#135 Add heading "Templates" to sidebar

[John Robinson]

It's easy to lose templates if there a large number of sections listed in the sidebar

A new heading 'Templates' should be added to the sidebar, underneath 'sections' with available templates listed underneath.

Clicking a template name should generate a new post based on the template.

[Tim Parkinson]

- If a Notebook has an empty Templates section then should the Templates heading not appear at all or be blank? I'd vote for not appearing at all.

- I disagree with clicking on a name to create a new post. That isn't what happens now. Clicking on a name displays the template which you can then either Edit or Use.
If we change the click behaviour to Use, how do you edit a template?

[Tim Parkinson]

TSP added Colin's e-mail on the subject.

Prompted by John's earlier e-mail, I sent him a copy of a doc about LabTrove metadata that I wrote at the end of last year and updated in January. Most of the people on this mailing list have seen that doc, but if any of you haven't and would like to, please let me know. What follows is a paraphrasing of parts of two paragraphs in the doc:

When looking at one particular post, I had to scroll down to see all of the existing values for Section and the metadata keys. One key, for example, had four values listed: let's call it KeyX. Now, if the default state of the key list had KeyX (4), with an adjacent expand/collapse icon, and the other keys (and the Sections) were the same, I estimate the length of the list would be around a third of what it is currently. Some of the lists in Cameron’s e-Notebooks would reduce by considerably more.

One comparatively simple UI enhancement would be to include a Post from template option as well as the existing New Post. Although this would be little more than a shortcut to display the set of templates, it might provide a small incentive to use them.
(Please note, however, that the original text referred to templates that contained metadata cues.)

John suggested that I put this suggestion to you to gauge your reaction to this response to Jeremy's original requirement.

Cheers - Colin

[John Robinson]

How about:

This Notebook
--------------

'New Post(empty)'
'New Post (from template)' <- (Click expands menu giving list of templates)
'New Template'
...

and a new heading beneath Sections:

Templates
---------

Experiment Plan 1 (use | edit)
Experiment Plan 2 (use | edit)

[John Robinson]

Addressed in r652
Added "New Post (From Template)" With dropdown selector
Added heading "Templates" to the sidebar. Clicking a a template name under this heading takes you to the post view of the template, from where it can be edited or used.

[Colin Bird]

The UI is undoubtedly better for having Templates available from the sidebar; the position (below This Notebook) is appropriate too; and it's right that selecting a template gives you the choice of editing or using the template. Fine so far ...
However, selecting a template with my laptop (MacBook Pro, 16cm deep viewing area) did illustrate one of the points I was making in the e-mail that Tim added as a comment to this feature. With This Post expanded above This Notebook, even Archives are falling off the bottom of my screen. I have to scroll down to view the Sections and metadata keys and can only just get them all into one screen. This issue is clearly one for the metadata meeting, but is nevertheless more apparent as a side-effect of this othrwise valuable feature.