PIMLite User Interface Round 4

I PIMLite User Interface Round 4

Greetings, or hello again!

It's been a long time since the original Human Interface beta. The responses have been fantastic and have sent me on many a wandering path exploring concepts of human interface design and managing information.

If you're new, this collection of documents describes a new information organizer called Write Ideas (the internal project name is PIMLite). Write Ideas is a "spiritual successor" to a commercial product ThoughtPattern (nothing to do with me). Write Ideas allows you to edit notes with full word-processor formatting features, and cross-reference and retrieve your notes in a variety of ways.

These beta documents will be the last formal HI beta. I may contact some of you again to clarify your responses or discuss issues you raise, but the coding will start within a few weeks of you receiving this beta - it all depends on how fast the responses come in. (Note: that a lot of the basics are already written — the major job is just coding up the interface - I'm NOT starting from scratch.)

If you haven't received all or any of the previous HI betas, don't worry too much. Have a look at the "Questions - Old, still relevant" document.

The "Questions - NEW!" document is IMPORTANT! as it contains the remaining formal questions I'd like answered. Other than that, feel free to comment on any aspect of the design, or ask as many "silly" questions as you like. To help with this, I've written all the documentation in plain TEXT files, and only used PICT files for screen shots. You can use TeachText or any drawing program to view the PICT files.

You may want to start with the "Example users" document (and some of you star here!) to get an idea of the product's capabilities in terms of specific people's problems and how they can solve them with PIMLite.

The "Menu choice details" document provides a good list of the functions of PIMLite as it explains all the menu items (other than absolutely standard Mac menus).

The thrust of the redesign has been towards simplicity - more direct manipulation, and simpler concepts. As a parent who's often a one-handed Mac user I've tried to make the program usable with plain mouse gestures or keyboard commands.

Throughout these documents, the codename PIMLite will be used for the product. "Write Ideas" is currently the preferred release name, and trademark registration is proceeding.

You may find some of these sample screens a trifle "rough" looking. The aesthetics of exact sizes and positions of fields will be cleaned up later, and nice color versions produced. I will try to do something about the infamous "color crawl" where many word processors are umpteem times faster when running in black and white (MS Word is an example of this).

Note: if you are a commercial venture looking for something beyond the facilities offered in the PIMLite product, custom versions can be arranged. This includes multi-user capabilities and many of the other features described for future versions. The system on which PIMLite will be based is a multi-user classified advertisements publishing program. It runs on Classics, in about 900kb, for the WYSIWIG entry and editing of ads. A more powerful Mac is used to image the entire pages of ads and print them. The database engine used in PIMLite (c-tree) is used in over 360 000 user sites around the world, in products such as Great Plains Accounting.

Basic concepts

DOCUMENT TYPES PIMLite uses two kinds of documents. One is a single word processing document, much like any other word processor. This includes TEXT files and, if you save an unformatted document, it will be saved as TEXT.

The second kind of document is more interesting: a PIMLite database which allows many sets of notes to be stored, and comprehensively indexed.

NOTES Information in a PIMLite database is stored in Notes. These Notes can be effectively unlimited in length and can either be left as plain text, or word processing formats applied.

Each Note has a Title which is used for list displays and sorting purposes. In some cases (eg: names and phones) you may not even bother with a Note, and just have the information in the title. Titles can be up to 63 characters long.

TAGS The indexing and cross-linking of Notes is by means of Tags. Tags are applied to notes in a number of ways, including manually entering a Tag or automatically cross-indexing to create Tags.

Tag names are also up to 63 characters long. A tag can have contents, which are either: - a list of other tags, or Aliases of tags (more on this later) - a date/time combination - a number

Tag names are UNIQUE! A tag can however appear in multiple places using the Alias mechanism (like files under System 7).

TAG VALUES If a tag contains a value such as a number or date/time then the actual value varies for each note that's tagged. For example, there is an automatic date/time tag called "Date Created" that is set to the date and time that you added the note.

To illustrate storing a number; you could have a "Car Fuel Expenses" tag and enter a different amount for each note tagged. Number values can be summarised in the Value Report option on the View menu.

TAG HIERARCHIES Tags are organised into a hierarchical relationship by dragging tags into other tags. The destination tag can NOT be a number or date/time value tag.

Tags can appear in multiple places by placing an Alias of the tag in other places, exactly as you can have file aliases in System 7.

