Page Number field for "Where Made"
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#59 Page Number field for "Where Made"
Each argument has a "Where Made" section where I can list the work or works where the argument is made. I would like to be able to record not just the work but the page #s of the work. When someone says they're referencing an argument on page 173 of an article, and I go into Hypernomicon and I see I have 12 arguments listed for that article, I have to go through each argument to figure out which one is the one on page 173. (Obviously if I could tell from the argument names this wouldn't be an issue, but sometimes I can't. For instance, someone might say "for a refutation of this, see Dennett 1999, pg 23" and I have no idea which argument they're referring to unless I can figure out which one is on page 23.
My preferred way of implementing this would be to have a new column in the "Where Made" table on the Arguments tab. Each cell in that column would have a "Set" button (so one for each work where the argument is made). When you click set, if that work is showing in the Preview window, it will save the page showing in the Preview window to that table cell. Then when you click that row in the Where Made table (or select the argument in other places in the UI, like the list in the lower left part of the Works tab, or the list at the bottom of the Persons tab, Tree tab, etc.) it will jump to that page in the Preview window. The advantage is that you could immediately go to the page and actually read it (in the preview window or launching into your external PDF application). The disadvantage is that it would be saving the page number as it is listed in the PDF, rather than as is shown on the actual publication. But if you can see the page in the Preview window, then you know what the publication page number is anyway. This is only an issue when the page label in the PDF doesn't match the page number it actually says on the page. What do you think?
For me at least the PDF page # wouldn't be great for three reasons. First, I basically never need to know on what page of a PDF some point has been made, and if I do I can easily find that by checking the argument record. Second, not all my arguments have associated PDFs. Third and most importantly, the main reason I want a page # for "where made" is for use cases like in the feature request, where someone refers to an argument by saying it was made in e.g. Dennett 1999 pg. 23, and I want to figure out which argument in Dennett 1999 that was without having to check each argument record.
Okay, so it is more just to know which argument another author is referring to. Then what I propose is having 2 columns in the Where Made list in the Argument tab: Page, and PDF Page (there is a lot of space for extra columns now). The Page column would be editable; you just type the page number. The PDF Page column would be like I described before. Other places where arguments are listed, like on the Works tab, would have the Page column but not PDF Page (but as I suggested before, selecting the row will activate that page in the Preview window if the PDF Page had been entered). Clicking Set to set the PDF page could also automatically populate the Page cell if the PDF has page labels.
Yep, that would work! One potential issue with the PDF page entry would be if the argument is split up, like if it's on pages 6-8, 12, and 24. There's no elegant way to put that in the PDF page entry. But it doesn't really matter for my purposes since if I have the Page field which is just text entry, I can always use that and ignore the PDF page stuff when it's clunky.
Okay so you might use it for ranges or multiple page numbers, that's good to know. For my part, if I care that much to record the page range(s) where an argument lies, usually I will have highlighted the important bits in the PDF so it will be evident which pages it spans when I see it in the Preview window.
For the next release after 1.25.1, there will be a Pages column in the Where Made table. It will be a free text field so you can enter a range, several page numbers separated by commas, whatever you want. The PDF page field is not being implemented yet.