down list. The refresh button will also update your display with notes recently entered by other people across the network. It may be useful for clearing up display bugs.

Tree Manipulation Buttons (across the bottom)

Expand Button

This button will open the entire tree of notes, displaying the titles of notes at all levels of the tree hierarchy.

==> Button

This button expands the tree one level. Try it.

Explode Button

When a note has been selected and this button is pressed, the entire sub-tree of notes underneath the selected note is displayed. This allows you to see everything in a particular area of the collaboration space.

<== Button

This button collapses the tree one level.

Collapse Button

This button will close the whole tree, displaying only the top (root) note's title.

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This page last modified on August 01, 2003