Example Users

The following are descriptions of a few theoretical user situations, and some real requests. I've tried to show how different aspects of PIMLite can be used by these widely varied users.

Note that some of the facilities mentioned below (eg: Links and Calendars) will not be in the v1.0 release, purely for the sake of getting the wretched thing out the door.

Sally Secretary
Sally is a corporate secretary cum personal assistant. She handles important letters herself and keeps track of appointments for her boss, the high-powered lawyer Angela Dontmesswithme.

Answer: Sally types all her letters into a PIMLite database. She occasionally imports letters written by her juniors using the XTND import facility. These letters are cross-indexed when imported. Sally uses the Calendar view to manage appointments and uses a custom sort order that combines two tags - Date Due and Priority. (Sally's Priority tag contains a list of tags: "A. Panic", "B. Yesterday", "C. Someone else can do it" and "D. Bury this").

Occasionally, Sally has to summarise all correspondence relating to a client or a given issue. This is done using the Save As… menu item on the File menu. She often produces two reports — one by client and one "lateral" report covering all issues on certain key tags. Sally has set up a number of tags containing aliases of key tags. She can use these tag lists to quickly search across topics.

George Graphicdesigner
George is a meticulous worker who not only tracks all client contacts carefully but likes to coordinate all the work on a project together with his odd thoughts as he prepares the drawings. He hates little bits of paper stuck all over.

Answer: George keeps several PIMLite databases. He has a master correspondence database for client letters as well as a new database for every project. The project databases are used to keep track of miscellaneous expenses as well as George's ideas on the project. He often pastes low-resolution copies of the work into the database as a reminder of a concept. He also uses the Links facility of PIMLite to link all CAD documents into the project database.

Fred Computernerd
Fred spends hours a day on the Internet and CompuServe, keeping in touch with other programmers and debating programming issues. He also keeps comprehensive diaries for each project, listing program changes as well as design decisions. As a free-lancer he needs to track expenses and appointments.

Answer: Fred keeps a PIMLite database of all his email contacts around the world and stores the correspondence with them in very long, growing notes. He doesn't cross index but has a fixed set of tags which are used for indexing.

His projects are managed by a PIMLite database each, where he uses a "Date of version" tag to organise the lists of program changes, which are cross-indexed. He often uses complex searches with combinations of tags to see what routines have been changed.

Fred recently became interested in Quality Assurance and has started experimenting with the "Sort by frequency…" option to analyse change patterns.

dx
What I'm looking for is a tool for taking research notes at the library. I want to be able to write a note, then tag it with as many key words or phrases as I think appropriate. Later I want to be able to organize these notes by their tags, dropping multiply-tagged items into multiple groups.

Answer: dx can easily enter his notes and tag them with any arbitrary tags he likes (remembering the 63 character limit on tag names).

When he wants to organize the notes, he can create master tags to group them by, and drag aliases of his tags into those masters. A simple Search by Tag on a master tag will find all notes tagged with the master, or any of the tag aliases contained in the master.

Don
One example is "notetaking" from readings. I write down the notes from the readings, and I get some idea of planning of writing a paper, and then I write down small note for "future looking-up" Later, I look up the notes, and sort out the information, and write a short paper.

Answer Don can keep all his rough ideas and notes in one PIMLite database, and use the tags to sort them out later. Using the "Combine…" option he can create documents containing a number of notes, with the chosen tag(s) as headings.

Robert
I want to create text entries, name them, and associate them with other text entries that I can jump to by clicking a button. I want to edit text entries, or connections, at will. Also, having some structure (e.g., hierarchical) associated with some entries might be helpful I don't think I am interested in other media besides text (right now). I would like a system that operates mainly by point-and-click, with minimal required behind-the-scenes programming.

When I have this hypertext outline set up, I want to build threads which arbitrarily link entries together, serializing them. I want support for multiple different threads, possibly with shared subthreads, possibly with different versions of the shared subthreads. I want it to run on a Mac.

Answer: Robert can create his associated text entries by using common tags. If he double-clicks any one of these tags with list view frontmost (or selects a tag and presses the Search button) then he will see the list change to the tagged items.

Robert can use the "Sort by Tag" option to serialize his threads. He can set the order in two ways: 1) assign a number tag to all the entries in the thread and enter numbers to set the order, or

2) use a tag containing a list of tags, and have the thread sorted alphabetically by the tags in the list.

Either of these approaches will allow him to have the same note belong to different threads, and appear in a different order in those threads. If he builds these "thread tags" into a hierarchy then he can even have the shared subthreads he desires.

In the future, the standalone hypertext generator will let Robert create even simpler interfaces to run his hypertext outline.

Andres
I am looking for a system that will replace index cards. In particular, I want to:

1. be able to take notes on these guys as well as quote them, having a way to distinguish which is which: in other words, I want to be able to have switches to look just at primary sources --their words--and also only at what I have to say about them.

2. be able to link cards together, but it would be nice to: a. be able to link a word in a card with another card. b. be able to link all cards that have a given word. c. define keywords for establishing links

3. be able to navigate my text easily (say through labels on the cards)

I shall be using this day or night. (If I can get anything better, I am ready to write a database program to accomplish at least some of these things).

Answer: Andres can use tags to distinguish between notes on people vs their quotations. His linking and navigation can be setup by cross-indexing the notes to create his tags. After generating all the tags, he can organise them into a hierarchy.

To navigate from one note to another, Andres can click on the tags in the "tag area" of the note and press one of the navigation buttons to either go to the next or previous note with that tag, or see a list of all tags with that note.

Features and Version Planning

The following list of features planned for the versions is partly to prevent any further blow-out in the feature list. There are a lot of you waiting for basic note management, so I want to get v1.0 out as soon as possible.

Depending on your feedback, some features planned for v1.1 and v1.2 may move around. Some of my favourite ideas are in those releases and they WILL happen, I just have to restrain myself in order to get out of the design phase!

Version 1.0

basic database and separate WP documents
full WP formatting with color, ruler, etc. support (all bar Other Styles)
manual tagging
sorting by title
sorting by tag contents (one tag only)
separate tag, list and multiple notes windows
tag hierarchies and aliases
value tags (dates and numbers)
embedded pictures in notes
AppleScript scriptability
simple Import and Export of plain text with tags
search by title
simple search by Note contents
search by single tag or set of tags (OR relation - match any of set)
simple buttons to see all items with a given tag
simple buttons within a Note window to navigate to related items.
Find, Replace in a WP document or single Note.

Version 1.1

combined tag, list, notes window
cross-indexing to generate tags
combining notes
sorting by frequency
saving user-defined searches
saving user-define sort orders
automatic tagging with a set of tags
Sort by frequency
define sorts by several criteria at once
boolean logic for combining tag searches
view several lists at once as result of multiple searches
save "snapshot" of search results, for fast return to context
Find, Replace for lists of notes.

Version 1.2

document links
AppleScript recordability
grep and agrep Text searching
extended WP styles: subscript, superscript, etc.
Calendar view
XTND import/export

The following features may be part of the v1.1 or 1.2 release, or may be reserved for the retail version. To some extent this depends on you — if shareware sales justify it then more features will "trickle down".

Multi-user support

shared files, open on a server or using Personal Appleshare
client-server, running a separately licensed server program (from Faircom)

Views

timeline
hierarchical browser of the tag hierarchy
scatterarchy browser of the tag hierarchy
report summarising values in tags containing numbers.
user-definable forms, eg: for Address Book functions

Import - plug-in import filters

Recompiled for PowerPC, to give better performance on PowerMacs machines

Support Apple's new Drag Manager, so you can drag portions of notes between windows, and drag between PIMLite and other products.

Scripts menu (Frontier menu-sharing).

Create standalone hypertext viewers, similar to Think Reference.

"Base reference" ideas, for hypertext support: If you have a note which has the same name as a tag, then the note is called the "Base Reference" for that tag. In terms of a hypertext viewer, the other notes tagged with a given tag will show that phrase highlighted in some way. If you click on the highlighted area, the Base Reference note will be displayed. When looking at the Base Reference, the other notes that are tagged with its referring tag are listed on a "See Also" list.

Indexing details

This is a description of the concepts of how tags are used to index the database's Notes.

Tags are the sole means of cross-indexing information and so have been made very flexible. There are basically three ways for tags to become assigned to documents:

1) Manually, in either the Tags or a Note window

2) Cross-indexing to apply or create tags

3) Auto-matching to apply a set of tags to any notes that match (a restricted form of Cross-indexing).

1) Manual assignment If a Note window is uppermost, then a tag can be created by choosing Tag Selection, and the tag will be created with the name of the currently selected area. This creates Text Tags, rather than Value Tags (ie: not date/time or numbers). The tag is created in the same position in the hierarchy as the last tag you created. This gives you a good shortcut for entering a number of tags without having to assign each its position one-by-one. Remember that you can move tags around within the hierarchy later.

2) Cross-indexing Cross-indexing is an automatic procedure that converts every single word in the note into a tag. The exception is for words that are on the "stop list". The "stop list" lists words (one per line) that are to be skipped when cross-indexing. The initial stop list is contained in the PIMLite Preferences file and is edited through the Preferences command on the File menu. When you create a new database document, the stop list is copied from the preferences, to a number of tags contained in the tag Stop List. You can then add any other tags you like to this tag. This gives the flexibility of a standard stop list, with local flavouring for specific databases.

The tags that are created by the cross-indexing process are all put in a tag named "Cross-index", unless they alread exist. In that case the existing tags are left in their current position in the hierarchy and the relevant notes are just tagged with the existing tag.

3) Auto-matching Auto-matching allows you to cross-index, but with the list of possible tags preset. It saves having a lot of single word tags generated. It is also very useful if you tend to use phrases of several words in your tags.

When you auto-match, you specify a tag containing the list of candidates (or All Tags). If any of the tags in that list match words or phrases in the notes being indexed, then they are applied to those notes.

There is no restriction on the number of tags you can test when auto-matching, but obviously the more used the slower the checking, as each note is scanned for multiple tags.

List Window Details

The list window is fairly self explanatory.

There are a few icons at the top and a status area that displays: - the number of entries found and the sort order - the search type

The icon buttons at the top of the list allow you to - delete a note or set of notes - display the Tags window - add a link or display a linked file (if the link already exists) - remove a link

There is also a checkbox to allow you to edit titles directly in the list. With the box checked, you can simply click on a title and change it, without having to bring up a Note window. This will be very useful for people keeping names and addresses - they may well have both the name of a person and their phone number in the title.

Closing the window: Closing the List window is considered to close the document. It closes any Note windows that are open (saving them in the process) and closes the Tags window, or any other Tag views that are also open.

Double-clicking: Double-clicking on a title in the list will vary, depending on the Edit In List checkbox. If the box is checked then double-clicking will just select a word in that title, like any editing situtation. If the box is not clicked then double-clicking will display that Note in its own window.

Menu Choice Details

The following is a brief description of each of the non-standard menu items. All items not mentioned may be assumed to follow standard Macintosh behaviour.

File menu

New: New presents a dialog with two buttons "Word Processor" and "Database" so you can choose the kind of document. Pressing "Word Processor" will create an Untitled word processing document (like any other WP). Pressing "Database" brings up the standard Save File dialog. Databases have to be named from the start.
Save: Immediately updates a note, or saves a word processing document. When you close a Note window, it is automatically saved to the database, so you wouldn't use Save often.
Save As…: Allows the current word processing document or note to be saved in another format, using XTND filters, or plain TEXT. If you choose Save As… with a List window frontmost, the notes in the list will be combined into one document. You have the option of including tags and/or the title of each entry, and control over the formatting. See the screen-dump "PICT - Save List dialog" for the options.
Insert…: If a List window is frontmost, imports from formatted text files, to append notes and tags to a database.Gives the option of cross-indexing newly imported entries. If a single Note is frontmost, allows text, formatted word processing documents (with the XTND filters) or pictures to be placed in the note, at the current insertion point.
Preferences: Allows common preferences to be saved for the application, including default tab spacing (0.5 inch).

Edit menu

Undo: Walks back down an "Undo Stack" allowing multiple actions to be undone in the editing of the current WP document or note.
Redo: Repeats an undone action.
Clear Formats: Removes all formatting from a note or word processing document. If applied to a WP document, then it will be saved as a plain TEXT file on next Save.
Show ¶: Shows all Return and Tab characters, and the end of document.
Find, Replace…: Displays the word processing Find and Replace dialog (See "PICT - Find, Replace dialog") which allows you to search for and replace text in the current note, word processing document or list of notes - depending on which window is frontmost.

List menu

New Note: Creates a new, blank note in the current list and displays the blank Note window for you to edit the note.
Delete Notes: Deletes the current note (if one frontmost) or selected set of notes in the List window.
Links - Link Note: Presents an Open File dialog to link a single file to the current note.
Links - Remove Link: Removes the link(s) from the current note, or selected set of notes in the List window.
Links - Open Linked file: Launches the file selected by the Link on the current note.
Links - Add Links: Presents an enhanced Open File dialog that allows multiple files to be selected, or a folder to be selected. Adds notes to the list, one note per file selected.
Find Text…: Searches titles and/or body of notes for text. Later versions will allow "grep" searching. (See the "PICT - Find Text dialog" for more info.)
Find by Tag: Searches for all notes tagged with the selected tag, and displays the List with just those notes. The tag searched can be chosen in a Note window or the Tags window.
Other Searches: Allows definition of complex searches involving tags and maybe text, in Boolean (ie: and/or/not combinations). Searches can be saved to appear on the menu.
Sort by Title: Sorts the List view in order of the titles.
Sort by Tag: Assumes you have a list that has just been found by searching for a given tag (entries not tagged are sorted last). If the tag is a number or date/time value tag, then notes are sorted according to their individual value. If the tag used to sort contains a list of tags, then entries are sorted according to the alphabetic order of tags in that list. This is important as it allows you to define your own Priority tags, with named or
numbered priorities.: Sort by Frequency…
Allows you to sort notes by the number of tags, or the number of times a given tagged phrase appears in the note.: Other Sorts
Allows definition of complex sorts, combining some of the above sorts. Sorts can be saved to appear on this menu.

Tags menu

Edit Tags: Brings the Tags window to the front, so you can enter a tag name or rearrange the tag hierarchy. If the frontmost window is a note, and you have a small enough piece of text selected, then it will be put in the tag entry field when the Tags window appears. This lets you just hit Enter to add the selected text as a new tag.
Tag Selection: If the currently selected text is small enough, creates a tag and puts it in the same place in the hierarchy as the last tag you created. Some fuzzy matching may be implemented if there's enough feedback, so lots of slightly different spellings of a tag don't get created.
Indexing…: Brings up the Indexing dialog which will allow you to specify the rules for Indexing, and to start an Auto-index of the database if you so desire. See also the document "Indexing details".
Find a Tag: Allows you to enter a part of a tag name, then brings the Tags window to the front, with the first matching tag shown.
Find Next Tag: Continues the search for the partial tag name, showing the next one to match.
Calendar: Shows a calendar view, with the option of seeing any date/time value tags. For each date in a date/time value tag, the corresponding day on the calendar will be marked. Double-clicking the day will show the list view with notes marked for that day.
Timeline: A presentation that works similarly to a calendar view, but with a different layout mimicing a project timeline.
Hierarchy: Shows all tags in a tree-structured hierarchy including the ability to hide branches of the tree. Useful for seeing the patterns of links.
Scatterarchy: A user-organized display of tags, where tags are dragged around a canvas to form groups purely by physical closeness. Tags containing lists of tags can have the list displayed under the tag name. Tags containing values can similarly have the values displayed. This concept may need more work.
Value report: Produces a report summarising chosen value tags, with the values shown alongside the titles of the notes, and values summed at the bottom. Useful to produce final expense reports etc.

Font menu: Changes the font of the currently selected text, in a WP or note window. When the List is frontmost, will change the font of the list. When a scrolling list is selected (ie: has the "focus" outline introduced in System 7's Open dialog) will change the font of the list.

Format menu

Left and Right Spread: Sets Left Justification and a Right-aligned tab at the right margin, so you can have text wrapped in both "corners"
Hanging Indent: As used when typing bulleted lists or numbered points. Sets a paragraph indent as well as tab.
Indent: Moves the selected paragraphs' left margins in by one unit (see Preferences)
Outdent: The opposite of Indent
Paragraph Borders: Displays a dialog (see the PICT file) which allows you to specify borders around the selected paragraphs.
Spacing: The first three items mimic the icons on the Ruler, setting the paragrph spacing to a multiple of the font size (ie: double spaced in 12 point sets the lines at 24pt apart).
Spacing - Tighten spacing: Adjust paragraph spacing one point at a time.
Spacing - Loosen spacing: Adjust paragraph spacing one point at a time.
Other Spacing…: Will display a dialog allowing you to set a fixed amount before and after paragraphs (eg: double-spaced after, so you don't have to hit Return twice).
Open Header and Open Footer: Open small word-processing windows to allow you to set the header or footer for a note or WP document. You can also select these items when the List window is frontmost, and set a header and footer for the list as a whole.

Windows menu

Stack: Places all the currently open windows in an overlapping sequence, so their titlebars are showing, diagonally from left-top down to bottom-right.
Tile: Places all the currently open windows so they neatly fit alongside each other, like kitchen tiles.

The remainder of the Windows menu shows a list of all the open windows. If you have multiple windows for a database (ie: List, Tags and several Note windows) then they are grouped with a dividing line from the rest of the menu.

Note window details

Behaviour

A Note window behaves like a WP document. It has Revert and Save options. The only major difference is that, when you close the window, it is automatically saved. If you wanted to cancel the results of your editing, you would do a Revert before closing the window.

Horizontal Splitter

The splitter bar divides the Tag portion of the Note window from the Title and WP areas below. The splitter can be dragged all the way up to the top of the window, hiding all tags, and down to the point where the Title and controls are the only lower portion visible.

Movement Controls

There are two sets of controls, one next to the Title and one next to the Tags list. The controls step you through Notes, so you can have just one Notes window open and see different contents appear.

The Title movement controls move through the notes currently on the list, and the central button takes you back to the list window.

The tag movement controls move through items associated with the currently selected tag, which may not be the same objects as on the list. The central button takes you to the Tags window, if you want to change the Tag hierarchy or enter a tag.

Links buttons

The three buttons allow you to display a linked file (by launching its application) or to add a link, or remove an existing link. The link icon is grayed out if there is not a link attached to the current Note (as is the Open Linked File option, on the List - Links menu).

Tags list

The Tags list shows the tags currently attached to this note. Value tags have their value shown in the right half of the list and you can click on the value to change it (for this note). When you click on the tags list, the list will be surrounded by a black rectangle (like the Open File list) and any keys you type will be used to jump down the list to a matching tag. Selecting from the Font menu at this time will change the font used to display tag lists in all Note windows. The format used to display a tag's value is fixed for that tag, and is set on the Edit Tags window.

Details about the Tag Entry window.

This window allows you to combine the operations of entering new tags, renaming tags and moving tags around in the hierarchy.

The two lists on either side of the window have no significance - either can display any part of the hierarchy. You can rearrange tags in the hierarchy by dragging the tag within its own list, or dragging across to the other list.

Modifier zones: A new concept in the Mac interface, Modifier zones are regions that change the nature of items dragged through them. The "Alias" zone changes a tag dragged through it to an alias. You will see the arrow pointer change to an arrow plus an "A" (and possibly have audible feedback). The process is reversible by dragging through the zone again, just like a checkbox. The advantage of Modifier zones is that you don't have to click or hold down any extra keys - the modification takes place just because you drag the pointer through the zone, on your way to the other list.
Adding Tags: If you click the "tick" then a newly entered tag will be added to the list, in the currently selected tag in the leftmost column (this lets you file tags in one go).
Renaming Tags: Clicking the "rename arrow" above either list will copy the tag's name to the editing area at the top of the window. "Ticking" a changed name will rename the original tag.
Finding Tags: The Find button to the far right of the window will take the partial name typed in and search for any matching tags, jumping to the first one and changing the button name to "Again" so you can keep jumping through matching tags. If you want to do another find, just change the contents of the tag entry field, and the button will change back to "Find".
Tagging notes: If you double click a tag then the tag will be added to the most obvious Note window (the Tag window is front-most). If there is no clearly frontmost window then you will be alerted.

The Tag Notes buttons also allow you to apply or remove a tag to/from the current note, or selection of notes in the list.

Search by a tag: A short-cut for searching by a single tag is to double-click the tag when the List window is visible (ie: "frontmost" with reference to any Note windows).
Manipulating the tag hierarchies: To help deal with thousands of tags, the tag lists can be manipulated independently to show different parts of the list. The two "Hierarchy" buttons allow you to slide the list to the left or the right, so the current tag becomes the top of the visible list, and you can easily see indented tags below it.

The triangles next to tag names indicate that a tag contains a list of other tags. If you click on a triangle and it rotates, you see the indented list just like the System 7 "View by Name". However, this has been enhanced to cope with thousands of nested entries. If you rotate a triangle to reveal a very large list of tags (threshold set in Preferences) then the scrolling list is broken just above the bottom, with a draggable divider. Below the divider is shown the tag immediately following the one you just opened out. (See "PICT - Tags Window" for an example, in the rightmost list.)